ANN/THE STAR – When thinking about producing popular musical anthems, Khairafik Khairudin from the.koncept.lab immediate comes to mind. Over the past years, a music producer known as Rafik hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has collaborated with Malaysian stars such as Anuar Zain, Adeep Nahar, Altimet, Mimify, and Ayda Jebat just to name a few.

Rafik has also composed scores for films like Eva – Take me as I am in 2022 and Bisikan.

Recently, Rafik and a former radio DJ, voiceover talent and wife Dilly unveiled their newly renovated music studio at their family home in Damansara, Petaling Jaya. The studio, adorned with custom-built furniture and fixtures by Rafik, represents their long-held dream to create the perfect working space.

“A studio that is uniquely ours,” shares Dilly.

The 3.65-metre by 8.22-metre music studio boasts a separate lounge area, a small gallery featuring some of Rafik’s Transformers and Star Wars collection, a control room and a vocal room-cum-office.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

What’s striking about the studio is the cosy yet functional atmosphere, which touts a keen attention to detail. Each area has been measured and calculated by Rafik to ensure the best use of space that allows guests to enjoy its features.

Take the main area, for example, where a comfy sofa greets guests as they enter through the main door. A one-way window gives those inside a clear view of the outside and another glass partition separates Dilly’s office area with the main lounge.

A practical coffee corner with a floating high table below the one-way window lets guests enjoy a cup of coffee during meetings.

“We were getting more work especially after we got married in 2019. And he was always saying what if we had this or did that so I said why don’t we just do it,” said Dilly.

“We wanted a certain look for the studio where everything is thought through even down to the trash bin. Every piece has to look like it was part of the aesthetics. We like the industrial look but we wanted something that felt warm and cosy.

“As a voice over talent it took a bit of time getting used to working with him. Because of the fact that when I go to other studios to record, they usually have a studio booth that I go to in a separate room which is soundproof. It’s not as intimate as this. So I’ve come to appreciate doing my voice over work without having any barriers.

“When we discussed expanding the studio I asked for my own office, a space to call my own. In the previous studio I didn’t have one. So if I brought my laptop there wouldn’t be a comfortable place to do work.

“But now I have my own office space where I can do most of my work comfortably – my very own lady lair,” said Dilly.

MAKING IT FUNCTIONAL

During a block party near their home, the couple met Simon Grote of Grote Builders who eventually became their studio builder. The wall demolition, structural walls, and ceilings were done within a couple of weeks.

“Once that was done, it took us three months to set up the studio,” said Dilly.

“The finishing touches were pretty much DIY. We used whatever we had from the previous studio and the rest of it we shopped around from Shopee, Mr DIY, Ace Hardware and Ikea.”

Due to space and costs constraints, they opted for drywall insulated with rockwool.

“This was a more practical method and was easier to build. Rockwool is a mineral fibre often used for sound proofing. In fact some of the acoustic panels in the studio also have rockwool,” said Rafik, who hand-built the acoustic panels among others.

Having worked with other studios and even helped build some throughout his career, Rafik had insights into what was needed to create a professional music studio.

“I may be marked by others for saying this but equipment doesn’t matter. What matters is your skill and how you set it up,” said Rafik.

“You can have similar results with a MYR10,000 studio as someone who builds a MYR100,000 studio. It depends on how you do it. You can have a mid-tier microphone, audio interface and computer workstation which allows you to have the same results as other big studios.

“To me, acoustics is much more important than sound proofing. It’s two different things that not many people know about. The foam you see here is not soundproof, but they are acoustic treatment to avoid too much echo and to have some dry environment to record your vocals. The walls are supposed to be soundproof,” he added.

According to Dilly, the toughest part of creating the studio is the wooden panel in the control area.

“It’s an aesthetic feature of the space of course. It has a wow factor so when you come in, it’s the first thing you see. And also since it’s made from wood, it acts as an acoustic treatment as well,” she said.

“It also acts as a rear wall diffuser, when the speakers from the front of the control room emits sound it will be travelling to the back of the wall and the back of the wall is one of the most important aspects of any recording studio where you need absorption and some diffusion to have a more natural sounding environment for the audio engineer, which is me,” added Rafik.

“When I’m in the centre of the control room, I’m just listening to the speakers and not to the room.The design of the studio is practical for us and is just nice for everything with how the acoustic works.

“It is a really good environment to record vocals and music in as this is a fully functional professional studio. The basics are the same regardless of how big or small the space is. The only difference is that the location is at a home,” added Rafik.

