Masma Dream World is the project of Devi Mambouka. Combining electronics, field recordings, and Mambouka’s extraordinary voice, Masma Dream World’s music is inspired by the Hindu goddess Kali and channels the healing powers of the spirit world. Mambouka’s music draws from her heritage – her mother is Bengali and Cantonese from Singapore, and her father was from Gabon – and her skills as a producer, sound designer, and trauma-informed sound therapist. Her debut album as Masma Dream World, 'Play At Night', came out in 2020, following a self-titled cassette-released EP in 2017. Her new album PLEASE COME TO ME is a striking and viscerally powerful experience, and comes out from Valley Of Search this February. Devi Mambouka was kind enough to speak to OUTSIDELEFT about her extraordinary music. She starts the interview with a chant to invite good energy, and thanks all her teachers, including the Goddess. What followed was one of the most privileged and remarkable conversations I’ve ever had with an artist.
OUTSIDELEFT: Your new album as Masma Dream World, PLEASE COME TO ME, is coming out from Valley of Search on February 21st. It’s dedicated to Kali and the Dark Goddess. Can you tell us a bit about it?
MASMA DREAM WORLD: About the Goddess? Yes, so the Dark Goddess and Mother Kali are the same. So it's one being, one energy. Mother Kali has always been in my in my life. Growing up, I would watch my mom pray, just sitting right next to her. Because we're Hindus, on our altars, we'll have different gods and different energies. Every family has their own kind of deity that they pray to, and with the guide of a guru. And so my mom had Mother Kali, Lord Ganesh, Lord Shiva, and our family guru. I refer to Mother Kali as Ma, she has always been around. And I would sit there and look at the photos and just be like terrified, but also at the same time, curious. Because it was like this untamed form, and the fiercest representation of feminine energy, which was not necessarily displayed every day of my life. It was very patriarchal, and with my little brain as a kid, I didn't really kind of understand what that really was. Gabon is like a matriarchal kind of society in some ways, but the day to day isn't really that. It's like the man of the house is in charge. It's interesting also, you go to West Bengal and Kolkata, it's the city of The Goddess. But really, it's kind of more like a symbolism. So it's like she's kind of always be around. And I feel like she didn't come become real for me until I became like an adult. So I can really understand her energy.
When I was really fed up with the way my life was going, I was having just a hard time being in relationships. I had a mentor tell me, in order to move forward, you must investigate your relationship with your mom. If you have a good relationship with your mom, you can have a relationship with anyone, because that's the first relationship that you learn, in the womb. So I embarked into this journey of reconnecting with my mom, understanding her and why things happen the way they did. And I started to discover this rich side of her. Because I knew my father grew up in Gabon, but I didn't know much about what happened to my mum after World War Two in Singapore, and how my Bengali family fled India. Those stories were really interesting, but Mother Kali was really at the centre of it. Especially when mom would talk about her experience in Gabon, and how she was surviving there, because it was hostile. She was like, I just pray to Ma Kali. And in that journey, I was not only reconnecting with my mum, but I was like taking courses, and I was going to this retreat. I just wanted to be better, because I felt very, very sad. I felt deep depression, because of PTSD, because of my past. And I won't get too much into it. But at some point, all of the things I was doing weren’t working. I was still sad as hell, and I wanted to take my life. I had already written Play At Night. It was at the point in 2020 when we were all isolated. I was like, I'm done. I'm not gonna sign up for another course. And then, when I tried to leave this earth, Mother Kali basically told me, you can’t go. In the moment of the act of trying to kill myself, I blacked out, and I found myself back at home, even though I was on the way to the river. And I was so upset. I was like, why am I still here? How did I get home even? And that's when I felt this energy come through me, this like warm embrace that held me and I felt her for the first time. And ever since, I haven't felt like I needed to leave this plane.
