At Adau - The World Music Band From Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia

rodznocturne (53)in #music • 7 years ago (edited)

Previously I made a post about a band called Ilu Leto, an all female Sape players band from Sarawak. This time I want to introduce to you another band from Sarawak, the famous World Music Band, At Adau. Like Ilu Leto, all their members are all natives of Sarawak, Borneo.

At Adau is a seven-piece band consist of Ezra Tekola (playing Sape'), Jackson Lian Ngau (Traditional Bidayuh music insturment), Meldrick Bob (Drums), Juju Lee (Drums & Percussion), Alfonso Mckenzie (Bass Guitar), Cerdic Riseng (Guitar) and Luke Wrender (Sape').

The name of their band is a combination of two words from two languages of two different ethnics from Sarawak. "At" mean roots in Bidayuh and "Adau" is from the Kenyah dialect referring to the name of the preferred tree used in making Sape'. Bidayuh and Kenyah is two of the many ethnics in Sarawak.

Formed in 2014, they shared one common passion, the love of the traditional music and instruments. Sape' is one of their main instruments that brought them all together as a band. Calling their genre as "Experimental World Music", they fused the tunes of traditional music instruments and modern music instruments together. They created a very melodic and unique sounds from that and intrigued many fans. They play many types of instruments such as Sape', Perutong, drums, percussions, electric guitar, Djembe, Congas and many more.

Their first big achievement was when they won the Kuching Waterfront Festival 2016. Before that they were also awarded Borneo Talent Award 2015 and Special Talent Award during AIFFA 2015. They have also performed in some concerts and festivals overseas. Their music journey started way before that and started to gain a lot of attentions when they started to go out and promote their unique music.

According to At Adau, they creates world music to heal and rejuvenate weary souls around the world. They believes that music has the power to overcome all walls and barriers of culture, gender, age, language and ideological differences. I couldn't agree more on that.

During the 2017 RWMF, they performed an opening set for main concert of day 2 of the festival. The crowd was so pumped by their energetic performance and powerful music, making them danced the whole of their show. With the mellow sounds of Sape', the energetic sounds of drums and percussion, the modern sounds of the guitar and bass combined with the soulful voice of their singers, they brought high energy to the festival goers. The crowd love their performance so much!

Listen to their first single from their first album, Journey.

At Adau brought something new and fresh into the music scene when they came out into the mainstream. So far they've played and brought their music to many countries all over the world. They have their ambition set high with no intention to stop bringing their music to as much places as possible.

Their first album is called Journey that comes with 9 songs in it. I love all their songs, when I first got their album from their bassist who is also a good friend of mine, I played on repeat the whole day. It soothed my mind and soul, I don't know how they did it but their songs really made my day in many ways.

If you're curious about how they sounds like, listen to their album at Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/6afdwFJa3Xw5Wcd3bVKbIG

To know more about them, visit their Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/loveatadau/ and their website http://atadau.com/.