I recall a two-volume compilation of Indonesian garage, psychedelic rock and rock and roll that I found a few years ago on a record store in Amsterdam. The record sleeves looked funny, so I gave it a shot. It was called Java-Java Indonesia Screaming Fuzz, both volumes being released on a Portuguese label called Nosmoke. I came along to bands like Dara Puspita (a very popular girl-band in the ‘60s), Koes Bersaudara, The Peels, Los Indonesios (a Dutch Indorock band known in the ‘60s as The Black Dynamites, before changing it to the Spanish name Los Indonesios - The Indonesians), Panber’s, Koes Plus, Tielman Brothers (another Dutch East Indies ‘Dutch-Indo’ band) and many others, which played an essential role in the development of the Indonesian music scene, with a special interest in rock and fuzzy guitars.
And then there's this contemporary band who destroys all the music patterns which history discretely built them into your mind. In opposition, when I listen to the album ‘Menjabi’ - well, this music sounds like totally out of this world. For the past five years, the Indonesian experimental band Senyawa contributed in a deep manner to the contemporary music being made in Java nowadays; maybe not quantity, but quality wise (since the band has put out only two albums and a handful of EPs and collaborations, including a notable one with Charles Cohen).
Senyawa is Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi, two Indonesian musicians who formed the band in 2010 in Yogyakarta. The band's lyrics are in various languages of Indonesia, including Sulawesian, Javanese and Bahasa Indonesia. They mix influences from musical and folklore traditions from the Indonesian archipelago with experimental music and their neo-tribal sound has been described as a mixture of "punk attitude" with "avant-garde aesthetics". Members are connected to each other through a force that can be felt not only when you see them live, but also while playing a recording of them; a driving force that blends traditional and contemporary ideas.
After sharing the stage with Faust, Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine in 2011 at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Senyawa performed on a series of important music festivals, including Glatt und Verkert Festival in Austria (along side Japanese guitar master Kazuhisa Uchihashi), as well as the Malmo Sommarscen Festival in Sweden, Salihara Literature Festival in Jakarta, CTM Festival in Berlin, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Clandestino Festival in Norway and Oct Loft Jazz Festival in China.
The music of Senyawa breathes perfectly, with Wukir Suryadi disposing of modern-primitive instrumentation and Rully Shabara’s deft extended vocal techniques. The bambuwukir - instrument built by Suryadi - constitutes string and percussive characters, all in one instrument. The percussive organology looks like traditional instruments (such as Celempung or Lakado), and with the right amplification it can produce drum like sounds, while the strings could sound like siter, rebab, or kecapi. The head of this instrument resembles a bamboo spear, a symbol of the Indonesian struggle against the Dutch during colonization.
’Menjabi’ follows the 2014 debut album ’Akaraki’ (an album embedding a totally different music trajectory). It was just released on the brilliant Morphine Records, home of some of Morphosis’ early works, but also of interesting new projects like Metasplice, Container, Lack, Upperground Oerchestra (Rabih Beaini’s live project). Every piece of the 11 songs package is so intense, that once in a while one may need to take a break. Terrific vocals and disturbing - but delicate - falsetto get along with repetitive percussion and psychedelic string cuts, and - oh boy - what an energy each track unleashes!
For a better understanding of the band’s existence, check out the documentary out on Vincent Moon’s Petites Planètes in 2012, ‘Calling the New Gods’.
And to conclude, there’s no better invitation to listen than to cite journalist Mark Smith, who wrote in 2014, after attending at the first appearance of Senyawa in Berlin at Urban Spree:
‘’Within a couple of tracks it was apparent they’d be leaving an indelible mark on their audience. One minute Suryadi was coaxing thunder and lightning out of a chiselled branch while Shabara rode the storm with a banshee’s yowl. In an instant, the dynamic dropped to a whisper, and the music became an ornate melange of wooden textures and earthen tones. At one stage Shabara explained how a track was inspired by memories of his village being destroyed by a volcano. This made perfect sense: generally speaking, Senyawa operate on a force-of-nature level.’’
Tracklist:
A1. BalaA2. Gaib
A3. Hadirlah Suci
A4. Hidup Damai
B1. Bekal Ilmu
B2. Kayu
B3. Di Kala Sudah
B4. Menjadi Jadi
B5. Gugur