Classically and jazz trained Metta Legita is well-known in Phnom Penh as a pianist and performer, but she is also a composer, and this Saturday will release a new single, Hop On Hop Off. What is particularly different about this new composition is that it was recorded by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra with an ensemble of 60 musicians. Metta sat down with LengPleng this week to talk about the new piece, how it developed, and the joy of music and self-discovery.
Looking through Metta’s YouTube channel over the past couple of years you’ll find a number of solo compositions, improvisations on Chick Corea songs, duos with flautist Jennifer Bird including selections from the Cikaracak EP. After all of that, Metta felt it was time to take some piano lessons. “I wanted to expand my technical piano skills, and to explore contemporary styles, so I started taking lessons online with Armenian jazz pianist Vardan Ovsepian, who is based in Los Angeles. He’s a great composer and pianist, and I have learned much from him, tools I can use for my own composition.
“He gave me a lot of drills, also techniques of writing, harmony, composing, and also a lot of inspiration to compose. So I started writing some pieces – and I could not stop! The new music arose out of the development of new techniques. What I really want is something that inspires me to play and compose in other colours; I am interested in finding myself through performing and composition, asking myself: what is my own colour?
“I recorded my solo piano piece Hampura, but I wondered who else I could find to play this new writing, what instrumentation I could find. Perhaps a jazz trio? I am always grateful to hear a song come to life with other instruments, not just piano. I did some work with Danny Healy on clarinet, but we never got to recording.”
Tell us about the new single. “It’s a very minimalist piece, using repetition, the floating motif. Interlocking rhythm and layering melody. I didn’t think much about it, it just came to me, through my fingers. The title, Hop On Hop Off, comes from the notes – it’s all built on three notes but it is quite complex, flowing and fluid. The perfect fourth and perfect fifth. I didn’t think about that when I first played it but the more I played it the more I knew about it. And then the interpretation: as humans we are always moving forward. You can hop on and hop off, but always keep moving.
“The Budapest Scoring Orchestra, with over a hundred film and TV credits, has established a reputation in the film scoring industry. I feel so grateful that this piece has made it to the final stage. Initially, I didn’t plan to have such a large ensemble, but I let it flow and followed the direction of the experiences I faced. I started with seven instrumental pieces, including violin, viola, cello, bass, bassoon, flute, and clarinet, and it took time to expand until it was played by an orchestra – 40 strings, 10 woodwinds, 9 brass instruments, plus me on the piano. I orchestrated this arrangement together with my Indonesian orchestrator, Ganggeng Yudhana. When I met the conductor and the orchestra on Zoom, I exclaimed, “Oh my God, thank you for bringing this song to life.”
Metta believes in using art to explore herself, with each piece building on the last. “Sometimes, when I compose something, I can forget it easily, but with this piece, I have a stronger connection. I don’t know if I can call it my masterpiece, but I feel I am going deeper into myself, getting closer to who I am. All the music I am writing now is about that. It’s just magic sometimes.”
After the release of Hop On Hop Off, what’s next? “I’d like to work more on collaborations, and I have another composition already written and arranged, which is quite different, set for release next year. I would love to release Hop On Hop Off on vinyl, with Hampura on the B-side.”
Hop On Hop Off will be released on Saturday 30 November on all digital streaming platforms, with artwork by Tegar Erripsaputra and music distributed by Demajors.
