Melody-inspired calligraphy and boundary-breaking mash-up headline Asia+ Festival

No two performances of this production are the same, and no two canvases turn out alike.

For Hong Kong audiences, Qayyum says she hopes the performance will offer a respite from the world’s uncertain times. “In a world sceptical of independent expression, where we face an incessant and unyielding pressure to harden ourselves, put on a brave exterior and move quicker, this performance invites the audience to slow down, pause and reflect,” she says.

The percussion-focused performance of Taksu – The Spirit of Gamelan, at the auditorium of the Sha Tin Town Hall on November 6 and 7, is much louder, but shares the same respect for spirituality and humanity. It explores the Balinese concept of taksu, which means divine inspiration and spiritual energy that ignites artistic expression.

Bernard Goh, founder and artistic director of Hands Percussion, from Malaysia, has teamed up with actor and director Ghafir Akbar and master composer and ethnomusicologist I Wayan Sudirana to create a fusion of contemporary and traditional percussion styles.

Indonesia’s Gamelan Yuganada sets the central theme with shimmering bronze tunes of gamelan, a percussion style born in ancient royal courts and temples of Indonesia’s Java and Bali, while performing artist Zamzuriah Zahari adds a theatrical layer with mak yong, a traditional dance-drama from northern Malaysia.

Hands Percussion’s performers bring in the 24 Festive Drums, a tradition created in 1988 in the Chinese community of the southern Malaysian city of Johor Bahru based on lion dance, to dial up the energy.

Goh says combining these two traditions meant “understanding and respecting the originality of sound, rhythm and technique required for each instrument then adapting that knowledge to other instruments”.

The staging follows the spirituality of Balinese gamelan, as members of the ensemble perform on a raised platform, appearing “uplifted” while the drummers stay grounded below to provide room for their dynamic movements.

“The gamelan is made of metal, yet is capable of speaking gently, quickly and elegantly,” Goh says. “Like armour and skin, these instruments move over the same contours in an intercultural musical conversation.”

Achieving a cohesive, dynamic performance has required “unlearning” by both sets of musicians, he says. “My members were proud Chinese drummers and excelled at dynamic movement and grand hand gestures, [but] the Balinese gamelan requires you to be stationary while playing intricate, intense, fast-paced rhythms.”

Members of The Hong Kong Children’s Choir’s Chamber Youth, the group’s advanced mixed-voice ensemble, will add another layer to the performance, as they sing a reimagined, gamelan version of the Chinese folk song “Jasmine Flower”, which has been set alongside its Malaysian counterpart “Bunga Emas” or “Golden Flower”.

As the singers move through across the performance space, their presence will mirror the rhythmic shifts of the instrumentalists.

For choristers raised on a mostly Western classical repertoire, this performance will provide them with both a challenge and a chance to broaden their creative minds. “Although these compositions originate from a region geographically not far from us, the cultural context behind them can feel remarkably foreign,” Vivian Ip, conductor of Chamber Youth, says.

The singers “have had to unlearn certain assumptions about performance and instead immerse themselves in the spirituality, energy and communal spirit that this production demands”, she says.