Singapore Night Live: ETHNI-CITY II: 2 + 3square in a circle

I am still struggling with this one. I am having problems doing it justice. Superlatives like amazing, awesome, etc, seem inadequate and definitely unfitting.

Whatever superlative I would use will sound like a cliché in comparison to what we experienced last Saturday. I am just going to try to leave them out.

There are several reasons for my state of mind on this. The unusual setup provided the option for me to see things from different angles. In fact there was no back, front or side to the stage. It was planted in the middle of the room. You could have, in my opinion should have, walked around.

I came to the conclusion walking around would be a good thing when I also observed that the instruments were set up in a circle, “oddly” enough configured as such that the musicians would all face the center of the stage and with that, each other. Nothing appeared to be “normal” but somehow to me it made selfish sense.

Firstly with the freedom to walk around I could face any musician I wanted at relatively equal distance, but I could also get multiple side angles and what for me is highly unusual a back angle.

It was almost like they set up the stage with taking pictures in mind.

That dream was “shattered” quickly though when the lights came on. In some angles, the bright light of a projector made it impossible to see beyond. Also most people perched themselves on the concrete floor as soon as they had entered.

In my opinion their loss, they all missed out on this round-about feature, but it did also not allow me to just take any position in the room, that would be too intrusive.

Certain angles were however “protected” by the various pillars in the dark space, and to prevent people from wondering who that crazy guy was that kept going round and round the podium, I found myself a “base” pillar, from where I could wander occasionally to others. This pillar happened to be right behind an always animated Riduan

and between Cheryl

and Natalie.

I was practically standing on stage.

Apart from a visual advantage at this point I also had an ideal position to catch the sound. I am not sure what the sound was like all over, but I am sure providing good sound in all corners of the room was a challenge with this configuration.

After the concert had ended many people, still intrigued, lingered around to hear the troupe explain some of the concepts. The setup of the stage, how it stimulated “conversation”,

that the ability to have eye contact made a director redundant and of course the fact that the troupe was built on three bands that used traditional concepts and instruments of the three main ethnic groups of Singapore, and that the objective was to provide a homogeneous composition using each others' original work.

I have seen several of the performers at work as individuals and in their respective bands. I have commented earlier on how much I appreciate the work of SA trio and must definitely have said something positive about Riduan and his attitude towards music and music mentorship.

Last Saturday I saw that the fundamentals are there for each individual to grow and with that for the concept to develop further, except for one maybe, money.

In my view this is an opportunity, an export product from a cultural as well as diplomatic perspective. This is evidence of what innovation multiculturalism can offer in addition to their individual perspectives.

The line-up for the evening

Orkestar trio:

Riduan on drums and percussion