Sipaningkah

Aldo Ahmad, aka Sipaningkah, reforges the traditions of West Sumatra, using industrial electronic sounds alongside drones and percussion from traditional and newly invented instruments, channeling a spirituality informed as much by transborder crossings as his own roots in Minangkabau culture. “Nan Tongga” features the Tasauf, an instrument he created for a performance at a music festival in Tokyo in 2019, fusing the tasa drum, talempong kettle gong, and rabab darek to represent three core elements of Minangkabau philosophy while fitting within airline luggage weight requirements. In form and in concept, “Nan Tongga” expresses the idea of oneness and balance between perceived dichotomies: body and spirit, tradition and modernity. Indeed, even the core traditional instruments that he uses are themselves representative of the interconnectedness of the Islamic and archipelagic Southeast Asian musical cultures. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.