HANDS Percussion Walks The Talk At Recent Showcase

Give any sort of drum (be it those Chinese ones or even a tabla) to the performers from HANDS Percussion and you’ll be needing to pick your jaw up from the floor — that’s what this writer had to do after watching their showcase at Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPAC) last week.

The renowned Malaysian percussion ensemble was founded by Bernard Goh in 1997 and have since been doing nothing but veritably banging out ground-breaking and innovative performances locally and internationally.

18 years and an abundance of performances later, HANDS now has 10 full-timers, 13 part-timers and eight trainees. The ensemble of performers are divided into two performing groups, namely HANDS 1 (core members) and HANDS 2 (part-timers) in 2005. Two years later, they diversified further into Southeast Asian music by adding on the HANDS Gamelan Group.

Throughout the 45-minute performance at DPAC, HANDS performed a repertoire of six outstanding performances — JU4 JI2 composed by Jimmy Ch’ng, In The Name Of Celebration composed by HANDS Percussion, De-Jam-Be-Game composed by Tai Chun Wai, Indonesian Folk song Wan Xia, 60’s Chinese Oldies Yue Yuan Hua Hao, and Mechanics composed by Jimmy Ch’ng and Jack Wan.

From jumping over drums to breaking the fourth wall and having audiences brought onto the stage —  we wished their impeccable ensemble work never ended.

Their aim was to simply display what they’ve done and what they have to offer. HANDS explained that they do not only perform but also coordinate events combining their unique mix of visual arts and music.

The group also offers performances for events, repertory theatre, team building workshops and own custom-made performances for events. They have even done a project called Balik Kampung — an extension of the drumming camps where HANDS brings their 24 Festive Drums to the kampung so children get to experience things first hand.

This year alone, HANDS has organized and performed in numerous different events — the 27th ASEAN Summit 2015, Kakiseni’s The Other Festival, World Gamelan Festival and their Europe Tour 2015 in which they performed in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Besides their stunning performances, Bernard who is also the artistic director of HANDS gave us all an insight to what they have in store for us for 2016.

In February 2016, HANDS will be performing for the Taiwan Lantern Festival and in March the Bali Spirits Festival. From May till August, the ensemble will be heading over to Belgium and France for their Europe Tour 2016 while in November Kaleidoscope IV International Drumming Festival.

Head on over to their page and keep a look out for their upcoming shows!

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Photo Credits to Ban Teng Ruen.