Liquid Architecture presents: Raja Kirik, Female Wizard, Rama Parwata, DBR + Cypha

(Ritual Community Music)

Liquid Architecture presents Javanese duo Raja Kirik at The Toff, with Naarm artists Female Wizard, Rama Parwata and special guests DBR + Cypha. (opens in a new tab)Hand built instruments fuse with high energy programmed sounds, producing hammering, transcendental walls of rhythm and texture.

Raja Kirik, a project by Yennu Ariendra and J. Mo'ong Santoso Pribadi, is(opens in a new tab) a venture through trance dances such as reog, jaranan, and jathilan – practices from east and central Java, Indonesia. The dances draw on magic, shamanism, and animism to explore a history that is at times dark, chaotic, violent, and unjust. Such traditions have long served the people and their efforts at cultural resistance, and are still relevant in political struggles today.

Syncopated electronic rhythms frolic beneath the meanderings of home made instruments built from waste materials. Metallic percussion that is as trance-inducing as it is bellicose steps into dialogue with lilting melodies that gust out of makeshift wind instruments. With frantic, seemingly endless forward momentum, the music of Raja Kirik inhabits a wide emotional breadth, cycling from disappointment to anger to loneliness.

Female Wizard’s reach is far and wide. Working across choreography, dance, djing, event management and her unique take on electronic music. Exploring the weirder sides of techno, industrial, IDM and more, FemaleWizard creates a new collective transcendence through powerful sonic immersion. In 2021 she was awarded Best Electronic Act at the MusicVictoria Awards for her album TIE-EE-YIE-EE-YIE-EE-YIME released on Heavy Machinery Records.

Rama Parwata is a Naarm/Melbourne-based musician, composer, and curator who has a distinguished reputation for his audacious and technical aural explorations in sound, texture and rhythm on the drum-kit, drawing influence from Jazz, Extreme Metal, and Gamelan music from his Balinese and Indonesian heritage.

In 2021, Rama released his debut album, Tekanan, on Cassauna /Important Records to critical acclaim. He currently plays drums in local metal ensembles including the Doom Metal band Whitehorse, exploratory Black Metal band Kilat, and the experimental gamelan/metal trio Rinuwat. Since 2019, Rama has been a co-curator and committee member of the Make It Up Club.

Folk, Noise, Electronics, Improvisation – how can radical music help us manifest new possibilities for thinking and imagine new ways of organising community through ritual behaviours, actions and languages? Music as a model for civil society—decoding metaphorical power structures, violence, empathy, ecstasy and cooperation.

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung as the Traditional Owners and sovereign custodians of the Country on which we practice. We extend our respects to their Elders past and present, and to all First Peoples.