JUNK Magazine March Issue

What happens when two designers make music ?


It comes out like music from a dream



Designers April Lee and Ricks Ang could arguably be one of the most active couples in the Singapore art scene. When not busying themselves as local design unit Kitchen., they can be found expressing their passion for music, photography and design collectively as aspidistrafly.



Employing lush layers of acoustic arrangements, subtle electronics, field recordings to even the ambience of their immediate surroundings, aspidistrafly set to compose music stemming from a particular memory in their lives.



With a name derived from George Orwell's novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying, the band was formed in 2001 while dabbling in budget digital recording together. Such experimentation had result in their debut four track Children Haiku Garden, released the following year.



"All I remembered was that I was exploring with as many sonic textures as I could get with my average computer, a half decent mic, a guitar and some pedals that I had on hand," recalls guitarist/arranger Ricks Ang of their first recording experience, breaking into a grin.



Since then, Children Haiku Garden had garnered praise from the Singapore soundscape community, earning them a slot on Singapore's premier music festival Baybeats 2004, their 2nd live performance ever. Barely a fortnight after the festival, the duo then released their follow up EP entitled The Ghost of Things, taking on a darker and more intense tone than their previous releases.



aspidistrafly's contributions to the junk sampler Stranger, here is where we live is based upon Ricks' experience of visiting a now abandoned building in which he spent most of childhood in. However, don't expect a word for word account experience of this account. "When writing songs, aspidistrafly focuses on recreating the particular mood of the experience rather than telling a direct narrative. We compose songs as to how a photographer composes a photograph," Ricks elaborates.



So what's flying this year for the soundscape duo in late 2006 ? aspidsitrafly came off a brief hiatus and move into a quaint (read: cramp) makeshift studio to begin recording their long awaited first full length album.



"We got our studio to push us out of our usual comfort zones. The new environment and its immediate surroundings has inspired us to write the bulk of the material," Ricks explains. "The rooftop of our unit really inspired us, especially composing music during sunset."



Full length aside, the duo will be contributing music to upcoming compilations from Malaysia, US and Australia. "We hope our music can travel," expresses Ricks. We have faith that their material will fly

-- Rudi