‘Sundatang revolution’: a Malaysian artist’s quest to revive the lost sound of Sabah

Artist Mcfeddy Simon has spent the last decade mastering the sundatang, a long-forgotten musical instrument from Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo, where the gentle, ethereal twang of the two-stringed lute is held in the memory of only the oldest villagers.

It was in 2016 in a rural village in Ranau, sitting on the spine of Sabah state’s famed Crocker Range in Malaysian Borneo, where a brief exchange with local youths on what they thought of the instrument sparked his mission.

“I asked why they did not want to play this instrument. They told me it only had six frets, and it was boring, and they might as well play the guitar,” Mcfeddy told This Week in Asia.

The outright dismissal of the instrument by the very people whose culture created it drew a strong reaction from Mcfeddy, better known by the nickname Gindung, that while lacking any formal meaning would usually just feel right by local villagers.

“Their reply left me quite disappointed, but it also lit the spark in me to push to revive this instrument,” he said.