Bakunawa
Come to Klankenbos for Radio Forest Sessions. Every last week of the month you can listen to new sound works by one of the artists from OORtreders Festival 2020 in Radio Forest (info point), a resonating wooden cabin in the middle of the forest. From 26 July to 1 August, you can listen to Bakunawa, a creation by the Brussels pianist Pak Yan Lau.
With Bakunawa, Pak Yan Lau (BE/HK) makes meditative music with found instruments and objects whose sounds she recycles. In Bakunawa, Lau explores the possibilities of unconventional instrumentation such as pendulums, metal pipes and harp. Inspired by ritual music from Asia, minimal music and ambient, she creates her own sound world: a personal ritual in which every listener is allowed to lose themselves and disappear.
Bakunawa is Lau's second solo project after Book of Toy and was written for pendulums, metal pipes and harp. The focus is on the pendulums; the metal rods from her grandmother's clock, which she uses for their rich overtones. Bakunawa is a snake-like dragon from the Philippines that eats the moon. To chase away this dragon, people play loudly on pots and pans. To lull her to sleep, they play their indigenous instruments harmoniously.
You can see Bakunawa on 7 October 2021 in MIRY Concertzaal in Ghent (in association with Vooruit) and on 11 December 2021 during Zindering Festival in kunstencentrum nona in Mechelen.
Pak Yan Lau was born in Belgium but has Chinese roots. She followed classical training in piano at the Antwerp Conservatory, in ESMAE Portugal and jazz workshops in Belgium and Italy with Christoph Erbstosser, Mark Levine, Stefano Battaglia, Franco d'Andrea, etc. She has composed for theatre and dance productions, Chinese shadow theatre, documentaries and video installations. Today, she focuses mainly on improvisation and music in relation to sound. She has a particular fondness for objects, such as toy pianos. Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary and creating small sound mosaics while exploring the spectrum of possibilities is the best way to describe her style.
Composition: Pak Yan Lau | Gong bars, toy pianos: Giovanni Di Domenico | Gong bars, toy pianos, tom : João Lobo | Gong bars, toy pianos, bass drum: Mathieu Calleja | Harp: Vera Cavallin | Sound: Christophe Albertijn.
