Innovations in ethnic music

By Kartika Bagus C.

SURAKARTA, Central Java (JP): The audience packing the Surakarta Cultural Center Arena Theater burst into a huge roar of applause when Drumming, a composition by young artist Gunarto Gondrong, came to a close.

Soon words and whistles of admiration filled the air.

The composition brought together percussion instruments from different places, such as African drums, a set of European drums, Balinese drums, Javanese drums, Sundanese drums and Rudy's plywood drums.

Enlivening the event was Jarot B.D., a guest singer, who presented Jamaican music. His uniquely high-pitched voice was extremely suitable for his ethnic music.

Drumming was the closing number of six compositions performed that night, which was part of a hybrid music show titled Suita 42 Hari -- a collaboration between the SonoSeni Ensemble and 30-year-old Japanese musician Takahito Hayashi.

Hayashi presented a composition he wrote, Uzu (Deep). The number featured the sound of dejeridoo, an Aboriginal instrument which is the world's oldest wind instrument. It also featured African drums called jembe and an acoustic guitar, which mechanically formed a series of patterns.

The Nagoya-born Takahito, a graduate of the Jazz and Bosanova Saxophone Department at Mesar House, Tokyo, proved he is a master of Asian traditional wind instruments. Over the past two months, he has collaborated with SonoSeni Ensemble to create seven cross- cultural works.

Most members of SonoSeni Ensemble do not have a background of playing in a band, but they do have the skill to play music of different genres: keroncong, Javanese langgam, Bali gamelan, Sunda gamelan and Madurese folk music. Only one has a rock music background. The ensemble synthesized the various genres into a hybrid.

SonoSeni Ensemble performed seven compositions. They music was eclectic for an audience long accustomed to standard music. All the compositions were from the ethnic genre, with rapid rhythms and lots of improvisations. Ethnic vocals were now and then added to the music.

The ensemble also incorporated the saxophone, played by Hayashi. On the stage were combinations of musical instruments and percussions, such as the bongo, ketipung, trumpet, Javanese drums, ukulele, bonang (a small gong in the Javanese gamelan).

The collaboration between musicians from different cultural backgrounds achieved its purpose of creating a hybrid music.

SonoSeni was founded two years ago by six veteran artists, I. Wayan Sadra, Joko S. Gombloh, Zoel Mistortoify, Gunarto Gondrong, Rudy Sulistanto and Abe Abdul Kholiq.

Each is a seasoned artist. Zoel Mistortoify, for example, is a graduate of Gadjah Mada University's School of Performing Arts, and founded a kulintang music group called Jambas and the gamelan rock band Pelangi Nusantara. I Wayan Sadra was a 1991 recipient of the New Horizon Award from the International Society for Arts, Sciences and Technology in the U.S.

SonoSeni has its headquarters on Jl. Empu Gandring in Surakarta. Its members' works have been performed in a number of major cities in Indonesia. In July and August last year, they performed at the Pacific Music Festival in Saporo, Japan, and in Germany, featuring the works of Wayan Sadra.

All these performances have undoubtedly improved their standing in the entertainment world. But most notable of all is the fact that they have pioneered new innovations in ethnic music.