Four artists/researchers, three collectives: Leilani Hermiasih, Ari Wulu, Andreas Siagian, and Wok The Rock; Gayam 16, Instrumentasia, and Yes No Klub. Starting today through August 17, they’re launching the first GAUNG electronic and experimental music festival in Yogyakarta, switching on a “power station” for the scene across Indonesia. It’s a different way to run a festival — even a different way to understand what a festival is — so let’s take a look at what they’re doing.
GAUNG is a project initiated in 2024 by three music producers and curators from Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Ari Wulu, Andreas Siagian, and Wok The Rock. All three have been active in the electronic and experimental music scene since the late 90s through their collectives: Gayam 16, Instrumentasia, and Yes No Klub. In 2025, Leilani Hermiasih, a researcher/singer-songwriter joined the team in programming. The four of them work equally in the whole direction of GAUNG.
This is not the usual hierarchical music festival formula, where you have tiers of big stars playing main stages and then a bunch of (typically) underpaid side shows and workshops on the margins. Instead, it’s what happens as collectives come together — like a synth patch, really. It’s modular and decentralized.
It’s so decentralized, in fact, that it began in August 2024, then led to programs through this year and now the workshop Salon (7-10 August) and concerts, networking station, exhibition, listening room, and bazaar for a week.
As the team explains:
Working modularly, GAUNG empowers and connects communities, initiatives, and music projects to
collectively organize research, seminars, workshops, performances of various scales and forms in various locations in Yogyakarta. This work platform aims to strengthen sustainable cultural networks by adopting a mutual cooperation work model.
Emphasis mine. I mean, you know — nice buzzwords. But the reason you can trust this lot is that they’ve worked in collective forms since the 90s. It’s not the Yogya doesn’t have its rivalries and tensions, just like the rest of us do, of course. But GUANG looks like it’s bringing the hub in central Java to a new level.
Everybody’s there. Let’s map out these grid lines feeding the power station:
Yes No Klub, the experimental music program since 2010 (and label I’ve written about, too), more recently curating at Pestapora festival
Ambient Evening, an open space for experimenting in environments “without drowning out the organic sounds of the surroundings.”
Klub Menepi, a kind of site-specific collective event. “Often taking place in secluded or
off-the-grid locations like campgrounds or coastal areas, Klub Menepi blends the energy of a dance party with the calm of a retreat.” [photo source — well, see their whole ‘gram as it is not just digging in the dirt]
Kombo Improvisation Lab, a DIY platform for improvisation and ensemble experimentation.
Jogja Noise Bombing, the noise collective. But CDM readers know that, because you’ve seen Jogja: The Movie. (And if you haven’t, make some popcorn. Loudly, obviously.)
Jumat Gombrong, the hip hop collective, est. 2020. Slong: “Stay gombrong and whoop whoop.“
Post Party Syndroma, est. 2019, which is archiving the party scene and apparently making memes and things.
“Stay gombrong and whoop whoop.”
Tuesday Louder from the Wijilan neighborhood does street gigs, block parties, and other activations, with the “DIY and DIWO spirit” and everything from club to harsh noise sounds.
And now there’s a heavy workshop program going on. With Liquid Architecture from Australia, there’s a sound engineering workshop from Lauren Squire aka Melbourne’s OK EG.
There’s a full program on Spatial Audio Framework for Live Performance with Jogja’s own Gatot Danar Sulistiyanto.
And that’s just for a start. There are scholarships, a Javanese karawitan workshop with the wonderful Yennu Ariendra (half of Raja Kirik), and the Post-Budots Beyond Borders workshop (originally here at CTM Festival) with Jorge Juan B. Wieneke V (a.k.a. similarobjects) from the Philippines, plus composition workshops and more.
And there’s an artist lineup spread around neighborhoods and parks and venues of all sorts, including artists like:
Kuntari (Bandung) – Gaung Gong
Krowbar (Bandung) – Kirab Hip Hop Nusantara
Gumatat Gumitit Gospell (Bali) – Latihan YNK Pestapora
Jumat Gombrong (Yogyakarta) – Kirab Hip Hop Nusantara
Obesse Dogma (The Phillipines) – Introvert Club #19
Prontaxan (Yogyakarta) – Gaung Gong
PT Hardcoreindo (Jakarta) – Introvert Club #19
Puan-Tronik Ensemble (Jakarta, Yogyakarta) – Latihan YNK Pestapora
Raja Kirik (Yogyakarta) – Gaung Gong
Rani Jambak (West Sumatra) – Gaung Gong
Saga (Surabaya) – Kirab Hip Hop Nusantara
Sanjonas (Yogyakarta) – Introvert Club #19
Tuan Tigabelas (Jakarta) – Kirab Hip Hop Nusantara
Lauren Squire (Melbourne) — Latihan Pestapora
— plus hangs and more. Hopefully, this gives you rabbit holes to climb down for those of us far away at the moment. But watch this scene, for sure.
And if you’re around:
Above: the co-conspirators gather at RUMAKIT; below, highlights from RTFM.
