“Indonesia” (Used 16 times)

The Senyawa Australian Odyssey is a 3 city tour of Australia by Indonesian musicians Wukir Suryadi and Rully Shabara—focusing on performing at all the premiere experimental music events and with the heavy weights of the experimental music local and international.

The tour start in Brisbane with shows in collaboration with Andrew Mclennan, Yasukai Akai and Joel Stern. They will go on to perform in Sydney at GRUB with the well respected noise/glass eater Lucas Abela then onto Melbourne to form a trio with instrument maker Rod Cooper.

The highlight of the tour will be their performance at OVERGROUND 'a festival within a festival' at the Melbourne Jazz Fest collaborating and performing along side legends such as drone master Tony Conrad, Charlemagne Palestine, German Kraut rock band FAUST and also a possible collaboration between Rully and Japanese drummer and vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins).

Senyawa were invited to tour Australia not only for their contemporary approach to traditional music styles but also for their unique ‘voice’ in the world of contemporary music today. A ‘voice’ that perfectly incorporates traditional Indonesian music styles and traditional instruments within a new and innovative framework.

BRISBANE
27 May The Mute Canary Project
29 May Bastard Theatre of Brisbane
1 June Spec Festival

SYDNEY
5 June GRUB with Lucas Abela
8 June Now Now Festival

MELBOURNE
10 June Stutter with Rod Rodney J Cooper
12 June OVERGROUND Festival as part of the Melbourne Jazz Festival 

Organiser: Kristi Monfries
Producer: Kate Ben Tovim
Supported by The Volcanic Winds Project, Australian Indonesia Institute and Asialink

This compilation was initiated by Marzuki Mohammad of Jogja Hip Hop Foundation and Adi Adriandi of Kongsi Jahat Collective in May 2010 as an archival project of recent top-underrated Yogyakarta artists. It is curated by Wok The Rock (Yes No Wave Music), Ajie Wartono (Warta Jazz) and Anton Kurniawan (A&R of Warner Music Indonesia). The 10 artists selected to create new song for the compilation are Jogja Hip Hop Foundation, Serigala Malam, Frau, Zoo, Dubyouth, Armada Racun, Risky Summerbee & The Honeythiefs, Individual Life and DOM 65.

This album was planned to be release at Yogyakarta City 254th anniversary but then postponed due to the Mount Merapi eruption. The album was released on November 19th, 2010. Three tracks I uploaded here are from Ki Jarot (Jogja Hip Hop Foundation), Zoo and DOM 65. Jogja Hip Hop Foundation is a hip hop community who infiltrate hip hop with javanese language and traditional music. For this compilation, Zoo collaborate with Wukir to record one of their future material turning their previous noisy sound to be more clean and complex. DOM 65 is the first streetpunk band in Indonesia who are transcending their punk root toward progressive/psychedelic rock.

Indonesia as an archipaelago country has a lots of traditional musics ranging from the wild-hard tempo, rhythmic-yet-trance to slowest-ambience tone of sound. There are some contemporary musicians who develop this music to the new form, a fusion. But usually they're come from people who has traditional art background or music academy education. But it's very rare for young people who grew up listening to popular music like pop, rock, or electronic to get into traditional music. It looks so old-fashion and not cool. So, it's very surprising if they play this un-trendy music and yet infuse it with the anger of punk attitude.

Rully Shabara is a frontman and vocalist of Zoo, a math-rock/experimental band based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In Zoo's latest trilogy album he develop the music direction with traditional music approach by using javanesse language and traditional instrument but still in the vein of punk music. Meanwhile, Wukir Suryadi devoted his life into traditional music even in his teen he also listening to rock and heavy metal (musical genre that very popular in Indonesia back in the '80s). He is best known when he create his own instrument named Bambuwukir by himself. This self-made instrument constructed from bamboo, reminds of the Sasando from Rote, an island part of the East Nusa Tenggara province of the Lesser Sunda Islands. A couple of distinct differences though between Wukir and Sasando music. Firstly, besides plucking the strings on the circular harp, he also bows the strings.

They were met when Wukir played at Yes No Klub gig -a monthly event organized by Yes No Wave Music and Performance Klub in Yogyakarta. Both were found the same interest and strong chemistry, then they start to rehearse a few times and think forward to record their works. The result is a 6 piece of powerful contemporary tribal songs entitled Senyawa and released it for free download at Yes No Wave Music, a netlabel from Indonesia. Different from Zoo, this collaboration more into traditional music feel. Since then, Wukir now join in Zoo and the band begin to write the new album for next year. It will bring the traditional music to young popular music scene in Indonesia and so the rest of the world. Enjoy.

You may know Arrington de Dionyso from his post-punk-freak-folk group Old Time Relijun, or from his trance-inducing solo experimentations with overtone-singing, shruti-box, jaw harp, and Kadri Gopalnath-inspired bass clarinet. He also teaches workshops on "Unleashing the Voice", and plays in the free-jazz quartet The Naked Future (ESP-Disk). His paintings offer a visual depiction of said future, where humans, animals, and angels live in naked, bestial harmony.

Malaikat Dan Singa (K Records, 2009) is an album that melds all of these influences and more: Arrington's unleashed vocals are sung entirely in Indonesian, with translations of William Blake and the Zohar finding their way into the mix. The album was produced by K Records/Dub Narcotic house engineer Karl Blau, who also plays bass and drums on the record.

Arrington de Dionyso brought Malaikat Dan Singa to life for a visit to Talk's Cheap on WFMU this past Tuesday, engineered by Dave Mambach. The lineup featured Arrington on vocals/guitar/bass clarinet, Nehemiah Saint-Danger on bass guitar and Ruben Sindo Acosta on drums. Old Time Relijun's drummer Germaine Baca was on-hand as well, studying up for the next leg of the tour. She's got an extra leg up because the first song of the live session, "Kedalman Air," is a reworking of an Old Time Relijun song "Cold Water" <-- be sure to check out the amazing live version from WFMU's Free Music Series concert @ Southpaw, 10/13/2007!

Speaking of Old Time Relijun, they're playing a surprise show at NYC's Cake Shop this Saturday 5/22. Malaikat Dan Singa plays Brooklyn's Death By Audio tonight, then they're off to AS220 and beyond for this tour which Arrington promises will be "never-ending" (see here for tourdates).

So what compelled Arrington to start writing music and lyrics in Bahasa Indonesia, let alone to learn the language in the first place? (read more...)

Let me preface this post by saying that I am neither a fan of syrupy, melancholic pop ballads nor am I a fan of rave-era house/jungle.

Why is it that I can't stop listening when the two are combined??

Check out TerbujurKaku and embrace what sounds like Aqua singing in another language, sped-up, cut-up, glitched-up, and set to some heavy dancefloor beats. It's a good thing that most of TerbujuKaku's breakcore jams clock in at under 2 minutes, because your head might very well explode after the 3 minute mark.

These bass-heavy, epileptic sounds come from an Indonesian artist named Phleg, via the Yes No Wave netlabel, which is also based in Indonesia. Check out the label's site for more awesome South Asian sounds!