Barbie Almalbis, Clara Benin, other OPM acts to join Munimuni concert

MANILA, Philippines — Singer-songwriters Barbie Almalbis, Clara Benin, Keiko Necesario, and Sofia Abrogar of Any Name’s Okay are set to share the stage with indie-folk collective Munimuni for their forthcoming concert on July 20 at the UP Theater in Quezon City.

Dubbed “Alegorya: A Munimuni Concert,” presented by GNN Entertainment Production and Munimuni, the music event is tied up with their album of the same name. The record includes 12 tracks, such as, Alegorya, Paraiso, Kapayapaan, to name a few.

The band members are Adj Jiao (guitar, vocals), John Owen Castro (flute, vocals), Jolo Ferrer (bass), Josh Tumaliuan (drums), and Ben Ayes (guitar).

“The album, basically, is a bit metaphorical. It is based on Plato’s philosophical work,” Adj explained at a mediacon ahead of their concert. “It’s an illustration about real things as compared to the things that you see on the surface. So it’s like a deep understanding (of looking at things).

“And the concert is one expression of that — in a way. So (it’s) another way to express the concept behind the album. And hopefully, the people who will attend the concert will dig deep and think deeply about themselves and the society.”

The quintet teased that they will perform songs from their latest album and some old favorites.

Adj stated, “We do gigs but for our concert we really wanted to make something that’s very conceptual. I will try not to spoil the experience, but we thought of one big thing, one big experience, for the audience to immerse through different ranges of experiences.

“We’re collaborating also with other artists, chamber ensemble, and we weaved a lineup to make sure na nararamdaman nung audience na moving from one part to the next na seamless, super chill lang sila (and) they will be with us through every part of the concert.”

John noted that in their past gigs, they’ve been playing the compilation of their songs but in their upcoming show, they made an entirely different narrative for it.

“The audience will be immersed, which we don’t usually do in our normal gigs… It’s not intentional in that sense. But we have become more intentional in coming up with the set that we will be playing.”

Munimuni is delighted to be collaborating with the local music artists whom they’ve also considered as their friends in the music scene. For one, Barbie is part of their “Alegorya” album for the ditty Tupa.

“We’ve been friends with Ate Barbie (ever since). We saw it as a good opportunity to collaborate with her. Clara Benin is our long-time friend in the music scene and we’ve collaborated with her in one of the tracks in our previous, full-length album. So it makes sense for us to invite them,” explained John.

“They are also celebrating with us with the release of our album.”

“The same is true with Keiko and Sophia,” added Adj. “We didn’t have a previous collab but we’ve been seeing them in gigs. Basically, they are our batchmates in the context of the music scene so we’re glad to have them.”

Barbie has been a great influence to some members of the band as well.

“It wasn’t an explicit advice that I got from her but grabe yung pagiging playful niya (Barbie) with music,” Adj told The STAR. “We went to her house, parang nilaro-laro lang namin yung song dun sa living room nila and then we recorded it when we had the time. You will see her passion in her craft na hindi lang siya like we need to finish this. We have the freedom to experiment and explore our sounds.”

John shared that it was because of Barbie that he bought music gear. “So I bought a pedal because of her. She also taught me how to use it. It’s like newfound joy in music. I’m classically trained so the gear stuff is like a new world (to me). She converted me. And it’s fun. When I told her about it, she was happy.”

Munimuni was formed in UP around 2012 to 2013. They were orgmates back in the university. They earlier staged their Kulayan Natin gig at Cine Adarna, UP Film Center in 2019.

(Tickets for the concert are available via bit.ly/alegorya).