2021 AWARD NOMINEE
INTERNATIONAL
INDIGENOUS ARTIST-GROUP
RECORDING OF THE YEAR
Alena Murang
INTERNATIONAL
Sky Songs
Alena Murang is the first female to professionally play the sape’, a lute instrument from Borneo traditionally reserved for men, used in ritual healing ceremonies. She also sings in the endangered Kelabit and Kenyah languages.
Though never formally studying music, Alena’s lifelong journey receiving the dance, song and music from her elders, has led her to be a keeper of stories for her people. Working closely with her cousin Joshua Maran as producer, they draw on their musical influences of world, rock and folk music, combined with narratives of growing up Indigenous in contemporary urban settings, to produce a sound that is distinctive, earthy and fresh; resonating with centuries of oral histories. Her new album “Sky Songs” has eight tracks and is themed around the sky – as the great ancestors used to live in the skies and travelled to earth through a big waterfall. Each song has its story – about the stars, about looking at the clouds to tell a good time to migrate to more fertile land, about the different sounds of thunder, about missing the village.
Her first EP, “Flight” (2016), presents interpretations of traditional Kelabit and Kenyah songs. For Alena it was important to do this as there were just a handful of good quality digital recordings of these lesser known songs. She has presented these songs in festivals across the world, including SXSW (USA), Colors of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Paris Fashion Week (France), Rudolstadt Festival (Germany), OzAsia Festival (Australia), and Rainforest World Music Festival (Malaysia). Since then her self-produced music videos in collaboration with like minded artists, have been selected for film festivals in different corners of the world. She was also a youth representative at the UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris, and UNESCO Asia-Pacific, recognized for her work in intangible cultural heritage.
Though never formally studying music, Alena’s lifelong journey receiving the dance, song and music from her elders, has led her to be a keeper of stories for her people. Working closely with her cousin Joshua Maran as producer, they draw on their musical influences of world, rock and folk music, combined with narratives of growing up Indigenous in contemporary urban settings, to produce a sound that is distinctive, earthy and fresh; resonating with centuries of oral histories. Her new album “Sky Songs” has eight tracks and is themed around the sky – as the great ancestors used to live in the skies and travelled to earth through a big waterfall. Each song has its story – about the stars, about looking at the clouds to tell a good time to migrate to more fertile land, about the different sounds of thunder, about missing the village.
Her first EP, “Flight” (2016), presents interpretations of traditional Kelabit and Kenyah songs. For Alena it was important to do this as there were just a handful of good quality digital recordings of these lesser known songs. She has presented these songs in festivals across the world, including SXSW (USA), Colors of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Paris Fashion Week (France), Rudolstadt Festival (Germany), OzAsia Festival (Australia), and Rainforest World Music Festival (Malaysia). Since then her self-produced music videos in collaboration with like minded artists, have been selected for film festivals in different corners of the world. She was also a youth representative at the UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris, and UNESCO Asia-Pacific, recognized for her work in intangible cultural heritage.
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