Sape' Songstress Alena Murang Releases Latest Album Entitled Sky Songs
The album is produced as part of the Roads To Our Heritage (RTOH) project that features Alena Murang alongside Estranged and Stonebay, supported by KKMM through its Digital Content Fund 2020 and the Dayak Cultural Foundation Sarawak.
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Released Date: May 27, 2021
Since her debut album Flight in 2016, sape' songstress Alena Murang brings a new sound in her latest eight-track album entitled Sky Songs.
Inspired by the stories of her ancestors that lived in the skies and on Earth, the album is a journey of song through the cosmos; a song for the warriors that watch the mist rise on the morning of battle; a song of watching the clouds to tell of a good time to migrate; a song with lamentations of thunder and the moon.
Alena recently released two singles, Gitu’an and Meno’, which are from this album. In this album Sky Songs, there are two instrumentals, a song in Kenyah language, four in Kelabit language, and for the first time, a song in English. Kenyah and Kelabit are two out of many endangered languages in Malaysia.
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Speaking on the release of her latest album, Alena said, “The album is called Sky Songs because it is a representation of our ancestors and how sacred our lives on Earth are. There are stories of our great ancestors who used to live in the skies and traveled to earth through a waterfall. And now, when we look up to the skies and see graceful white clouds, or bright sparkly stars, or darkness, and it reminds us to stay grounded and live like a community with all living things as we depend on each other. Our ancestors had a special relationship with the universe, from the sun to the sky, the trees and all living things. They said that the sky was like a “big sunhat dome” and all earthly creation lay beneath. And because of that too, I chose to sing in Kenyah and Kelabit language because I want to keep them alive. Language represents a myriad of things you see in life – your people and the community, as well as your perception towards life and realities. Therefore, this album is my way of preserving our beautiful heritage in hope that it is still there for our children and the future generations to accept and appreciate.”
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