Lak Lan Yon Yaeng ลักลั่นย้อนแย้ง
(ONGOING)
Lak Lan Yon Yaeng ลักลั่นย้อนแย้ง is a multimedia performance created by an award-winning Thai improviser Kengchakaj in collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Nitcha Tothong. The current band members of Lak Lan Yon Yaeng are Kengchakaj (piano/synth/electronics), Alfredo Colón (saxophones/EWI), Harish Raghavan (bass), Melissa Almaguer (taps), and Kobi Abcede (drums).
Through composition and improvisation, the performance creates a sonic dialogue between past and present, drawing on deep cultural lineages while addressing the layered complexities of Southeast Asia, Thailand in particular, and historical and personal experience. The collaboration between sound and visual elements creates an immersive exploration of identity, tradition, and the ongoing reverberations of political transformation in Southeast Asia.
This performance was featured in highly acclaimed jazz critic and writer Nate Chinen’s The Year in Gigs, a top 10 of his favorite live performances from 2025.
“[Kengchakaj]’s Lak Lan Yon Yaeng song cycle engages with historical memory and uneasy cultural epiphany...imparted a visceral immediacy
...the impression it left is worth celebrating”
Nate Chinen, author of Playing Changes: Jazz For the New Century
...the impression it left is worth celebrating”
Nate Chinen, author of Playing Changes: Jazz For the New Century
The composition from the Lak Lan Yon Yaeng book is ever-evolving and ever-expanding. The documentation below is the current program of this multimedia performance. The Lak Lan Yon Yaeng program runs 45 to 75 minutes.
01-Yon Yaeng ย้อนแย้ง
02-Lom Huan ลมหวน
Lom Huan means returning winds. A song dedicated to his mom's fight with dementia and her fading memories.
03-Gene Tok Mai Tao จีนตอกไม้เถา
A re-composition based on and extended from Gene Tok Mai จีนตอกไม้ by Sorn Silpabanleng and Kor Pai ensemble.
In traditional Thai music, it is common to base, extend, or recompose on a teacher’s composition.
04-For the master’s tool will not dismantle the master’s house
A piece inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay and those whose courage refuses to stay silent:
'My silences had not protected me; your silence will not protect you.’
05-Pieces to be mended
A piece written after witnessing how disastrously the Thai military government handled COVID-19, especially by raising the suicide rate due to economic stress, a preventable measure.
06-#whatshappeninginThailand
Inspired by an interview given by Sapphasiri Wiriyasiri, a sole Thai Journalist who went in and documented the Thammasat University massacre on October 6, 1976, despite the risk at his personal cost.
In his words, “I do not have any guns or weapons to protect the students. My only weapon is the truth that the public should know what is actually happening on that day.”
07-Lak Lan ลักลั่น
Lom Huan means returning winds. A song dedicated to his mom's fight with dementia and her fading memories.
03-Gene Tok Mai Tao จีนตอกไม้เถา
A re-composition based on and extended from Gene Tok Mai จีนตอกไม้ by Sorn Silpabanleng and Kor Pai ensemble.
In traditional Thai music, it is common to base, extend, or recompose on a teacher’s composition.
04-For the master’s tool will not dismantle the master’s house
A piece inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay and those whose courage refuses to stay silent:
'My silences had not protected me; your silence will not protect you.’
05-Pieces to be mended
A piece written after witnessing how disastrously the Thai military government handled COVID-19, especially by raising the suicide rate due to economic stress, a preventable measure.
06-#whatshappeninginThailand
Inspired by an interview given by Sapphasiri Wiriyasiri, a sole Thai Journalist who went in and documented the Thammasat University massacre on October 6, 1976, despite the risk at his personal cost.
In his words, “I do not have any guns or weapons to protect the students. My only weapon is the truth that the public should know what is actually happening on that day.”
07-Lak Lan ลักลั่น