ASMAT DREAM

Indonesia’s Visionary Sonorities

By Tom Leander

“When I die. I don’t want people to say that my music was good or bad, but just that I did it, that I tried. And even if I’m lucky enough to create something new or different, I’m really just continuing the music of my ancestors”

--Nano S. (Indonesian composer)

Indonesia’s gifts to the world are formidable, but we tend to see them as fascinating remnants of Indonesia’s rich cultural heritage rather than works of living art. Elements of Indonesian art – the delicacy of shadow puppet drama, the imaginative abundance of the Buddhist statues and bas relief at Borobudur in Java, and the staccato rhythms of the Balinese monkey chant, to name a few – have influenced graphic artists and musicians for more than a century. Asmat Dream. The important new Lyrichord CD, brings forth ample and stunning evidence that Indonesia is a remarkable – and little noticed – venue for contemporary musical composition.

It may be safe to say that the music in Asmat Dream is unlike any recorded before. Indonesia is an archipelago of 13,677 islands, 300 ethnic groups and 365 languages and dialects. Its environment of diversity would seem the perfect wellspring for musical experimentation, eclecticism and individuality – and it is. Heard on Asmat Dream is an aural banquet created by composers for traditional instruments played in unusual ways and instruments that may never have been heard before. These pieces deploy the evocative suling or bamboo flute; the versatile kecapi, a horizontal zither; and, of course, the subtle reserves of timbre, tonality and rhythm of the gamelan. Here too in the track entitled Diya by Dody Satya Ekagustdiman, sandpaper, the plastic visor of a motorcycle helmet, and five works in continuo are used to add expressive power.

From the versatility of color and nuance rendered by the kecapi in Nano S.’s Galura, to the liquid electronic textures of Harry Roesli’s title track, the trove of individualistic works on this CD are united by a common impulse: a determination to seek new musical forms and to explore emotions and the possibilities of pure sound.

Asmat Dream is the result of a new music commissioning project, part of over a year’s research by Jody Diamond, a composer, scholar and gamelan artist. Diamond has taught Indonesian music at UC Berkeley, Mills College, and Dartmouth College and is director of the American Gamelan Institute. She first became aware of the new music scene in Indonesia at a 1986 International Festival for Indonesian music held in Vancouver and organized by Sardono Susumo, an Indonesian choreographer and performance artist. She attended performances of experimental music from Java and Bali and, she says “Even though I had been studying many forms of Indonesian music for sixteen years, this was a profound revelation.”

The music inspired Diamond to apply for a senior Fulbright Research Fellowship to survey contemporary Indonesian composition. “My idea was to re-balance the international image of contemporary Indonesian composers,” she says. “I went around the country, meeting artists, taping rehearsals and performances, and planning a book.” Her research took her from Medan to Denpasar, covering centers for artistic experiment in Sumatra, Java and Bali. In interviews with 60 composers she became convinced that important contributions to contemporary music were being created and performed in Indonesia, despite the scant attention paid to them overseas. This development had occurred despite the obstacle that in Indonesia there is little tradition of performing music total, or pure music. Much new music in Indonesia accompanies theatre or dance. “I talked with a lot of composers,” recalls Diamond, “and very often they would lament that there was little opportunity to perform new music that stands alone, much less get it recorded and they simply lacked the means to record it themselves.”

Composer Larry Polansky, Diamond’s collaborator on various aspects of the project, suggested that new pieces might be commissioned from some of the composers by Frog Peak Music (a Composer’s Collective) and the American Gamelan Institute. Asmat Dream is the first of two recordings of komposisi baru, or new compositions, that resulted from these commissions. Diamond says, “when approached, the composers reacted with deep excitement: here at last, many said, was a chance to render their vision without financial constrain.” Selecting and recording the works was no easy task, because of the multiplicity of talent the Diamond encountered.

Musical innovation and improvisation have roots in Indonesian traditions, and Diamond notes that there have always been inventive composers and instruments builders in many regions of the archipelago. He also stresses that while the desire on the part of artists and musicians to break new ground is essentially a global occurrence, Indonesian artists often find their inspiration at home. “Many people insisted that they weren’t influenced by anybody,” says Diamond. “The experiments were their own search for something completely new.”

Lyrichord is proud to introduce the visionary sonorities of Asmat Dream to a new audience.