And actually, in hindsight, years later, when I was reading about reincarnation and Hinduism, they're like, oh, if you commit suicide, you gotta come back here one more time. It's like the Twilight Zone, you'll come back and it's same loop. And I was like, Oh, Lord, I don't want to do this again! And I had no idea the second album was going to be like that. Because I never know what's going to happen in the album. Because you don't want to have your ego involved when it comes to making music. You can feel it when there's ego and like, ooh I'm making the song, you know what I'm saying? And the first thing that came out was, Ma, that's all I could sing. My little story I just told you, it revealed itself through each song. From the first song to the last song, it's like a whole entire journey. And I didn't even organize it. I remember listening to it after, I was like, yo guys, I thought, we're gonna keep it to ourselves! It did me dirty, now everybody knows!
OL: Your approach to making music is so original. Where does it come from?
MDW: My mum told me this story, when I was healing my relationship with my mum. Because how we did that actually was while traveling. Mother Kali, I'm sure, organized it, because, shortly after, I was able to have a green card, which allowed me to travel, and I was able to actually leave the country, and for the very first time, after a long time of being undocumented in this country. And we immediately went to Singapore, then we went back to Gabon, then we went to Malaysia. And she would tell me stories, because I would be like, Ma, tell me, how was it growing up? Tell me stories of dad. Because I barely remember him, because I was young. And she told me this one story that I absolutely love, and I think this will explain everything. My father was born in a village in Gabon to the Bahoumbou indigenous tribe, right next to Congo, and it's like dense tropical forest. I've been there. And if I could live there, I would live there. It's just so beautiful. And so, my grandmother would bring my dad to the to the river to wash him as a baby. One day, when she went, she was bathing him in the river. She looked to the other side, and then she saw a gorilla with a baby. It was also bathing the baby in the river, and at that moment they locked eyes, and there was this thing that was deeper than words. This magical moment. And I feel like this describes my process. It’s just one of those things that you cannot explain, but it just is.
OL: Your performances contain spiritual and ritual elements. What was it like bringing those to a secular music performance space?
MDW: I understand the question, and I understand it's a very Western psychology way of looking at things. It's from a Western lens that you're asking this. But if I went to Gabon and I performed, or if I went to any rural parts of Asia – well, you know, parts where you know my music could be okay – they will recognise what I'm doing, because there's not a difference with ritual and art. Spirits and stuff, that's just part of life. I never went to a concert growing up that was “just” music. Music has always been part of some sort of ritual or religion, that's how I grew up. And then I learned about that distinction of making art just to make art later on, watching pop music and stuff like this. But Art has always been a spiritual experience. I mean, I have spiritual experiences when I go to the club! So whether you call it spiritual or not, it's still the spiritual experience. And matter of fact, we, us, human beings. What are we? Is it not this experience of being in between worlds? When you go to sleep, that's like a whole other world that you're experiencing. Some people can call it spiritual or not, but it's just this other worldly experience when you're sleeping, looking at dreams. So we can but not be that.
OL: Okay, thank you. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. There’s going to be an album launch in in New York
MDW: Yeah. Thursday, February, 20, which is next week. Next Thursday is the album release. I'm super excited because I'll be joined by Nika and it's gonna be incredible. Nika is a project, it's beyond, like, I can't even describe it. It's a spiritual experience.
OL: I'm very sad I won't be able to make it. But my brother lives in New York, and I've told him that he has to go in my place, so he will be there. Do you have plans to do more tours across the country, and maybe even overseas?
MDW: Yeah, I'm going to be in LA the following week. Bringing the ceremony, the healing vibes. Being there for my family out there, because it's been a rough year for them. So I'm honoured that they even consider inviting me there. And then, yeah, we got some things in the works.
OL: Excellent. That sounds exciting!
MDW: And it's where Ma wants me to go, you know. So I'm just going wherever she tells me to go. I'm not really worried about it.
OL: And have you started work on the next album?
MDW: Oh, my God, do you see how long it takes me to write an album? I gotta go through some shit first!
That's totally fair! Thank you so much for speaking with me. 
