Gamelan novelty evokes admiration

Ridlo Aryanto, Contributor, Yogyakarta

Poverty and other such limitations can sometimes be a driving force behind the creativity needed for a unique contemporary invention. Such is the experience of Fredy Pardiman Joyonegoro, a young musician from Yogyakarta.

It all began in 1992, when a dance student friend from the Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta asked Fredy to compose a gamelan accompaniment for her exam performance. The short deadline and the lack of instruments caused Fredy a great deal of stress in meeting his friend's request.

With the impending deadline looming precariously closer, Fredy decided to create a gamelan piece using the human voice to imitate the sounds of the various instruments.

To his surprise, Fredy's "vocal gamelan" arrangement became the source of much admiration from the lecturers of his friend for its creative originality. Praise also poured in from many colleagues at the institute's music department, giving Fredy the assurance needed to develop this newfound art.

"Then I realized that the instrument with the largest potential for improvisation and the most challenging possibilities to explore is the human voice," said the father of three-year-old Jagad Tejondaru.

The debut of Fredy's vocal gamelan as an independent musical ensemble was at the Dies Natalis celebration at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta in 1992.

During that demonstration, Fredy performed Cangkem Revo, a medley of typical Javanese riddle-songs, accompanied by vocal gamelan. The vocal gamelan did not only imitate sounds of typical Javanese gamelan, such as gambang, slentem, saron, and gongs, but Fredy also incorporated more unorthodox sounds into the music, such as drunken noises, snores and farting.

The reaction of the audience was that of side-splitting laughter. Highly impressed, TVRI Yogyakarta invited Fredy to perform his unique compositions on camera, hence the creation of trotoar (sidewalk) and bis kota (city bus). These pieces were so successful that Yogyakarta provincial tourism office invited him to take part in a chain of performances in five regencies.

After graduating in Karawitan performing arts from the Yogyakarta Institute of Arts, this Bantul native, born on Aug. 7, 1968, joined the Kua Etnika music community under the leadership of Jadug Ferianto. With Kua Etnika, known for allowing its members an unlimited amount of creative freedom, Fredy was given the opportunity to perform his vocal gamelan compositions in Sound Sketches, an event put on by the French-Indonesian Organization in Yogyakarta.

After hearing two of Fredy's compositions, Njeplak Thung-Thung and Oral Kambang performed at that event, the MC, comedian Butet Kartredjasa, dubbed Fredy's group "The Mataraman Acapella", a label which stuck.

"Mataraman", derived from the word Mataram -- the ancient Yogyakarta kingdom -- refers to arts with typical Yogyakarta flavor.

"It does not matter to me if my music is considered a new genre; my goal is to add more color and variety to Indonesian acapella music, as well as introducing this type of music to a wider audience, while hopefully developing an appreciation for it," says Fredy, who was voted Best Musical Arranger at the National Arts Festival in 1995.

As part of the Kua Etnika family, Fredy and his musical ensemble have traveled from Malaysia to Europe introducing vocal gamelan to the world, resulting in its growing popularity and recognition. Fredy also performed at the anniversary celebrations of private, Jakarta-based television stations Indosiar and RCTI in 2001 and 2002.

In the course of time, appreciation for the Mataram Acapella has continue to grow. At the latest concert in October at Gedung Societet Militer Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, hundreds of members of the audience demanded to hear Fredy's latest composition, Tutut Timulut.

"In an ensemble of 15, I arranged a reenactment of traditional Javanese Opera (wayang orang), retelling The Birth of Wisanggeni and Antasena as a kind of criticism of today's misguided reforms."

In this vocal performance, the players are not restricted to imitating the various voices of the wayang characters. There is an independent section of performers who vocally accompany the storyline with the sounds of gamelan, and also with other traditional musical sounds from other parts of Indonesia.

Fredy's seriously arranged vocal works are often met with laughter from the audience. Perhaps this is because during jam sessions the ensemble members try to explore their vocal possibilities according to their own perceptions, resulting in a sometimes odd and comical cacophony of sounds.

But what, exactly, is unusual about Fredy's vocal music?

"The basic acapella concept is a traditionally accepted form of musical expression. A few examples are Balinese kecak, and wayang Jemblung puppetry in Java. But rearranging Javanese acapella with different colors and in a contemporary manner is a distinctive mark of Fredy's talent," says Djadug Ferianto, the ethnic musician who has played a great part in the cultivation of Fredy's creative concept.