Alec Goldfarb - Shadows (2025)

The traditions of shadow puppetry that give this album its name- Wayang Kulit, Nang Talung, Hnget pyaw pwe, and more- cast myth and memory in silhouette. Figures flicker against stretched cloth, half-revealed, half-revelation. In the same way, Shadows lets stories unfold in partial light- melodies as silhouettes, harmonies as lanterns, casting long echoes from stage to ear.

Its sound recalls instruments that once marked sacred time: gongs whose resonance outlived their makers, hushed laments once intoned for emperors and sultans, puppet masters animating stories of the divine with cloth and light. This music carries the weight of unspoken histories: migrations, rituals, empires, and dissolutions. It is not documentary, nor strictly homage. It is a living echo.

The compositions in Shadows follow sonic threads that crisscross Southeast Asia’s classical and folk traditions. Some appear plainly: a sindhen tracing high Javanese, rhythmic cycles drifting slowly before doubling, a rebab moving through pelog or slendro. Others emerge slowly, like a remembered tune with no name. Beneath the surface, older resonances linger- echoes of raga or maqam-like modality, shared rhythmic logics, aesthetics shaped by long histories of movement between subcontinent, peninsula, and, archipelago. These musical lineages are not static. They shift, stretch, and fold into one another. Over generations, they have adapted and endured, creating an aural history that is felt rather than archived—a history carried by breath, string, skin, and air.

This sequel to Fire Lapping at the Creek draws from experiences gathered over winters and monsoon season spent in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam between 2022 and 2023. Rather than documentation, the intention was immersion: sharing meals, learning phrases, attending ceremonies, and studying with local artists. Field recordings, informal lessons, and ambient moments all inform the compositional fabric—each sound a gesture of presence and attentiveness.

These are sounds shaped by movement, memory, and place. Shadows does not answer. It listens—and in listening, something unspoken takes shape.

Tracklist:
1-1 Alec Goldfarb;Steven Crammer - Reliquary / Quartet (feat. Steven Crammer) [1:26]
1-2 Alec Goldfarb;Gideon Forbes - Relics (feat. Gideon Forbes) [9:44]
1-3 Alec Goldfarb;Mat Muntz - Mask (feat. Mat Muntz) [2:01]
1-4 Alec Goldfarb;Rani - Lullaby (feat. Rani) [1:55]
1-5 Alec Goldfarb;Roni Driyastoto - Rebab Consort (feat. Roni Driyastoto) [5:43]
1-6 Alec Goldfarb;Daniel Hass - Crescent (feat. Daniel Hass) [2:44]
1-7 Alec Goldfarb;DoYeon Kim - Ghi-ta (feat. DoYeon Kim) [1:42]
1-8 Alec Goldfarb;Yustiawan Paradigma - Trancing (feat. Yustiawan Paradigma) [4:55]
1-9 Alec Goldfarb;Agnesia Nandasari Nuringtyas - Epilogue (feat. Agnesia Nandasari Nuringtyas) [1:09]