In 1979 Malaysian drummer/percussionist Lewis Pragasam started the Asiabeat Project. It initially started-off as a percussion group… experimenting with various combinations of ethnic Asian instruments and rhythms. In 1980 Lewis organised a concert to officially launch the Asiabeat Project, which comprised an ensemble of over 60 musicians. This was an historical event for Malaysian music as it was the first time the different cultures were brought together under one roof to perform ‘live’. The concert was a huge success and billed as ‘Concert of the Year’ by all the media.

Read more about Asiabeat on Last.fm.