Saturday, July 16, 2016

Sarawak Rainforest World Music Festival adds on Indonesian, Vietnamese flavours


KUCHING: The 19th Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) will present Dol Arastra Bengkulu from Indonesia and Lan Dieu Viet of Vietnam on stage to showcase their traditional Southeast Asian ethnic art and music to the Sarawak Cultural Village.

Dol Arastra Bengkulu brings a music tradition featuring the Bengkulu and the Pulau Enggano communities, which are from west coast Sumatera, Indonesia.

Originally known as Sanggar Mayangsari in 1982, Dol Arastra Bengkulu changed its name in 2010 to reflect their main musical influence, which is the ‘percusidol’ or Dol percussions, which comes from ‘Tabot’, an ancient ritualistic ceremony from Bengkulu’s Muslim society.

The Dol percussions or drums come in different sizes, ranging from 70-100cm and are about 80cm in height; and the DolArastra Bengkulu group parades them locally and internationally, as well as in workshops held for the younger generation of Bengkulu to learn the art of Dol percussion.

Lan Dieu Viet from Vietnam has been involved in many local and international festivals, where they play Vietnamese instruments accompanied by traditional singing and acting.

The five-member band are all music teachers at the Vietnam National Academy of music and also award-winning musicians in their own right in solo and ensemble categories.

The Lan Dieu Viet performers capitalise on their performing troupe as a mean to encourage the younger generation to take up and preserve the unique traditional art of the Vietnamese people, as well as to create international awareness on the beauty of Vietnamese music.

.
.