Indonesia, Internet drive Guru Kanguru
By Izabel Deuff
JAKARTA (JP): I see a blue procession/ as sky stoops in clouds/name of God rips up my breast screen/ till wind loses language/and I know what is bound/ between the throne and blood/ tyrant history pounds.
This is the first verse of Trisakti Tragedy, a song inspired by the shooting of four Trisakti University students in May. It is the seventh track of Indonesia, the debut album from the Guru Kanguru band.
A collaboration of Australian musicians and Indonesian poets, the album is the brainchild of Guru Kanguru's leader Geoff Fox.
His new creation of this 13-track album, launched recently on the Internet, is a "Cyberalbum", which is also the name of the first track.
"Internet distribution is the future of music distribution... We publish it quickly and the technology makes us more independent," he said during his visit here last month after launching the album.
Fox, who studied Latin and philosophy in Melbourne, has visited Indonesia many times and is fond of Indonesian poetry. In 1995, he recited what he termed "free translations" in English of several Indonesian poets' works at the Mechanics Institute in Melbourne.
"I was very proud to be able to get people's attention about Indonesian poetry. It gave people a better understanding of Indonesia," Fox, 41, told The Jakarta Post.
For his Cyberalbum, he was joined by Nick Tsiavos on bass and Peter Neville, a friend of 20 years' standing who plays percussion.
Three women also participated in the achievement of the album: Atlanta Frith (vocals and guitar), and two Indonesian poets who sent their lyrics by e-mail, Abidah El Khalieqy of Yogyakarta and Yuyun Atmadja of Jakarta.
Recording was done by Dave Sander for one year during two sessions at Baker St. Studios in Melbourne.
"Atlanta was singing in a hotel when I saw her four years ago. I met her again two months ago," Fox recollected. "We wrote some songs very quickly and six weeks later, the album was recorded."
Atlanta has a powerful voice which contributes to the melancholia of the songs and in Tragedi Trisakti sounds like the Icelandic singer Bjork's breathy delivery.
Fox met Yuyun at a poetry recital in October 1996 at the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Jakarta.
Yuyun, a school teacher, wrote People's prayer during the riots.
She beseeches people to show their love and peaceful conduct after she saw cars burning, destroyed shops and smoke in the streets:
Return us/to the truth that/we've always known/stretching out hope/and hugging/and loving/all our own.
Abidah El Khalieqy is a poet and writer of short stories whom Fox met in Yogyakarta in November last year. The main theme in her works is women's suffering under a patriarchal system. She collaborated on four songs: Woman Song 2, Tragedi Trisakti, Candu Kekasihku I and II (My Lover's Intoxication).
In a few songs, Guru Kanguru plays traditional Indonesian instruments, including gongs in In my Bali and gamelan in Brown My Leg.
Fox acknowledges the influence on his work by Indonesian artists such as Franky Sahilatua, a singer from Maluku, and Emha Ainun Nadjib, the leader of the band Kyai Kanjeng.
He also names Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney as influences. He is used to gathering several cultures, he said, as he did in the first song by mixing American poet Walt Whitman's words with Islamic greeting.
But most songs are dominated by bass rhythms and vibraphone moanings. Fox's voice reading the lyrics contributes to the jerky sounds which occasionally end in a cacophony like in In my Bali.
The first part of the album is supposed to stress the negative view Western media has shown of Indonesia in recent years. The third song, H.A.M (the Indonesian acronym for human rights) sounds like a demonstration slogan and refers to the lack of human rights in Indonesia.
The other opening tracks deal with the violent events of May. Woman songs 2 evokes the unusual fierceness of Indonesian people "going wild":
I'm the witness to the highest judge/the full moon has been stabbed/ the sharp steel clutched/ by an animalized man
In Belantara, Fox denounces the overcoverage of the rioting by the Western media.
But he said he had no particular message for Indonesians in making the album.
"I would like to express friendliness towards Indonesia and make Australians know more of the good side of Indonesia."
Fox also addresses environmental problems in Undemarcated, pointing out the latest fires burning in Kalimantan and Sumatra have no borders.
Guru Kanguru's second album, planned for next summer, should still focus on Indonesia and the lessons this country teaches Geoff Fox. More information can be found at www.cmm.com.au (Chaos Music Market) -- the cost is US$2 to download each of the tracks.