KUCHING: Four soloists. Four cultures. Four instruments. Four temperaments. They are Mathias Duplessy, Guo Gan, Naraa Puredorj and Aliocha Regnard who have come together to create a dazzling and emotive display of stories and landscapes spanning the East and West.
The crossing strings of these virtuosos weave a path between the written and oral traditions of East and West as they endeavor to interpret the world differently and forge a way to new and unprecented sound.
Festival goers will be taken on a musical journey along the Silk Road with the strings evoking frenzied galloping of horses, creating the silence of the stark nomadic steppes of Mongolia, the fortitude of the imposing Great Wall of China and the frozen landscapes of the fjords.
Born in Paris, Mathias Duplessy studied classical guitar at the age of six and was playing professionally by the time he was 18. He also picked up many instruments from all over the world and reinvented as well as assimilated these traditional instruments into a vast musical repertoire in his performances.
As a multi-instrumentalist and composer, Duplessy took his idea of transcultural musical exchange further and created “The Violins of the World”. The musical journey grew with the shared interest by three virtuoso musicians Guo Gan, known worldwide as the Master of Chinese Erhu, Aliocha Regnard on the nyckelharpa, a string-instrument of Swedish origin, and Naraa Naranbaatar on the ikh khuur, a Mongolian fiddle and one of the most brilliant performers of the kargyraa, undertone singing and höömii throat singing.
In his many collaborations, Duplessy has contributed to Indian films as a music composer and received two nominations for best background score at the Filmfare Awards and French film Vie Sauvage and L’Oranais. In addition, he has produced and recorded over twenty albums with many artists around the world.
An unforgettable performance is that of Crazy Horse where Duplessy and his fellow musicians recreated sound effects, transporting audiences to a dramatic horse ride on the Mongolian grasslands. His latest album “Crazy Horse” is in the USA Top iTunes, and the video reached 8 million views.
They will do two different sets at the Rainforest World Music Festival – “Marco Polo” at the Theatre Stage which is a cross between Western classical music and Asia; and “Crazy Horse” on the Tree Stage, with a wild bluesy mix of everything. Both are expected to be stunning performances.
The Rainforest World Music Festival takes place from July 12-14 at the Sarawak Cultural Village and is organized by the Sarawak Tourism Board, endorsed by Tourism Malaysia and is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Youth & Sports Sarawak.
