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*2022 Stock. In process of stocking.* The new album by critically acclaimed Indonesian duo Senyawa is being co-released by 44 different labels worldwide, and School of the Arts presents a Russian version on cassette. It features the full album as well as two extended remixes: Moa Pillar’s 14-minute heavenly ambient and a 24-minute poisonous drone collage by Ivan Zoloto.
Senyawa’s music combines extended vocal techniques of Rully Shabara and homemade instruments built and played by Wukir Suryadi. It exists on the outer edges of primitivism, post-industrial, improv, doom, heavy psych, and drone.
Having a dozen releases under their belt, most notably “Sujud” on Sublime Frequencies and “Menjadi” on Morphine Records, as well as multiple international shows and festival appearances, the band has proven that Indonesian music can be so much more than gamelan exoticism. Shabara approaches Suryadi’s simple folk-like melodies and propulsive noises with a hardcore punk attitude, and the two don’t shy away when things go abstract and meditative. “Alkisah” is jam-packed with heavy mantras charged with both nuance and pressure.
Side B is dedicated to remixes of the original material. The in-house SOTA remix team consisted of the label’s mastering engineer Moa Pillar who reshaped “Kiamat” into his own brand of angelic drone, menacing and blissful at the same time, and boss and curator Ivan Zoloto, whose long remix is a sea of wails and rumbling noises extracted out of “Istana”.
Overall, the release is recommended to anyone who likes: Sun City Girls and any Bishop brothers’ projects, Phurpa, Ghédalia Tazartès, Keiji Haino, Tony Conrad, Stephen O’Malley, etc.
“Tumultuous mix of heavy-metal aggression and free-jazz bedlam”
- The New York Times
“A destructive, scattered, and dramatic record” - The Quietus
“A symphony of pulverising riffs and guttural roars that sound as if they’ve hatched straight from the fires and slimes of Middle Earth.” - The Wire
“Tumultuous mix of heavy-metal aggression and free-jazz bedlam”
- The New York Times
“A destructive, scattered, and dramatic record” - The Quietus
“A symphony of pulverising riffs and guttural roars that sound as if they’ve hatched straight from the fires and slimes of Middle Earth.” - The Wire
Details
Cat. number: SOTA313
Year: 2021
Notes:
Wukir Suryadi: custom instruments
Rully Shabara: voice, lyrics
Recorded and mixed by Iwan Karak at Eloprogo, September 2020.
Soundscape of Eloprogo recorded by Tesaran.
Mastered by Cordey Lopez.
Minang proverbs on "Kabau" compiled by Taufik Adam.
Artwork by Sopeng.
Design by Ivan Zoloto.
"Alkisah" is a collective project released by 44 different labels worldwide.
Russian edition released by School of the Arts in 2021.
“Decentralization should be the future.”
