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Surabaya's best musical storytellers are back in business
Since releasing its debut album in 2015, Silampukau has earned critical acclaim and commercial success. Now, after almost a decade in the wilderness, the duo return.
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Dynamic duo: Eki Trisnowering (left) and Kharis Junandharu (right) have turned Silampukau from art school oddities to one of the country's most beloved indie folk bands. (Silampukau/Denny Hendrawan) (Silampukau/Denny Hendrawan)
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i>Since releasing its debut album in 2015, Silampukau has earned critical acclaim and commercial success. Now, after almost a decade in the wilderness, the duo return.
The good news is that Silampukau’s sardonic sense of humor has survived some of the most turbulent years of its career. The Surabaya-based duo reflects on a less-than-productive pandemic, full of half-baked creative ideas conceived on a whim and abandoned just as quickly.
The two are sheepish with their excuses and, as ever, confused about the future.
“But,” songwriter Kharis Junandharu quipped. “I cut my hair short again. We survived the closest thing to doomsday, so there’s every reason to celebrate!”
Since its inception in 2009, Silampukau has established itself as one of the country’s most celebrated indie-folk bands – much to the duo’s personal consternation. Fame and fortune do not necessarily sit well with the endlessly self-critical duo, but there are bigger crosses to bear.
After some false starts (the band released a well-received EP and was a regular on the touring circuit before abruptly quitting in 2010), their debut album Dosa Kota Kenangan (2015) elevated them to unprecedented heights.
Perhaps it is songwriting partner Eki Trisnowering’s sultry baritone, the pair's familiar and naughty country-tinged arrangement, or their relentless touring that caught the heart of audiences. But what really sets them apart from their peers at the time was their debut album’s bleak, honest, yet humorously poetic retelling of Surabaya, Indonesia’s messy second city.