SAINT-DENIS (AP) – The Paris Olympics are getting into the groove for the historic opening ceremony on the River Seine.

Dancers who’ll jazz up the July 26 show under the artistic direction of prize-winning French theater director Thomas Jolly are putting finishing touches on a high-octane performance that will combine urban, contemporary, classic, and break dancing, complete with stomps, shouts, and body rolls.

The Associated Press got a behind-the-scenes look of one of their rehearsals, providing an advance peek into preparations for the opening show that is largely shrouded in secrecy.

Dance director Maud Le Pladec instructed around 50 dancers on their twists and turns at a warehouse in the northern Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis. She spoke with pride of the rich cultural mix of her melting-pot troupe, declaring: “It represents the part of France I love”.

“We’re in France but we’re talking to the whole world,” she said, “which means we have different identities, bodies, ages.”

The grandiose open-air ceremony will be held during sunset and is expected to last nearly four hours, transforming the heart of Paris and its iconic landmarks into a giant stage for Jolly’s artistic talents but also requiring a massive security effort.

“An opening ceremony has never been held outside of a stadium. There is no model, it’s absolute creation,” Jolly said in an interview published on Tuesday by Le Parisien newspaper.

Detailing how he’s had to revisit some of his ideas to fit the urban environment, Jolly said he’d imagined having a giant ballet with 200 dancers on one of the bridges that span the Seine but, after a study was done, “we were told that everyone doing the same step at the same time would endanger the bridge’s solidity”.

He also said: “I wanted to build an upside-down Eiffel Tower. I thought it would be pretty for lighting the Olympic flame. But it wasn’t doable.”

The initial overall concept for the ceremony has had to be adapted “so that the dream and the reality meet,” he added.

For security services, the unprecedented decision to parade thousands of Olympians on boats along a six-kilometre (km) stretch of the Seine, from Pont d’Austerlitz to Pont d’Iéna, in front of a 320,000-strong crowd is a huge challenge. About 45,000 security force members will be deployed and the airspace and all airports within a 150-km radius around Paris will be closed for the extravaganza.

Tickets will be free for about 220,000 invited and security-screened spectators watching from upper tiers of the river’s banks.

About 100,000 paying spectators, including lavish hospitality packages, will watch from the lower riverside and around the Trocadéro plaza – where the parade will end looking across to the Eiffel Tower.

Organisers hope the show will leave an indelible imprint on the massive global television audience and demonstrate French can-do and say it will aim to showcase France’s heritage, history and creativity.

“It was, of course, a very audacious decision not to go into a stadium but into the city. It will mark the history of our country for quite a long time,” said Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris Games organizing committee, who attended the dance rehearsal.

Organisers said a total of 3,000 dancers will feature in the opening and closing ceremonies for the July 26 to August 11 Olympics and the Paralympics that follow from August 28 to September 8.

Dancer Sharlyne Say, 22, described the prospect of performing on a global stage as a “dream come true”.

“It will be crazy,” she added, “because I’m not used to dancing outside.”

ANN/THE STAR – Malaysian comic book enthusiasts will rejoice with the thrilling return of Major Zombie.

If you’re unfamiliar, Major Zombie is an original superhero character created by Malaysian comic artist Julian ‘Lefty’ Kam in 2003 for the debut issue of the now-defunct but once-popular Gilamon Magazine.

In the story, Major Zombie was initially a beloved superhero named Superium, who contracted a zombie virus while rescuing a girl named Kaktus from a villain called Zombie King. Although the virus killed him, Superium’s superhuman antibodies revived him as a half-zombie, half-superhero.

Believed dead by the world and now disfigured with only a fraction of his original powers, he adopts the identity of Major Zombie, a C-list superhero who tackles missions other heroes avoid. His super-antibodies also created an intelligent maggot named Mikey, who, along with his maggot army, fights the zombie virus within Major Zombie’s body.

In a twist of fate, Kaktus, the girl Superium saved before he died, grew up to become highly skilled in martial arts and firearms. She serves as Major Zombie’s sidekick and views him as a mentor and father figure.

The Major Zombie series later spawned two graphic novels, 2011’s Love And Loss and The Blood Trail, which won Lefty the Best Comics Series and Best Independent Comics awards at the 2012 Malaysian Comics Society (PeKOMIK).

