Rano Karno releases first solo album
By K. Basrie
JAKARTA (JP): Actor, film director and singer Rano Karno released his new album, Kuingin (I want to), last weekend, 21 years after his last effort hit the market.
All but one of the nine slow pop songs on the album, arranged and directed by Gilang Ramadhan, are about love.
The 37 year old, who has starred in numerous movies and recorded many duet albums since he was a teenager, carefully set the launching date of his album. It was right after the last show of the third version of his popular TV series, Si Doel Anak Sekolahan (Doel the Graduate).
Even the video for the song Kuingin features the latest shots of Si Doel, which shows the young Betawi man (played by Rano) sent by his office to take a short course in Switzerland. The video also uses shots of Doel and the two women who compete for his love, Zaenab (Maudy Koesnadi) and Sarah (Cornelia Agatha), at the airport just before he departs.
But Rano asserts that the album was not designed to benefit from Doel's popularity.
"The fact is that Kuingin inspired me to set the (temporary) ending of Si Doel," Rano told reporters at the album's launching at his restaurant, Doel Cafe, in Kemang, South Jakarta, last week.
"But I admit that this song is mainly aimed at Si Doel's fans," said Rano, whose late father, Sukarno M. Noor, was a well- known Indonesian film producer.
The weekly TV series on RCTI every Monday has millions of viewers, including those in the neighboring countries of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, who watch the series via home satellite dishes.
In recent weeks, RCTI has been playing Si Doel reruns until the next version is completed.
Rano said his latest album project started a year ago but could only be pursued seriously in the past six months due to the tight shooting schedule of Si Doel.
Fans of Rano's songs might not find anything new on this album, whose vocals and rhythms are no different than his previous simple, soft and romantic beats.
In Kuingin, Rano sings: Seringkali kukatakan/kalau aku mencintaimu/setiap saat selalu terbayang/senyum dan wajahmu dimataku (I often tell you/that I love you/your face and smile/are always in my sight).
"Every singer has his or her own specialty," commented Rano.
Eight of the songs are written by Djayus Rachmat, while the remaining one, Kawan (Friend), is an acoustic number written by Jossie Hitijahubessy.
The album was produced by Kama Records at Kantong Studio in Jakarta last October.
Rano pledged that all album proceeds would be donated to Yayasan Karnos, a social charity he set up to pay for the school and health-care fees of poor children.
"Insya Allah," he said. "I know there are lot of children out there who are not able to go to school for economic reasons," said Rano, who has been appointed by Unicef to be its special ambassador to Indonesia.
Rano is scheduled to begin touring in support of the album in the East Java capital of Surabaya, though he would not confirm any dates.
"This has nothing to do with the general election campaign," argued Rano, who has been selected by the ruling Golkar party to be its legislative candidate for East Java.
If the album does well here, the tour may continue on to Singapore and Malaysia, said Rahmat Pasri from the album's distributor, PT RIS Music Wijaya International.