Music Composition / Sound Design / Theatre / Music Releases / DJ
Music has always been a thread in my life since I was a toddler putting on my dad’s collection of vinyl from the 70’s at home. There was always music in the house as a child as far as I could remember. The turning point happened when I experienced the vibrancy of hip-hop culture when I was 10 and it left a positive mark on my life till today. In my teenage years, I religiously discovered new music mostly through radio and magazines. It was a social currency amongst my friends that I grew up with. I’ve always believed that music and art both share a parallel, positive energy that people can experience together or alone. Much like how my experience of music is seen as bookmarks in my life. As a result, I try to share my own music related work with others in hope that they get something out of it.
Countries I’ve shared my music at:
Los Angeles / New York / San Francisco / London / Oregon / Leipzig / Melbourne / Sydney / Brisbane / Hong Kong / Shanghai / Beijing / Iceland / Malaysia / Bali / Jakarta / Bandung / Manila / New Zealand / Sete, France / Barcelona
Music for Brands
Original music scoring and sound design. Here are some of my favourites.
Vogue (China)
Director: Marie Schuller (RSA, London) Producer: Terry Jin (Shanghai)
Nike Air Force 1 Anniversary
x Travis Scott, Don C, Roc-A-Fella, Errolson Hugh, Virgil Abloh (China)
I was involved with creating music for the Nike Air Force 1 anniversary Launch in China. This campaign was launch through the Tao Bao App with a link to pre-purchase the sneakers. The brief was to create music to link the sneakers together with the creative styles their collaborators were known for.
Animations: TMMRW
The Greatest Luxury / Selfridges (London)
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Commissioned as part of the Radical Luxury campaign at Selfridges, The Greatest Luxury explores what luxury means in an era when the term itself can feel hollow and banal.
So how can we redefine this word for the next generation? And how do we make luxury exciting and meaningful again? In search of the answers, the film explores the relationship three radical creative have with the concept of luxury, including Mykki Blanco (Rapper, Performance Artist and Activist), Holly Blakey (Choreographer and filmmaker) and Gareth Pugh (fashion designer), featuring a poem written and performed by Lily Ashley and a performance by dancer Sophie Apollonia.
Celebrating the concept of luxury as something that’s as individual as ourselves, The Greatest Luxury reclaims luxury as something personal, emotional and liberating.
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LA Fashion Film Festival (Official Selection)
Barcelona Fashion Film Festival (Best Fashion Film)
Fashion Film Festival Istanbul (Best Documentary)
Dazed Films Present
Anthony Vaccarello x Versus (New York)
Punk and high Italian glamour may be strange bedfellows, but when Donatella turned them into a style in the early 90s, she provided fashion with a new, provocative energy. What's more the Versus Versace archive has been a cult source of research since its inception, particularly amongst young designers. As part of Donatella’s strategy to realise its revival, Belgian-Italian designer Anthony Vaccarello follows a string of high-profile collaborators such as Christopher Kane, M.I.A. and J.W.Anderson to design a Versus capsule. That her choice of collaborators to carry the Versus name have all grown up in the 90s and are provocateurs in their own right is no coincidence.
Ahead of the SS15 season, Dazed commissioned filmmaker and Nick Knight collaborator Marie Schuller, to debut this new joint force – shown at Versus's New York 2014 show.
Christmas Campaign / Selfridges (London)
Instagram Christmas Campaign
14_18 NOW:
Fashion and Freedom (Manchester)
In May 2016, SHOWstudio commissioned three fashion films to go on display in ‘Fashion & Freedom’ at Manchester Art Gallery. The exhibition explores the profound effect the First World War had on women. Alongside films by Rei Nadal, Marie Schuller and George Harvey, the show also features contemporary pieces by designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Roksanda. The exhibition runs until 27 November 2016.
Givenchy Le Rouge (Paris)
Breuninger (Berlin)
E. Breuninger GmbH & Co., is a Stuttgart-based German department store retailer trading under the name Breuninger. Targeted predominantly at up-market shoppers, the Breuninger range is mainly restricted to fashion, clothing and premium household goods.
Swarovski (China)
DREAMS & REALITY, 2019 (Singapore)
A collaboration with artist Muhammad Izdi and sound by kiatsg. Produced by Brandon Tay & Safuan. Projected on to the facade of ACM (Asian Civilisations Museum) from 16 - 27 January 2019 as part of Singapore’s Bicentennial Celebrations.
Featuring Weish on vocals.
Adidas X Jeremy Scott (Hong Kong)
ZEN KOI (Singapore)
Home grown music for a home grown game developer. The brief was to make music that would calm you down in this hectic world. After the first version was launch to great success, the fans expressed interest in purchasing or streaming the music so I created a release when the game was updated.
Zen Koi 2 is a sequel to the mesmerising collection game Zen Koi that follows the Asian myth about Koi ascending into Dragons.
