Malaysia's own avant garde and experimental music outfit, Space Gambus Experiment, has an exciting new album entitled First Steps Into Inner Space. RIZAL JOHAN unearths Rumi-influenced poetry coalesced with abstract and impressionistic soundscapes and Krautrock after speaking to its founder and creator Kamal Sabran.

Where does one go after making a self-titled debut which captures tantalising melodies from the gambus (lute) and the drones of the planet Jupiter among other musical things? Kamal, artist, poet, musician, filmmaker and sound art exponent, had already made a critically devastating impact in the art and music scene with the debut of Space Gambus Experiment (SGE) in 2009. The album featured cosmic radio waves he had recorded when he was the artist-in-residence for the National Space Agency in 2005.