Music Laboratory in Borneo

When Sape meets Cello

When Sape meets Cello
Borneo Laboratory Music Exploration
Sape | Cello | Borneo Music
Music Workshop by Céline Papion (France) + Alena Murang (Borneo)
Organised by Borneo Art Collective

This concert is an explorative conversation on musical languages, traditions and influences between the Borneo Art Collective, Céline Papion (France) and Alena Murang (Malaysia). After 10 days of exploring and discovering nature, music and the culture of Borneo, the French cellist Céline Papion will meet the Bornean sape player Alena Murang.

Alena performs and interprets the traditional music of the Kelabit and Kenyah people of Borneo. Céline, trained as a classical musician in Europe, explores the experimental potential of the cello. Different countries and different cultures, but the same aim: sharing stories through music.
The spirit of Bornean music is strongly connected to nature. Alena and Céline will be sharing and learning each others musical language live in an open-air concert. By rehearsing outside, the natural context is meant to influence and inspire their work. The result of this exploration is a series of songs and pieces created for this special evening only.

The concert is complemented by the premiere of a piece written by the American composer Joseph Michaels. “Bäch in Borneo” was written especially for Céline and her journey to Borneo. Through a collage of quotations of J.S. Bach’s music mixed with sounds from Borneo’s political, natural and musical worlds, the work suggests a narrative in which a Western musician is changed through her interaction with a foreign culture.