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Free download: Nadia Reid, Cee & Fook – ‘Withdraw’

• 3rd Jun 2016

Christian Schwanz (AKA Cee) runs The Dusun, a stunning jungle resort in Kuala Lumpur. But instead of using it as a tourist trap, he gives it over to musicians from around the world to use as an oasis of creativity. This January, he invited 13 artists from to participate in an event called SoundLab Asia Pacific 2016.

The artists – representing seven different southeast Asian countries, as well as New Zealand, Australia and Germany – took over the resort for ten days and made music together. We’re extremely pleased to sharing an exclusive download of a track by Nadia Reid, Cee and & Fook call ‘Withdraw’ below – find out more about the project in a chatt with Schwanz here:

So what is the story behind Withdraw?

Having Nadia Reid at the SoundLab was super special and even though I wasn’t sure how, I really wanted to write a song with her. We sat down next to the pool and she started playing these guitar chords and I started this super minimal beat just to get her groove a bit. I also played around with a field recording I did right there. Nadia was deep in the lyrics already. The next morning we did our first recording. We wanted to catch the sound of day time birds. The first take was a gem. One gecko just totally destroyed the vibe and we did one more take, a day after. It was also interesting that Nadia needed to play the guitar while singing. I had a little bit of vocals on the guitar track and the guitar sound on her vocal track, but I made the overdubbing issue my tool to create the sound of the track. The actual guitar track ended up morphing into the reverb and delay room that I created. Only at the end you can hear how the song sounded when it was “pure”. The outcome gives me goosebumps.

What would you call this? I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard a song that brings together so many genres in a very understated way.

Dub folk hahaha… I think King Midas Sound & Fennesz create this feel for me too. I loved the freedom I had while working on the song. The fact that Nadia loves it the way it turned out also makes me happy.

The Dusun is currently and internationally know as “the studio in the jungle” – can you see it functioning as such long term?

The little resort is a family business and our home. The family supports my music activities. The “jungle studio” definitely has a bright future and I would love to be able to create more of these types of residency programs at the Dusun. One, or two, artists at a time. Let’s see how this pans out.

Photo credit: Lisanne Schultz
www.lisanneschulze.com