Sunday May 10, 2009
Startling mix
MUSIC, MYTHS and LEGENDS
By MARTIN VENGADESAN
A former president’s son was behind an astonishing album of Western rock excesses and traditional Indonesian music.
LAST month saw the long-drawn-out Indonesian general election unfold with current president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s party emerging as a key player. The inevitable months of politicking that have already (and will continue to) beset the region’s largest democracy have set my mind back to the post-World War II era when Indonesia’s first president Sukarno (also spelt Soekarno) inspired a generation of young nationalists here in Malaysia.
A couple of years ago, however, I stumbled on a rather unlikely legacy of Sukarno – the music made by his son Guruh Sukarnoputra. For in the most unlikely of circumstances Guruh put together an amazing album that managed to bridge some of the more creative excesses of Western rock music and the diverse traditional music of his native land.
Of course, nowadays Indonesian rock music tends to mean a string of similar-sounding pop-rock bands like Dewa 19, Peterpan and Sheila on 7, while there are other talents ranging from violinist Idris Sardi to pop singer Anggun, from spicy dangdut queen Inul Daratista to more traditional practitioners.
Still, Indonesian popular music has a long history with some wonderful songs like Gesang Martohartono’s Bengawan Solo and the controversial Genjer Genjer. The latter song was penned by Muhammad Arief in the early 1950s and popularised by singers Bing Slamet and Lilis Suryani (in separate versions).
However, its popularity among the communists led to its banning when the Partai Komunis Indonesia was blamed for an abortive coup in September 1965 ... in fact, Muhammad Arief was one of hundreds of thousands of leftist sympathisers murdered in the nationwide military-sanctioned slaughter that followed the coup.
Guruh Soekarno Putra (born Jan 13, 1953) was just 12 when the coup unfolded and his father fell from power to be replaced by the even more ruthless General Suharto. Suharto’s New Order regime imposed a sharp crackdown not just on political life but even on cultural works, imprisoning author Pramoedya Ananta Toer and banning books, music and even dances.
By 1976, however, the situation had lightened up just a bit, and that is when the precocious Guruh put together a project of amazing ambition and vision. He called upon members of the group Gipsy, which had been around in various forms since the mid-1960s.
Featuring brothers Chrisye (vocals), Gaury (guitar) and Keenan (drums) Nasution as well as the talented keyboardists Abadi Soesman and Roni Harahap, Gipsy was known for its ability to handle complex progressive rock covers as well as its tendency to mix traditional Indonesian music with rock.
This suited Guruh, by then aged 23, who was obsessed with recording a fusion of Balinese music with progressive rock. Over the course of a year-and-a-half, Guruh worked with Gipsy and a range of musicians both Western-trained (the album features violinists, flautists, cellists and clarinet players) as well as traditional orchestras and choirs!
The end result was a marvel to behold although it must be said that listening to it is not for the faint-hearted. While modern-day “world music” recordings tend to either directly capture traditional music or give it a sympathetic backing, Guruh’s idea was to place alongside difficult dissonant, cacophonic music played by mini-Moogs and Hammond organs!
Still, I think this is one amazing album. The monumental first track Indonesia Mahardikka blends the pomp of nationalist sentiments with that of Emerson, Lake and Palmer! Gamelan and angklong themes surface sporadically but spend much of the song behind Western analog synths and the occasional blazing guitar. Another epic is the frenzied, often hard-rocking Geger Gelgel.
Elsewhere, Chopin Larung is an exotic, almost haunting mixture of classical piano and gamelan, while Barong Gundah sees the music get really complex as a deep bass groove interlocks with dynamic, almost confusing gamelan runs. The Balinese orchestra steps to the fore on Janger 1897 Saka and Smaradhana, which are the most traditional-sounding, and I must admit, my least favourite pieces on the album.
It has to be said that the album can be jarring, yet it is capable of moments of great beauty and energy too. Sadly, it was to prove an expensive one-off project as Guruh and the members of Gipsy went their separate ways.
Interestingly, Guruh focused on dance, leading a troupe, Swara Maharddika, for much of the 1980s, before a new liberalised post-Suharto Indonesia saw him enter politics. In fact, he entered this latest election as an incumbent MP for East Java as a member of the PDI(P) party led by his sister, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri!
Martin Vengadesan, a music lover and history buff, combines his two passions in his fortnightly column. If you have any interesting stories you want him to research, do drop him a line.
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