THE VENOPIAN SOLITUDE (MALAYSIA)
The Malaysian electronic experimentalist and RBMA alumna performs live with her full band.
The Venopian Solitude is a band from Selangor, Malaysia. Formed in middle 2009 by the founder Suiko Takahara (pseudonym) has been producing a humongous collection of music and published them on now-defunct thesixtyone page, followed by Bandcamp and Youtube, which consequently has been garnering attention from people around parts of the world amidst the anonymity. After releasing their debut album the performance expanded from a one-woman show to performing with a fullfledged band.
They create experimental electro-pop out of a menagerie of synths, stringed instruments and whatever found objects she might have at her disposal. She brings it all together with her powerful voice, capturing both whimsy and sadness as she sings in English and Malay.
Her 2015 Kereta Merah EP adapted a Malaysian nursery rhyme for a conceptual set of songs about a psychotic father and a child suffering from mental illness – which just goes to show the conceptual and emotional depth of her work. She’s performed at festivals in Amsterdam, Berlin, Singapore and Japan, and she once made it past the infamously discerning doormen at Berlin’s Berghain nightclub while rocking a hijab.
