Three local bands to collaborate on music project

KUALA LUMPUR: Three local bands with members hailing from Sabah and Sarawak will be collaborating on an intricate musical project titled “Roads to Our Heritage” (RTOH) – a three album plus one documentary series project.

The bands, Estranged and Stonebay together with musical artist Alena Murang’s band, will release a music album each to showcase stories of East Malaysia music heritage on the first ever music-themed documentary series produced by Estranged Sdn Bhd.

Estranged Sdn Bhd in a statement here yesterday said the project was supported by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) and funded under the ministry’s Digital Content Fund (DKD) for the music industry.

“RTOH will be a television documentary series premiering on Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) documenting a journey undertaken by Alena Murang, Estranged and Stonebay on road with Triumph motorcycles and cars, beginning in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah while the second part of the trip will start from Kuching, Sarawak.

“This series, which will have a total of fourteen days of production shoot, covers around 1,000 kilometres of roads. It will feature in-depth interviews with native traditional music craftsmen of Sabah and Sarawak, a rediscovering of local traditional cultures and roots, as well as a showcase of beautiful scenic routes coloured by the music of the three bands,” the statement said.

According to the statement, the production is scheduled to begin in early 2021 and the group will also be accompanied by lead researcher from Universiti Teknologi MARA’s (UiTM) Faculty of Music, Dr Nadia Widyawati Madzhi who is the Research Partner of RTOH, with the aim of further documenting the stories of traditional music instruments and their makers as educational references and archiving for future generations.

Commenting on the project, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the music documentary RTOH would be a benchmark set by the musicians themselves for the creative industry to follow in preserving the heritage for future generations by adapting new innovations and technologies in their production.

He said the DKD fund is aimed to provide support as well as opportunities for the creative industry and reignite the creative economy which has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The government understands the crucial need to preserve local cultural heritage while leveraging new methods and innovations in content creation.

“At the same time, rapid digitalisation in all aspects including the media, arts and content creation also brings the opportunity to embrace and leverage on new innovations and technologies, thinking out of the box,” he added.

The project is also receiving support from various organisations including Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) as a Strategic Partner.

For the latest updates and information on the project, the public can follow their social media platforms at Facebook (https://facebook.com/RTOH2020), Twitter (https://twitter.com/ RTOH2020) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/roadstoourheritage/). – Bernama