Fancy-fingered Fariz FM flies back on stage in style
By Achmad Nurhoeri
JAKARTA (JP): After trailing through the glittering forest of artificial artists who seem to care more for fame and fortune than for creating art ... puddling in the mud of foreign artists who are mostly big on image and not on musical expertise ... tripping the ropes of idealists who want to astonish more than entertain, you could easily lose your appetite for the Indonesian music scene, which is bigger than ever but no wiser.
But, wait, there was a slight ray of hope last Monday night at Jakarta's cave of vanity, the Hard Rock Cafe.
One of Indonesia's long lost pop treasures made a comeback.
He is Fariz Roestam Moenaf alias Fariz RM.
He sings. He plays the keyboard. He writes songs. He knows the notes like the back of his hand. He sports fancy language in his lyrics.
Who is he?
His guru is the nation's sole classical music professor, Charlotte Sukirno. His deities are Mozart, Bach and Indonesia's music prophet Ismail Marzuki.
Before even receiving his ID card in 1976, he had entered the music scene but left in 1992 bearing a grudge.
He is the treasure too-long buried.
No matter how long precious treasure is buried, no matter how uncombed it is, or no matter how ill-treated it was, treasure is treasure. When it shines again it will get the respect it deserves.
The designer-dressed yuppie audience -- usually so snobbish, so restrained with their applause -- swayed and stamped their feet under Fariz's spell, humming the evergreen melodies.
A few even shouted out the 38-year-old musician's name and songs.
True appreciation was in the air.
Fariz arrived late. He was due on at 10 p.m. but came 90 minutes later. And the audience didn't seem to mind.
The posh cafe became more and more crowded during the delay. Not an explosion of people, just a constant flow.
There didn't seem to be any early departures.
"If it wasn't Fariz, I would have gone home to sleep. I have liked Fariz for a long time," said Henny, a yuppie who works at a securities firm.
"And I'm here with four friends who have also come to hear him sing again," she said pointing to her late-twenties buddies.
The comeback
The charming virtuoso walked on stage at 30 minutes to midnight and sat behind his main melody maker, a Roland keyboard.
He looked frail and wrinkled, and his ears were pierced.
Signifying maturity or frustration? Maybe both.
But he still has the 80s laddish look and the same old friendly face, although it's a paler version.
Fariz, who has a reputation for band-hopping, was accompanied by two youthful acolytes, Kusumawati (drums) and Dian (guitar). Both were recruited from unfledged bands.
The show began with a medley of oldies Hasrat & Cinta (Desire & Love) and Interlokal (Intercity Call).
His fingers moved fast on the keyboards, twitching the MIDI buttons and unraveling his famous backgrounds, pumping out melodies from a time when Indonesian pop music was at its best.
Melodious, full of improvisation but modest in deliverance, his songs crumbled the walls of music's over-complicated genres with pleasant lyrics.
The crowd clapped, cheered and smiled.
Fariz RM's magic is back.
"Thank you for coming. It's been a long time, hasn't it. Now, let me take you on an exploration of my career," said the maestro who first appeared, as a teenage drummer, on Badai Band's legendary film soundtrack, Badai Pasti Berlalu (The Storm Will Surely Pass) in 1976.
He sang oldies like Katarsis and Penari (Dancer) from 1986, and had the audience in his palm with two love songs, the 1990 Antara Kita (Between Us) and then Nada Kasih (Affection Tune) which was one his most popular duets with singer-poet Neno Warisman.
"I have not sung these songs for years. I am very grateful you all still remember them," said Fariz to the sing-along audience that included mature ladies and satin-clad gentlemen.
Midway through the show, the audience began shouting for two of the most celebrated hits of his 20 year career, Sakura and Barcelona.
He sang them at the end.
Sakura is from his first solo album and the soundtrack of a film with the same title.
Barcelona is an ebullient melody about a fling with a Spanish maiden among the columns of Catalonia.
"Wow, I did not think it would turn out like this," said Fariz after the show.
"I always believed that Indonesian people liked melodious songs. Rap, alternative and other new music today are just trends."
In his non-preforming years, Fariz kept himself busy as a multimedia production consultant. His stages were deluxe meeting rooms. His audience advertising dandies.
He also made 23 film soundtracks which sparked controversy as most had themes exploiting sex and violence.
He also, recently, worked on the musical production of the ballet Peter Pan.
"The climate then, I believe, was much worse than when I started," he told The Jakarta Post.
"The music industry has become much more industrialized. It seems, on the surface, that things are better. But the fact is, they're not."
The urge to free himself from the shackles of the fiendish music industry was the main reason he left the limelight in 1990.
"I was tired of the music industry."
He said he pitied young musicians these days who cannot be themselves.
"Today's music is so monotonous. There are a lot of artists but none of them have real character."
Monday's successful debut has made him composed about finishing his long-awaited album and about his professional comeback.
"Just wait until September, I will launch an album with ten songs on it. I want to put the richness back into Indonesian music," he said.
The title of the new album is Balada di Negeri Cinta (Ballads in the Land of Love).
He admitted the real reason for his comeback was that there was someone willing to produce his album without telling him what to write.
"Music is the artist's creative process. I just want to play my own creations ... my own music."
And Indonesia needs this kind of creativity from its artists. Welcome back, Fariz.
... Pasti diriku kembali
Untuk cinta yang tertinggal ...
Di hari ku kan kembali
Kan ku ingatkan janji cintamu
(I will truly come back
for the love I left behind,
and on the day I return
I will remind you of
your promised love)