After that, however, Major Zombie appearances have been few and far between, which was why it was a thrill to hear Lefty announce in the run up to Comic Fiesta in December 2022 that he was resurrecting Major Zombie with a brand new series called Major Zombie: Mark Of Blood.

At the time, he even released a free comic called Major Zombie: Unearthed to refresh peoples’ minds about the character.

According to Lefty, the idea for Mark Of Blood has been knocking around his head for a couple of years. Then in 2021, fellow Gilamon founder Michael Chuah mooted the idea of publishing an anthology in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the first ever Gilamon Magazine #0, which fell on August 2023.

“Michael had the idea of doing an anthology of reprints, and I got the idea for writing a new short story for Major Zombie. It was only supposed to be a four-page story, but I added more and more story to it, and in the end I had enough material for an 80-page blockbuster!” he said, laughing.

According to him, Mark Of Blood serves as a prequel of sorts for that 80-page blockbuster, if he ever gets around to producing it. It is a 48-page comic that has been divided into two books, Book 1 of which was recently released at the Singapore Comic and Games Festival in December 2023. Lefty hopes to finish and release Book 2 by “middle of 2024”.

Mark Of Blood sees Major Zombie returning alongside his teammate, Kaktus, for a new mission. However, what was initially a simple task takes a darker turn when they find themselves up against the sorceress Deadwalker, who possesses the power to control the zombies under her spell. “This story is interesting because we get to see Major Zombie become a real zombie for the first time!” Lefty says excitedly. “This story is also actually quite crucial, because it is about the transformation of Kaktus, where she has to face her personal demons to use the power she inherited. Book 2 will talk about how the power came to her.”

TO THE LEFT(Y)

Born in 1969, Lefty is a veteran Malaysian comics artist who has worked at major publications such as MOY Publications, Gempak Starz and Storm Lion in Singapore.

In 2003, he formed Gilamon Studios with fellow Gempak Starz artists Chuah and Chin Sau Lim, having grown frustrated at doing more administrative work than creative work during their time at Gempak Starz.

With fellow comic artist Tan Eng Huat in tow, they formed an independent comic collective that enabled them to come up with darker and more mature content than they could in mainstream Malaysian comic companies. Kind of like an Image Comics for Malaysian creators, but without the baggage.

Gilamon released its first publication, Gilamon Magazine #0, in August 2003, which featured the first appearances of Major Zombie, Cyber Merkaba by Chin, and the Collector by Chuah.

Lefty later left the country in 2017 for a stint in China’s Left Pocket Studios alongside Tan, returning to Penang in late 2018 to help set up a branch for the company there.

Lefty left Pocket Studios in 2019, then started to focus on his own art projects. These included exploring the culture, history and traditions of Penang through his Sama-Sama: A Multi-Cultural Art Journey exhibition, which is a series based on childhood experiences and places; as well as contributing to Dr Kuah Li Feng’s I Am Home series, and more. – Michael Cheang

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesian gymnast Rifda Irfanaluthfi’s palms are covered in chalk as she swings between two uneven bars during intensive training just weeks before she makes history at the Paris Olympics.

The 24-year-old is the first Indonesian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, let alone the first woman, and her mind is set on reaching Paris fully fit so she can etch her name into gymnastics legend at home.

“There is a feeling of excitement. I hope that by qualifying for the Olympics, the world will get to know Indonesia better,” she told AFP after training in the capital Jakarta.

“I am also feeling worried because of injuries, it made me have insomnia for the last five days.”

Her feat is even more impressive considering Indonesia does not yet have a national training centre for gymnastics and that conservative Indonesian society, including its top sports, remains dominated by men.

The archipelago’s enthusiasm is largely focused on football and badminton, the latter the only sport in which it has won Olympic gold.

So talent alone was not enough for Rifda to make it as a gymnast. A level of dedication to overcome a series of hurdles, including a lack of support, was also required.

“I continue to practise, and I prove that with limited facilities I can be a successful athlete,” she said.

“People still underestimated us.”

Rifda’s family had struggled to find a school that would recognise and support something unknown to them such as gymnastics.

Her luck changed when she was admitted to an athletes’ school in Jakarta that took her one step closer to her Olympic dream.

Rifda started swimming as a child before trying her hand at diving, sport climbing, rhythmic gymnastics and artistic gymnastics.

Her mother Yulies Andriana said Rifda attracted attention as a talented gymnast and won her first medal at a junior championship in Singapore as an eight-year-old.