Spotify
zenkoigame.com
UNIQLO In-store Music (Singapore)
Spotify Playlists: Day Night Chinese New Year Christmas
We worked with Uniqlo’s new flagship store to produce a series of in-store music for Uniqlo. Curating a range of local producers, we wanted to create a experience for shoppers to experience the space with music produced locally. The challenge was for us to create a music scape that reflected the brand values as well keeping it sounding fresh. What was important as well for us was that the store employees enjoyed it as well without music fatigue over repeated listening.
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In what is one of the strangest, but most likely fruitful, collaborations we've seen this year, it seems like long-running Singaporean music collective Syndicate have been roped in by Uniqlo for some splendid music magic.
In the lead-up to the launch of their flagship outlet at Orchard Central, the Japanese clothing giant enlisted the electronic music veterans to compose music specially tailored for an in-store playlist.
This part of their campaign "Your Stage. Now Live.", which engages various Singaporean artists to form their own imprint on the store which would represent the "creativity, style and culture of a new Singapore."
Syndicate's collection of music, comprised of 24 original five-minute tracks by 12 musicians, will be played in rotation entirely within the store's expansive three-level, 2,700m2 vicinity.
These tracks follow the commissioned theme of "Night & Day", so expect some very moody and ethereal tracks from this diverse set of artists — .gif, blankverse, Fauxe, Claude Glass (Isa Ong of Pleasantry and sub:shaman), Intriguant, Jason Tan, Kaye, Night Dives, Tim De Cotta, Vandetta and Syndicate figureheads Cherry Chan and Kiat.
While you'll only be able to hear the tracks in-store when the venue opens on September 2nd, a compilation album featuring all 24 tracks will be released later this year. Whatever your stance may be towards big clothing brands, now you have a legitimate reason to do some window shopping there.
– Bandwagon
St Jerome’s Laneway Festival (Singapore)
Stage Curation / Production (with Cherry Chan)
In 2016, we got to curate a Syndicate stage at St Jerome’s Laneway Festival. Needless to say, we were honoured to be trusted with this wonderful opportunity to showcase our range of regional talents.
Curated Artists:
B BRAVO (LA)
JPS (Melbourne)
FAUXE (SG)
RAH (SG)
MEAN (SG)
KIAT & MC KANE (SG)
BRANDON TAY & EMPYREAL (Visuals)
“Around October last year, following a walk-through of the site with our trusted local team, we agreed we should look at building a brand new stage in Singapore. We didn’t want it to be a token. We wanted it to be something for Singapore by Singaporeans. After a long brainstorm, we decided to approach the team at Syndicate, who would no doubt deliver something magical. So, like Ghostly International in Detroit, Future Classic in Australia and our friends from London, Eat Your Own Ears and Young Turks, we invited them to collaborate with us in building a brand new stage experience that runs parallel to the Cloud Stage. This means that the area is going to have 11 hours of non-stop tunes, and it’s going to be a wild street party like the early Laneway Festivals. It’s the first time we are doing anything like this in Singapore, and we believe it will spawn a new period of us taking on unique collaborations.”
“As we’ve mentioned, this was a year of many firsts for Laneway, but the Syndicate-curated White Room was easily the best addition to this year’s festival.”
ALBUMS and EPs
All artwork and photography by myself unless stated. Let’s get personal.
Polymorphism (w Deborah Emmanuel)
Press Release Notes // The world lies bare before us if only we look closely enough. All the sounds you hear come from the sounds before. Aliens watch from a distance, uninvolved, so that we can learn not to destroy ourselves. War is for the wicked. Women can be free, as can men. Utopia is for everyone.
The words above formed a summary to the elaborations found in this nine track release. This collaboration between electronic music producer, Kiat, and poet/performer, Deborah Emmanuel, takes you on a trip through poetic soul and sound. Formed with spoken word poetics, songbird rhyme and drenched in sub-bass line and scattered rhythm, this partnership is shaping up to become more than just a one-off collaboration.
Individually, they are established artists in their own scene; with Kiat as one of the pioneering figures of electronic music in Singapore and Deborah as a reputable poet whose powerful words & performance has graced the stages of many poetry & writers festivals internationally.
The duo has been showcasing this body of work live at major festivals such as the Barcelona International Poetry Festival 2018 and Tropika 2018. And in the studio, they have been composing pieces commissioned for Singapore Writers Festival and Tigers in Tampines (an art outreach program to the neighbour initiated by the National Arts Council).
As a debut album, Polymorphism presents the first snapshot of this match made with spoken word poetry and electronic sounds, which often conjures visceral images from Deborahʼs conscious poetics which are immersed in the progressive sonic realm crafted by Kiat.
Ataraxia
I am always interested in creating things that make me feel uncomfortable as it is usually a sign to myself that I am trying something new which is extremely important to me. This album explores ideas which were out of my comfort zone when they were created but as time went on, I’ve formed a relationship with each and every one of them with the different unique stories each one holds. They have become musical bookmarks in my life and it was satisfying to see each tune grow into it’s own space while many other tracks were left out for various reasons. As the name implies, this was my way of finding my own tranquility amongst the distress of life.
Along with the release, I produced a small run of limited prints with download codes as a homage to my love for physical record sleeve artwork.
