S.A.B.A.W. Presents Happy Tengal Day!

S.A.B.A.W. Presents
“Happy Tengal Day”

When: July 24, 2007, 6pm (Performances start at exactly 8pm onwards)
Where: Mag:net Café -- Bonifacio High Street, The Fort Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila.

On Tuesday (July 24), there will be an ultimate art happening on Mag:net Café the Fort FOR FREE ENTRANCE. An exhibit opening by 9 foreign artists, Tengal will be premiering a new piece for a music ensemble, releasing a new album, and celebrating his birthday. Who is this Tengal anyway? [Go here for details: www.tengal.multiply.com, www.myspace.com/tengal]

Starting at 6pm, Mag:net will be having a BIG exhibit opening entitled "THE GALLEON TRADE" by 9 foreign artists. Galleon Trade is a series of international arts exchange projects, focusing on the Philippines, Mexico, and California. Taking the historic Acapulco-Manila galleon route as its metaphor of origin, these exhibitions seek to create new routes of cultural exchange along old routes of commerce and trade. [More info on their site: http://www.galleontrade.org/]

Afterwards, there will be a sound art/experimental music performance by an ensemble composed of 9 sound artists at 8pm. Drawing inspiration from Kotekan (Balinese Gamelan interlocking style), free improvisation, musical chairs, mathematics (combinatorics, number theory, motzkin numbers, etc) and a personal fascination/ obsession with the number 9, Tengal will be premiering a new time-based piece for 9 improvising sound artists.

The number 9 has been a fascinating number throughout history in: literature (Dante's The Divine Comedy has 9 circles of hell and 9 spheres of heaven), superstition (when reducing the number 666 – according to some to be the number of the Devil – with the number 9 all the way, you get 18, and by further reducing 18, you get the number 9), popular culture (Beatles’ Revolution 9), astronomy (before 2006 there were 9 planets in the solar system), religion (important Buddhist rituals usually involve 9 monks), and in classical music – the curse of the 9th refers to the superstition that a composer who writes a ninth symphony will die soon. Beethoven was the first.

According to Tengal:
“The piece is basically an organic rotation of 9 individuals interacting with each other thru
time-restraints.

The rules are simple:
1) Each player plays for 9 minutes only, then stops and waits for another 9 minutes before they
resume playing.
2) Each player should play 3 minutes apart.
3) They do this for 90 minutes. However, during the 87th minute, everyone has played four times –
and to keep the rotation going, everyone will be playing 20 seconds apart from each other during
the last 3 minutes"

Although it might sound as if it’s more a math problem than an actual performance, Tengal suggests that “the aim of each performer is to collaborate, interlock sound textures with other performers and make the totality of the ensemble’s sound organic as possible. The idea is to make the ensemble sound really organic as sounds evolve, intertwine, interlock, change and move forward every 3 minutes or so.”

The ensemble dubbed as “The Motzkin Gangan Ensemble” [in math, Motzkin numbers enumerate various combinatorial objects; and Gangan is a Japanese onomatopoeia which can mean a clanging sound, or a headache, or a ringing in your ears – Tengal himself is a sufferer of Vertigo] will be conducted by video artist Tad Ermitano (who also helped in developing the concept of the piece).

THE PERFORMERS:

Blums Borres (electric guitar)
Inconnu ictu (Alesis Airsynth)
Lirio Salvador (Sandata – home-made electronic instrument)
Ria Munoz (contact mics, found objects, Kaos Pad)
Caliph 8 (Akai MPC sampler)
Erick Calilan (circuit bent electronic devices)
Jonjie Ayson (Sandata electronic bass)
Blend:er (Roland Sh-101 synthesizer)
Tengal (drumset, hangdrum, kulintang, interactive computer)

CONDUCTOR: Tad Ermitano

Afterwards, there will be party and music by some of Manila’s finest music groups in celebration
of Tengal’s (born Earl Drilon) birthday!!! It is HAPPY TENGAL DAY (or Happy T-day for brevity)!!!

Bands will be performing right after "The Motzkin Gangan Ensemble":

Arvie Bartolome
Hilera
Severo
The Brockas
Pinikpikan

AND FINALLY,
Tengal will be releasing a new album entitled “CINEMA FOR THE EAR”, an anthology of soundtracks for independent films since 2005 to 2007.

Tengal has been scoring, acting, and designing sound for independent films since 2005;
particularly for the cinema of independent filmmakers: Lav Diaz (Heremias), Khavn dela Cruz (Idol, Bahag Kings, 3 days of Darkness), John Torres (Todo Todo Teros), and Raya Martin (Autohystoria, Long Live Philippine Cinema).

The songs in this album are from two Khavn dela Cruz feature films: “Three Days of Darkness” – a biblical campy lesbian horror flick that could convince atheists to go back to religion; and
“Idol: Hero/Villain” – a B-movie extraordinaire, a meta-action/ comedy film that’s also a musical, and according to Tengal, “one of the worst films I’ve ever seen; but definitely the best 90 minutes of my life… it’s so bad, its good!”

The finest in ambient screams, hybrid samba surf, drunken blues organ solos, freak-out free jazz
trips, over-the-top dub mambo, devious bossa J-pop arrangements, demented ambient Americana, super heroic surf guitars, sleazy 70s porn funk, moronic samples, industrial monster movies, karaoke vomit, and 30-minute sound design pieces of erotic aural torture.

This eclectic compilation of his cinematic music displays the full range of his talents and the
sick depths of his mind. CINEMA FOR THE EAR, listened as an album without the visuals, suggests a twisted and vivid narrative drama.

The limited edition known as the “Ka Elmo Edition” is limited to less than 20 copies, and will be
sold during the event.

ENTRANCE IS FREE. BRING EVERYONE. E – V – E – R – Y – O – N – E.

For album orders and reservations, questions and feedback please contact:
Tengal: Call 0920.6045559 or Email tengald@gmail. com for more details.

S.A.B.A.W. is a sound art collective and record label that represents a cross-section of sound
artists, performance artists, contemporary musician-composers and is dedicated to promoting and releasing the best in avant-garde, experimental and noise music in the Philippines.

www.sabaw.tk
www.groups.yahoo.com/groups/sabaw