This recording documents a meeting between Mo’ong Pribadi and Sholto Dobie in Vilnius, Lithuanian where they both live.
Mo’ong and Sholto are both self-taught instrument builders and musicians - creating wind and percussion instruments from found and recycled material. Mo’ong’s instruments - made in Indonesia - combine metal parts, pvc horns, acoustic reverb and distortion effects, Sholto’s instruments use an air compressor, timers, valves, bamboo pipes, and organ flutes. The materials reflect a shared interest in folklore, diy, street music and automata.
Mo’ong is from Indonesia and Sholto is from Scotland, which are very far apart from each other, and this music does not feel like it belongs anywhere in particular, but there are certain elements which ground it in an uncanny and intriguing sound world. Through the clicks, clacks and buzzing, one can perceive surface traces of scottish bagpipe music, javanese folk music and improvised noise music.
Technologically the music feels to belong to many times at once, handmade and industrial are combined sonically and physically like hybrid creatures. Automatic clicks and manual rhythms overlap, phasing and falling in and out with each other. Pipes played by both human lungs and air compressors are hard to tell apart as they layer. The occasional vocal noise is heard, but distorted to alien-like proportions. A mechanical folk music, made with the help of phantoms.