Percussion festival to cheer up Jakarta Fair

JAKARTA (JP): Fewer music festivals are held these days, but the Jakarta Percussion Festival '98 (Jakperc '98) is one to look forward to.

Various groups are scheduled to perform at the festival, which will be held at the Jakarta Fairground, Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, on July 10 at 8 p.m.

This year's festival will feature, among others, Harry Roesli and his DKSB band, Djaduk Ferianto and Kuah Ethnika, Ben Pasaribu and the Medan Percussion Ensemble, Komang Astita and Wong Aksan.

"The main purpose for holding the festival is to support the development and creativity process of percussion here, and at the same time introduce them to the international world," said the festival's chairman, Franki Raden.

The well-known composer is determined to hold the festival even though as of Saturday, sponsors had yet to confirm promised contributions to the estimated Rp 300 million event.

Many composers and percussion groups who participated in the international drum festival in Ancol in 1992 and then in the first percussion festival in 1996, have gained popularity, he said.

Unlike last year's festival, in which five international groups participated, this year's festival will only present one foreign musician, Ron Reeves, who will join two West Java musicians in the local Warogus Trio group.

Franki said that some foreign groups had been scheduled to perform in this year's festival, such as groups from America, England, South Africa and Sweden.

"They (the foreign groups) asked for security assurances ..., something that I'm not sure of. So they decided not to perform," said Franki, who is actively involved in the Jakarta Percussion Orchestra.

Local musicians have pledged to perform their best -- even if their fees have not been set.

Harry Roesli, the only Indonesian percussionist to have studied percussion formally at the Rotterdam Conservatory, will be taking part in the festival for the third time.

Franki said Harry would "translate reform ideas into percussion" in this year's festival, while Djaduk's music would be inspired by his experience while caught in the middle of an angry crowd in the recent riots.

Komang Astita, a composer-percussionist who is well-known as a pioneer in contemporary gamelan, will also display his latest creation in the festival.

Jakperc '98 will also present a talented young musician, Wong Aksan, an outstanding drummer who studied music in Germany and was earlier with the Dewa 19 group.

Ben Pasaribu, another participant from Medan, North Sumatra, will demonstrate his contemporary music enriched by the music tradition of his hometown.

A ethnomusicologist graduate from Wesleyan University, he often uses traditional elements in his performances, namely the Gondang Batak, an orchestra from his hometown. Ben, the dean of the School of Arts at the University of Nomensen in Medan, is in charge of the music department and teaches composition.

Franki said many internationally acclaimed musicians believe that percussion would become a trend in the coming millennium.

"This music will become a new generation's music," he said, "Or within the Indonesian music context, it will be considered as music for the 'reformist generation'." (ste)