For most Indonesians, experimental band Senyawa is an obscure name in the country's music industry.
Senyawa
It’s a fact that the group has been receiving more recognition outside their own homeland. In 2018, for instance, their album Sujud was included in the best-of lists by two British magazines, The Wire: Adventures in Modern Music and The Quietus. Earlier that year, the band was chosen as one of the artists featured in the soundtrack to popular game, Red Dead Redemption 2.
It was also in 2018 when Senyawa toured Europe and visited the Kaaitheater in Brussels, Belgium. Their performance at the time was recorded live and is now available as an album, titled Bima Sakti or "Milky Way galaxy" in Indonesian.
Bima Sakti - Album Cover
The album was released in collaboration with Stephen O’Malley of American experimental metal band Sunn O))). During his travel to Indonesia in 2017, Stephen met and immediately forged a strong friendship with Wukir Suryadi, one-half of Senyawa. Stephen's travel companion, theater director and choreographer Gisèle Vienne, then proposed the idea of the project.
L: Senyawa
R: Stephen O’Malley
Comprising six tracks, Bima Sakti is essentially Senyawa. Delivering a mix of Indonesia's traditional sounds to the Western world, Senyawa always has their feet in the two worlds. In the album, too, the duo's custom-built bambuwukir, traditional pipes and possessed vocals meet Stephen's electric guitar and bass guitar amp. Moreover, with song titles mentioning the goddess Hera (Dewi Hera) and Bima from the Mahabharata (Bima dan Ular Naga), the album chronicles the creation of the Milky Way based onGreek and Javanese mythologies.
“The songs are about the myth of the fight between Bima, a character in Sanskrit epic The Mahabharata, and the Dragon, as well as the myth of Hera, whose breast milk became the Milky Way,” member Rully Shabara said in an interview.
Bima Sakti is already available here.
Senyawa’s & Stephen O’Malley’s images c/o Bandcamp
