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.
Read moreHandmade instruments and electronic rhythms weave together with bone-chillingly moving vocals in the latest epic from Raja Kirk. This is serious anticolonial music: Jathilan recalls the horses enlisted in the fight against Dutch colonial forces, during a war that tore early 19th century Javanese society apart.
From Yogyakarta, Indonesia comes a glitchy, powerful delay effect unlike any other. It’s a stompbox with an earthquake setting. And it’s a special collaboration – between Yogya’s engineer of sound and mayhem Andreas Siagian aka squaresolid and instrument builder and musician Wukir Suryadi of the band Senyawa.