Pak Yan Lau - Bakunawa
Bakunawa is a continuation of Pak Yan Lau’s solo project Book of Toy, where she recorded her fascination for the natural overtones of toy pianos and pendules. Now she takes it to another level by writing for a five-piece ensemble. Bakunawa explores a combination of unconventional instrumentation (pendules, toy pianos, metal tubes, harp) and a delicate use of electronics. In contrast to Book of Toy, which existed of miniatures, the desire has grown to work with longer duration, where the composition can evolve in it’s own time. Inspired by Asian ritual music, minimal music (such as Philip Glass and Eliane Radigue) and ambient music, Pak Yan Lau aims to create her own soundworld (a kind of personal ritual), where one is allowed to get lost and submerged.
Sidenote: Bakunawa is a serpent like dragon from the Philippines, who eat moons. To keep her from eating the moons, the people will play loudly on pots and pans to scare her away, or on their native instruments to lull her to sleep.
Ensemble:
Pak Yan Lau (composition, gong bars, toy pianos, metal objects, electronics)
Giovanni Di Domenico (gong bars, toy pianos, metal objects)
João Lobo (gong bars, toy pianos, metal objects)
Mathieu Calleja (gong bars, toy pianos, metal objects)
Vera Cavallin (harp, gong bars, toy pianos, metal objects)
Christophe Albertijn (sound, electronics)
Pak Yan Lau (Belgium/Hongkong) is active in the Brussels underground. Her music spans different horizons with improvisation and sound as main focus. Taking the extraordinary out of the ordinary and creating little sound mosaics in a minimal, poetic way, while exploring the vast spectrum of sonar possibilities is the best way to describe her path. She is active in different projects from grooving (Going) till abstract structuring (Lauroshilau, Duo pour 454 Chordes) made music for dance theater, shadow theater, photographs and documentary.
Toured Europe and Japan, and shared stages with musicians such as Paolo Angeli, Lynn Cassiers, João Lobo, Nico Roig, Eric Thielemans, Chris Corsano, Yuko Oshima, Andrea Parkins, Mathieu Calleja, Lazara Rosell Albear, Mathieu Ha, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Norberto Lobo, Susana Santos Silva, Daysuke Takaoka, Lionel Malric, Gregoire Tirtiaux, Audrey Lauro, Mori-Shige, Giovanni Di Domenico, Manja Ristic, Peter Jacquemyn, Akira Sakata, Mette Rasmussen, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Rie Nakajima and many more