TWELVE GATES SHIERMEN：ORIGIN
Twelve Gates Shiermen (Chinese: 十二門) is a Malaysian contemporary music duo formed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The band operates under the creative collective MONNARROW and is known for blending music, visual arts, and storytelling. The duo aims to represent Southeast Asian artistry on the global stage through experimental and emotive works. They released their debut album, Fantashion , in April 2025.
Background
Formed as part of MONNARROW's vision to unify music and visual aesthetics, Twelve Gates SHIERMEN emerged as a platform for expressing identity, emotional nuance, and regional narratives. Their style features a fusion of pop, electronic, piano-driven arrangement and experimental sounds, often accompanied by impressionistic visual elements.
Artistic Style
Twelve Gates SHIERMEN is noted for their avant-garde approach to music production and presentation. Their works often incorporate visual storytelling through hand-drawn illustrations, fashion-forward styling, and abstract digital art, positioning them as multimedia artists rather than traditional musicians.
Music and Style
Twelve Gates SHIERMEN’s musical style is an avant-garde fusion of experimental pop, ambient electronica, and dreamlike soundscapes, with a strong emphasis on visual and emotional storytelling.
Their work often blends genres fluidly, prioritising atmosphere and mood over traditional structure, and is marked by the following elements:
1. Cinematic Sound Design
– Their music features layered synth textures, immersive ambient pads, and non-linear arrangements that resemble soundtracks more than pop songs. Many of their tracks emphasise emotion over traditional structure, using lush pads, reverb-heavy vocals, and field recordings to create immersive sonic environments. Their sound blends dream pop, synth-pop, ambient, and electronic music, often with shifting moods and textured layers.
2. Cinematic Approach
– Their music often feels like a soundtrack, evoking visuals and emotions with carefully constructed sonic narratives. Some songs build like scenes in a film, rather than follow standard verse-chorus formats.
3. Multilingual Lyrics
– They incorporate English, Mandarin, and occasionally regional dialects, using language as both a communicative and musical tool to convey themes of duality, identity, and introspection. Lyrics frequently move between Mandarin and English, adding a multicultural and poetic edge that reflects the group’s Southeast Asian roots.
4. Thematic Concept Albums
– Their debut album Fantashion (范特詩) is structured as a conceptual journey, with each track acting as a metaphorical “gate” exploring different emotional or psychological states (e.g. guilt in "SIN", isolation in "DARK", resilience in "REDWOOD"). Their music is inseparable from their visual aesthetic, which includes hand-drawn illustrations, surrealist digital art, and thematic stylisation (e.g: water, gate, masks). Each song is treated as part of a broader narrative universe, like chapters in a poetic film or graphic novel.
5. Minimalist and Impressionist Influences
– Melodic choices are sparse and deliberate, often evoking feelings more than clear-cut messages, similar to impressionist music. Visual art accompanying the music leans toward ethereal, surrealist illustrations and fashion editorial styling. Beats are often sparse, favouring pulse and texture over heavy rhythm, which gives space to vocal and instrumental subtleties.
6. Emphasis on Aestheticism
– Their songs are composed not just to be listened to but to be experienced alongside visuals. Music videos and visualisers incorporate digital art, hand-drawn sketches, and abstract storytelling.
7. Collaborative Vocal Textures
– Featuring artists like John Will and JR, their vocal arrangements range from whispered spoken-word passages to layered harmonies and emotionally intense deliveries.
8. Avant-Pop Structure
– Rather than relying on conventional verse-chorus forms, their tracks often evolve gradually, with shifting tempos, time signatures, and ambient transitions.
Vocals and Lyrics
- Vocals are typically breathy, introspective, and layered with effects—deliberately blurring the line between voice and instrument.
- Lyrics are abstract and metaphorical, touching on identity, disconnection, nature, dreams, and emotional duality
Debut Album: Fantashion
Fantashion was released on April 1, 2025, featuring twelve tracks that thematically explore personal identity, psychological states, and natural elements. The album title is a blend of "fantasy" and "fashion," reflecting its conceptual and visual ambitions.
Track Listing Highlights:
All tracks include collaborations with vocalists John Will and JR, who contribute to the album’s sonic variety.
- 杰｜OUTSTANDING
- 沝｜MORAINE
- 森｜DARK
- 四非｜SIN
- 红木｜REDWOOD
Online Presence
Twelve Gates SHIERMEN’s music and visual projects are distributed across multiple platforms:
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