This album presents contemporary works by Southeast Asian composers that explore flow, transformation, and dialogue across cultures and sound worlds. Drawing on themes ranging from migration and climate crisis to women’s education, electronic–acoustic hybridity, duality, and Bach-inspired play, each piece offers a distinct yet interconnected view of movement and change. These works were commissioned and premiered by Melody.
Recording and Mastering Engineer: Jonathan Dexter
Artwork Designer: Leanne Koonce
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Released in 2026 by Soundset Recordings on all streaming platforms.
Album details
forked (2025)
by Emily Koh (b. 1986)
Split stream, doubled soul,
Forked paths make one whole.
Two worlds: entwined.
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Program notes by Emily Koh.
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Listen:
ii. Determined perpetual motion
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by Adeline Wong (b. 1975)
Crossings is written in response to Bach’s keyboard masterpiece the Goldberg Variations. One tends to get caught up in the complexities and profundity of the Goldberg, but for me there is also the playful and simple side to this work, where every possibility is built from the simplest basic idea of the bass line.
Crossings, as the title implies, is a display of hand crossings driven by the more virtuoso and arabesque-like variations evident in the Goldberg. The hand crossings are often decorated with trills and other ornamentations drawn from Goldberg’s Aria. The 6-minute Crossings is almost like playing games on the keyboard with running motions, contrary motions, chasing from one side of the keyboard to the other, and hockets topped with ornamentations.
Speaking of the Goldberg, one of the pivotal moments for me is the power of the unexpected when moving from Variation 29 to 30. The pompous Variation 29 finally settles into the last variation made of simple and popular folk tunes in a quodlibet. This unexpected turn is the simplest yet most joyful moment for me in the entire set of 30 variations.
I do hope the ending of Crossings will similarly provide an unexpected twist for the
listener.
Program notes by Adeline Wong
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by Marisa Sharon Hartanto (b. 1986)
Dewi Sartika (1884–1947) was a pioneering Indonesian advocate for women’s education. Born into a Sundanese noble family, she defied societal norms by founding Sekolah Istri (Women’s School) in 1904, one of the first schools for women in the Dutch East Indies. Her dedication to education and women’s empowerment made her a symbol of progress and equality, and her legacy continues to inspire generations of Indonesian women.
Although a significant figure in West Java, Sartika’s impact was largely localized. Her emphasis on practical education and community building limited her international exposure, unlike R.A. Kartini, whose recognition extended more broadly. This piece was composed as a tribute to Dewi Sartika.
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Program notes by Marisa Sharon Hartano.
https://marisasharonhartanto.com/
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for piano and fixed electronics (2025)
by Piyawat Louilarpprasert (b. 1993)
The piece explores the percussive and resonant qualities of the piano, focusing on its hammering sound through a process of musical "blossoming." This involves creating continuity through open, chordal harmonies and contrasting pitch relationships, while incorporating tremolos and a variety of sonic textures ranging from delicate to heavy, metallic sounds, with hints of romanticism emerging as the music unfolds. The piece was inspired by a Thai traditional musical technique, "Prom," which means trembling fingers on the instruments. To my imagination, this technique creates the complexity and the blossoming process of the sound outcome.
The electronics are based on recordings of Melody's initial rehearsal. After she played and recorded the piece, I used Max to process the recordings, generating fixed media through granular synthesis that reflects the piano's sounds. A clock patch will also be incorporated into the work. The piece can be played without electronics as a variant version.
Program notes by Piyawat Louilarpprasert.
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by Sidney Marquez Boquiren (b. 1970)
Agos employs a similar compositional technique used in another work for solo piano, Unheard Voices, wherein the pianist is listening through headphones to a recording of a previously written work while performing the original composition that I wrote. For this project, I found a conceptual foundation that related to my home country of the Philippines while addressing the contemporary issues of climate change and migration.
At the time Melody and I were discussing this project, NPR’s Morning Edition had just featured a segment entitled, “The Philippines builds a dam to address a water shortage,” resulting from climate change. The river being dammed is the Agos River, a source of sustenance and livelihood for the inhabitants of the region; “agos” translates to “flow.”
And so, this project is inspired by an ongoing environmental and water-shortage issue in the Philippines related to climate change, which also reflects broader, water-related challenges faced globally, including rising ocean levels and increasingly severe weather events. At a metaphorical level, I relate this concept of "flow" to migration, the flow of people (mostly) out of Southeast Asia. Thus, the piano repertoire I selected to use for Agos is connected to water imagery.
The audio track that the pianist is listening to while performing Agos consists of recordings of a couple of pre-existing works with which the pianist interacts, sometimes freely and at other times strictly, much like a dam restricting the flow of a river.
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Program notes by Sidney Marquez Boquiren.
https://soundcloud.com/user-170499
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