Musician Harry Roesli still up to his 'naughty' ways

By Helly Minarti

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty years on, Harry Roesli is still stuck with the nickname of the "naughty" one.

The 'si bengal' label came from his penchant for putting a heavy dose of wry social criticism into his music.

Since his debut album Malaria in 1971, he has satirized social conditions in sharp yet never cynical works. An important distinction -- people laugh and giggle at his impertinent lyrics, but they are never threatened by them.

Irreverence, strange settings, unmelodious tunes and surprise define Harry on stage. He started his controversial performances with Opera Ken Arok (1975), an allegory for abuse of power and injustice. This was followed by Musik Rumah Sakit (The Hospital Music) in the early 1980s and Musik Sikat Gigi (The Tootbrush Music) in 1982.

Harry experiments with sounds, especially percussion. In the 1970s and 1980s, he used a cacophony of sound effects; the shaking of broken glass, waving of plastic sheets, ripping paper, crashing cans, clanging chains. He continues to make them, enhanced today by use of synthesized music.

Harry takes his musical inspiration from many sources and twists them into black humors, often influenced by politics. In his most recent performance, Musik Jantung (The Music of Heartbeat) at the Jakarta Percussion Festival, he drew from his own prolonged illness.

Using an electrocardiogram monitor to show the heartbeats of a young man on stage, he transformed the pulse graphic into tunes through the MIDI computerized device. In the distance, another young man held up a faded paper umbrella, swaying his body and head vigorously in time to the opening and shutting of the umbrella, as though it was connected to the heartbeat.

"It was when I had been sick for six months that I realized that the only sound that nobody but God can stop is the heartbeat," said Harry. "Even the strong voice of Megawati (the ousted party leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party) can be shut, but not this God-made voice."

There's his political twist.

Harry's fellow musicians often complain his strong theatrical approach distracts from the good music he plays.

"I know. But I don't call myself a musician," he said in response.

"Music is never on my mind. It is the social and political conditions -- anything that goes wrong in society," he explained.

"I only use music as a main medium since that's what I'm very good at. But using just a single medium of expression rarely satisfies me."

Skewed

Harry is the only Indonesian musician who formally studied percussion abroad, pursuing his studies at the Rotterdam Conservatorium, from 1977 to 1981.

He was born 46 years ago into a disciplined, well-educated family. His father was a military officer and his mother is a pediatrician. He is the youngest child and has three older sisters, all of whom became physicians.

Harry was different. He did not enjoy being part of the establishment, which might explain his "skewed" attitude. When he was much younger, he felt that everything seemed so right, so straight that he could not stand it.

"I had to deal with those straightness by doing things such as jumping out of the window secretly to play with my band when I was still in my teens."

The first time his father caught him sneaking out the house, he was forgiven. The second time, nothing happened. The third time, he was punished.

"But it didn't hurt at all, so it (the sneaking out) continued," Harry recalled.

Even though his father objected to Harry's idea of playing in a band, he was responsible for introducing his son to music. He even hired a music teacher for his children. In fact, it was his father's love of Latin music that inspired little Harry.

Harry said that his father encouraged the children to play music as a hobby.

"But in a band? My father wasn't happy with that."

Harry -- whose real name is Djauhar Zaharsjah Fachrudin Roesli -- feels fortunate to have been taught by music teachers who shaped his musical appreciation and early skill. His first teacher was 'Koyong' Robin Tan, who introduced him to Latin and jazz music and taught him percussion when he was only eight.

At his junior high school he was taught by an inspiring and eccentric teacher, Suhardi, who pushed him to learn clarinet. His other teacher was Tatang Kartiwa, who immersed him in karawitan, traditional Javanese music accompanied by gamelan.

In the 1970s he joined Remi Silado's theater group, which clearly influenced his wit.

His type of experimental music is not commercial, and that's why it's best performed in special events like festivals. Yet Harry also delves into the mainstream, producing popular tunes for the industry. He creates music for advertisements and TV productions, jobs which make money.

"I have no problem at all planting my feet in two different worlds (of music). I do what I want in my own compositions but when I'm doing a job for the music industry, I play by its rules. Be accommodative, that's simple," said this man who always dresses in black to make him look slimmer.

He survives in this creative ambivalence, believing that his strength lies in it.

Yet there is always a gray area between the two, which he encounters when he has to compose for film or theater. "It's the script which rules in this case.

"For me music can turn out to be an expression of art or simply a craft," he said.

Harry, the father of 15-year-old twin sons La Hami and La Yala, has composed award-winning music for several films and more than a dozen for theaters productions, including the late Arifin C. Noer's Suci Sang Primadona (Suci, The Prima Donna) in the 1980s and the Kabayan comedy series in the 1990s.

Harry also teaches composition in the School of Music of the Bandung Teaching Institute. But it is his private exclusive music school, which he organizes with the help of his music group, DKSB, on which he depends for his livelihood.

"Most of the students are wealthy kids who want to study music abroad. They have to pay Rp 2.5 million per month but we can discuss the curriculum," he said. He claims that he teaches at least seven students per month.

After producing more than 20 albums, including some CDs released in America, Harry Roesli issued his latest, Si Cantik (The Beautiful) last month. There is still social criticism in the songs but, compared to the previous albums, it is not as arch. As usual, it is all done with the characteristic Harry Roesli whimsy.

"It's the 'craft-kind' thing, something for the industry," he explained.