The traditional Sape, a carved wooden lute from Malaysian Borneo, has deep cultural roots. Historically, its creation and playing were guided by spirits, making it central to village ceremonies and storytelling.

Among the stories Sarawak instrument craftsman Salomon Gau inherited from his elders is one that begins not with wood or strings but with spirits. He recalled being told how spirits first showed villagers how the earliest forms of the sape – a traditional carved wooden lute from Malaysian Borneo – should be made and played, at a time when the instrument was central to ceremonies, storytelling and social life. “The first one was the two-string version. The four-string one is already quite new,...