Rifda qualified for the July 26-August 11 Olympics at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Belgium last year, with an all-round performance on the vault, floor, uneven bars and balance beam.

“Her desire to be a champion is amazing,” her mum Yulies said.

Rifda hopes her Olympic exploits can inspire other young Indonesians to follow their dreams, competing against gymnastic juggernauts such as the United States and nations from the former Soviet Union.

“Maybe athletes of my age who have never qualified for the Olympics will become passionate to dream higher,” she said.

The sport is set to grow in Indonesia after it was handed the hosting rights to the World Gymnastics Championships for the first time in 2025, although it still has a long way to go.

“Gymnastics needs to be improved comprehensively,” Indonesian National Olympic Committee Chief Raja Sapta Oktohari told AFP.

But he said “the opportunity for women is pretty big” now as the sport gains more attention.

Indonesia’s Olympic medal tally is slight but has been influenced by women who came before Rifda.

Its first medal was a silver at Seoul 1988 by a team of female archers, and two of its eight badminton golds were won by a female shuttler at Barcelona 1992 and a women’s doubles pair at Tokyo 2020.

Indonesia’s new gymnastics queen hopes to join that special list, but she still needs therapy for her injured knee.

She wants to recover in time to perform well in Paris despite that setback, make the history books and then return home for a well-deserved sweet treat. “Ice cream, strawberry flavour,” she said with a smile.

AP – The strong El Nino weather condition that added a bit of extra heat to already record warm global temperatures is gone. It’s cool flip side La Nina is likely to breeze in just in time for peak Atlantic hurricane season, federal meteorologists said.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) pronounced dead the El Nino that warms parts of the central Pacific. The El Nino, while not quite a record breaker in strength, formed a year ago has been blamed, along with human-caused climate change and overall ocean warmth, for a wild 12 months of heat waves and extreme weather.

The world is now in a neutral condition when it comes to the important natural El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which warps weather systems worldwide. Neutral is when weather gets closer to long-term averages or normal, something that hasn’t happened as much recently as it used to, said NOAA physical scientist Michelle L’Heureux, who is the lead forecaster of the agency’s ENSO team. But it likely won’t last, she added.

She said there’s a 65 per cent chance that a La Nina, a cooling of the same parts of the Pacific that often has opposite effects, will form in the July, August and September time period. One of the biggest effects of La Nina is that it tends to make Atlantic hurricane season more active, and that storm season starts its peak in August.

“The likelihood of a La Nina coupled with record warm sea surface temperatures is the reason the National Hurricane Center is forecasting an extraordinary hurricane season,” said North Carolina’s state climatologist Kathie Dello. “States from Texas to Maine are making preparations for an active year”.

Both El Nino and La Nina create “potential hot spots” for extreme weather but in different places and of different types, L’Heureux said.

“La Nina tends to, in the winter, bring drier conditions across the southern tier of the United States (US) and if you put global warming on top of that, that could also mean those drier conditions could intensify into droughts,” L’Heureux said.

That’s because storm systems, mostly in the winter, move slightly northward with a shift in the jet stream during La Nina years, bringing more rain and snow north, L’Heureux said.

Even though a La Nina tends to be cooler, there will likely be a residual effect of the exiting El Nino on global temperatures, L’Heureux said. This year has seen each month breaking global records so far.

No more than eight per cent of last year’s record heat could be attributed to El Nino and other natural variability, a panel of 57 scientists concluded earlier this month. The rest was from human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

A 1999 economic study found that drought from La Nina cost the US agriculture between USD2.2 billion to USD6.5 billion, which is far more than the USD1.5 billion cost of El Nino. A neutral ENSO is best for agriculture. Given La Nina’s connection to Atlantic hurricanes and drought in the US it makes sense that they are generally costlier, but every El Nino and La Nina is different, so people and governments should prepare for them, said meteorologist and economist Michael Ferrari, chief scientific officer of AlphaGeo, a firm that works on financial investments and climate.

The El Nino that just ended “wasn’t a record-breaker in anybody’s book, but it was probably about top five”, L’Heureux said.

And it added to overall global temperature and brought more moisture to the southern US this year, along with drier conditions in parts of South America and Central America, she said. The Horn of Africa got wetter.

Coral reef experts said the combination of record ocean temperatures and the boost of heating from El Nino have led to a major global bleaching event threatening and at times killing vulnerable coral.

Before this year’s El Nino, the world had back-to-back-to-back La Ninas, which is unusual, L’Heureux said. – Seth Borenstein