The Inner Galaxy
Kiat is one of the founding members of Singapore-based music collective Syndicate and a pioneer of the drum & bass sound in South-East Asia. With more than 17 years of DJ-ing experience behind him, he certainly knows what makes people move. In extending his musical journey into production, Kiat delves even deeper into an exploration of sonic possibilities. His latest digital release, 'The Inner Galaxy', is anything but formulaic.
The Inner Galaxy is a cosmic voyage of sorts, traversing a spacious alien landscape of experimental electronica. The album melds experimental hip hop beats with dubby bass-lines and soulful vocals, featuring collaborations from all over the world - Isaac Aesili, Klose, Vandetta, Agzilla, Kemo and Digital (UK).
The album leads with the darker, mind-bending tracks. ‘Cat Scorpion’ nails the introduction before pushing into the metallic mood scape of ‘Syndicate’ and ‘Bounty. ‘Alchemy’ switches things up a little, featuring a deep groove cut up with an intricate beat – a divine collaboration with breakbeat pioneer Agzilla.
The dancier tracks surface later in the 13-track sequence. ‘Sunset Skank Over Jupiter’ surprises with its cheeky carnival sounds; and the rolling bass-line in ‘Sine Language’ is sure to please.
Photography: Afiq Omar
Review by Midnight Shift (Singapore/Berlin)
Leipzig EP
Barely three months after dropping his celebrated full-length album Ataraxia (read our track-by-track guide here), Singapore's godfather of drum & bass has dropped yet another document, this time in the form of a brand new five-track EP entitled Leipzig.
Released via respected German label Defrostatica, this new record sees the Syndicatechief in prime form with three refreshing and impeccably-produced D&B cuts. Opening number 'Brooklyn' is smooth and resolute while 'Procession' is a dubby and atmospheric beast that truly see Kiat playing to his strengths. On the backend, 'Slider' presents us with an eerie and muscular climax to Kiat's Saxony journey.
Kiat's exceptional Leipzig EP lands on German label Defrostatica by Bandwagon
The release comes with a poster featuring the artwork
Secret Galaxies (w Safuan Johari)
Secret Galaxies presents tracks composed by Safuan Johari and Kiat for multimedia installation and performance of the same name, which were showcased at the i Light Marina Bay Festival 2017.
Started out as a collaborative piece by the two producers together with media artist, Brandon Tay; Secret Galaxies was initially an audio-visual projection mapping piece presented on the façade of the ArtScience Museum. The five-minute long installation was then expanded into a 40-minute performance and this seven-track release is a product of that.
An exploration into the humanistic relationships with the night sky, visually the piece unveiled a confluence of imageries suggesting the roles that this celestial view plays in our psyche and everyday lives. The hard lines that separate science, faith, art and magic were blurred and the narrative is then chaptered into the seven planets.
Digital Render by Brandon Tay
Projection Mapping Video Link:
vimeo.com/213956508
Music of Zen Koi
Music of Zen Koi presents selected tracks composed and produced by Kiat for mobile game, Zen Koi and its recently released sequel, Zen Koi 2. This eight-track release casts a totally different light on Kiat as he fuses meditative rhythms and Eastern melodies to create a soundscape that enhances the soothing experience for the Zen Koi gameplay.
Download Zen Koi
App Store: apple.co/2GP8ox3
Google Play: bit.ly/2E5Q94q
Sleeve design by me featuring a painting by John Edmund Taylor, Under the Cocoa Nut Trees. The Bungalows. Tanjong Katong, Singapore. (1879)
Katong EP
This EP was written while I was homebound early this year with a leg injury. Sitting in the studio daily for weeks on end with a window to my right, I often wished I could step out for some fresh air to clear my head when I felt some anxiety or frustration from cabin fever. I think I did manage to escape through the the creation of the music.
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Phyla Digital is proud to bring to you one of the biggest releases we've put together to date. Presenting the Dubsmash EP from all-round drum and bass legend, Kiat. A leg injury in early 2016 forced Kiat's hand into making music to clear his headspace and rid himself of the anxiety and frustration from cabin fever. The results of those cathartic sessions are the four tracks in this release. 'Katong' switches things up with a gritty halftime rhythm. The dub influence is retained with swirling vocals deftly scattered throughout as sinister pads weave in and out of the sequence. 'Liberation' returns to what Kiat is best known for - no nonsense drum and bass. 'Dubsmash' is a collaboration with fellow Singaporean producer Diphasic. Heavily dub influenced, intricate percussion and a rumbling bass keep the tension rising from start to finish. This is accompanied by a breakbeat infused remix of 'Katong' from Diphasic to round off a sensational decade for Kiat.
“Dubsmash marks Kiat’s third record of 2016, and its absolutely brilliant ”
“From hallmark drum and bass labels like Metalheadz, Hospital, SoulR, Function and Dispatch to his own ventures with Qilin and Syndicate, amongst other multifaceted projects, Kiat is the hallmark of a visionary. Best of all, he’s Singaporean - just like us.”