This Malaysia Day, one of Malaysia’s largest financial services provider, CIMB Bank, decided to pay tribute to the country’s rich diversity through a combination of musical artistry and the latest digital technologies. Together with Geometry Malaysia, they created a nationwide musical project that invited the citizens to send them their images, which were then transformed into melodies using state-of-the-art facial recognition. The resulting sounds were then weaved into a full symphony and performed by an equally impressing, and unique, orchestra.

The Sound of a Nation campaign comes in a form of a dedicated microsite that shows the diversity and unity of the country. By turning the biological “signature” of Malaysians and turning them into a musical opus, the multi-award-winning pivotal experience agency aims to characterise the daily life in the diverse nation.

Geometry Malaysia approached the symphony in an unusual way wanting to demonstrate how Malaysians of different ethnicities could merge together as diverse melodies to form a single, harmonious piece of music; thus paying tribute to unity.

To achieve their goal, the agency—that inspires people to buy well—turned to facial recognition technology. Their Interface Development Team Lead, Chinling Yeo, explains in the Making Of video (which you can watch at the end of the article): “Facial recognition can identify over 27 points that make a person’s face unique. We developed an algorithm that collects the most prominent points into three key zones. We put these points into a musical transcript. This gives an individual his or her unique melody.”

The two companies selected a wide range of talents the country has to offer and united its leading musicians to deliver such an unlikely piece and convey this message of unity on the popular Malaysia Day.

They turned to cultural expert Sean Ghazi to create the symbolic piece of music, together with head composer Aubrey Suwito – who composed the final symphony and recorded it with a host of leading Malaysian musicians. Aubrey Suwito, Musical Director of Sound of a Nation and accomplished Malaysian composer, musician, and producer, expressed his passion for the piece: “My job is to work with these fine excellent musicians to take these melodies and put them together into a meaningful, beautiful piece of music. A reflection of the unity that defines Malaysia. A unity that we see every day in our daily lives.”

The full-scale orchestra was expanded to feature musical instruments that bear traditional or sentimental significance to the Malaysian people, including a variety of ethnic flutes and drums as well as the electric rock guitar. So, the final piece showcases a wide array of instruments, while even the percussion and drum patterns were produced from the participants’ data.

The orchestral performance was filmed and is now available online. It was unveiled on Malaysia Day weekend and gathered more than 1.7 million in total achieved views in just two weeks. You can visit a dedicated microsite at soundofanation.cimb.com to learn more about the campaign. And then let us know if you’d like your own features made into a beautiful symphony.

Furthermore, if you are interested in Malaysian identity some more, you should definitely check the other parts of the campaign, which include a ‘Making Of’ and another short advert titled ‘A New Day’, which invited people to join the campaign and provide their pictures for the symphony.

Michael Fillon, the Executive Creative Director of Geometry Malaysia, who stands behind the project, puts the feeling of unity in a global perspective: “If you ask anyone from outside the country, “What does a Malaysian look like?”, you’d be hard pressed for an answer. That’s because the country is so ethnically and culturally rich, that its identity cannot be condensed into a single description. Growing up in such an environment has given Malaysians a strong sense of tolerance towards different cultures, religions and family values. But the one thing all Malaysians hold in common is the desire to move their country forward, and to do it together as one people. The sound of a Nation is a musical tribute to this solidarity.”

Moreover, Fillon believes that CIMB’s Sound of a Nation campaign managed to strike a chord with the people: “While this Malaysia f was unsurprisingly filled with brand communication all focusing on togetherness, it was CIMB that showed how Malaysians can create something amazing together—translated into music, the things that make Malaysians different from one another are also the things that make the country’s unity both beautiful and powerful.” Just take a look at the ‘Making Of’ below to learn more about the details of how the symphony was put together!

Credits:

Project: Sound of a Nation

Client: CIMB Bank

Agency: Geometry Malaysia