When music speaks on behalf of science

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post   |  Fri, 12/05/2008 11:42 AM  |  Potpourri

Naif drummer Pepeng (right) explains Science in Music, a compilation album featuring the country’s indie and pop artists to raise community awareness on disaster preparedness. Sitting next to him (from right to left) are Irina Rafliana, Joe Tirta, & Alvi.

As a work of charity, Science in Music, a compilation album produced by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), has a noble purpose: to tell the truth often denied about Indonesia.

The album is part of LIPI's campaign on disaster preparedness. It aims to spread information on the geophysical nature of the archipelago -- which has been scientifically proven to be a perfect place for extreme disasters -- and how we should respond to such grim reality.

Its title is only a gimmick, or even a euphemism. "Some people are still sensitive to hearing the word 'disaster'," Irina Rafliana, the LIPI employee overseeing the album's release, told The Jakarta Post recently.

While campaigning on the topic, she often met suspicion from skeptics who refused to believe that disasters were looming and could happen anytime. "We were accused of disrupting public order and damaging the investment climate," she said.

To many people, science seems to be as abstruse as religion. It is so hard to make laymen understand it (anybody know QM?) that some think it is better just to make them believe in it.

Thus, as the joke goes, a scientist and a priest may together carry the same banner saying "The End is Near".

But LIPI scientists believe that today musicians have more influence on the young than religious leaders, saying that "musicians have the capability of turning the puzzling language of science into a simple message that is easy to comprehend".

The conclusion of decades of scientific research and many international seminars involving reputable scientists on disaster preparedness has now been brought into pop culture by the Indonesian indie bands and solo artists who took part in the institute's workshops.

Co-produced by Pepeng from retro-band Naif, the album was completed within five months. It has been praised, locally and internationally, but it has one problem: Of the 15 songs on the album, only a few are able to convey the scientists' message effectively.

The issue is certainly not with the musical arrangements, but with the lyrics.

Samsons' "Dengan Nafasmu" (With Your Breath), taken from their first album, examines nothing but a man worshipping his girlfriend. The song is indeed a black sheep on the album, which is now being given away and can be copied freely.

Mocca's "Promises" and Saint Loco's "Metropolis" are perhaps too elusive, if not as plainly distant from the theme as Samsons' is.

The other tracks, such as Franky Sahilatua's "Di Mana Nurani" (Where is Conscience), Naif's "Alam Indonesia" (Indonesia's Nature) and Lake of Three's "Kemarau" (Autumn), are dominated by the more popular issue of global warming, a manmade disaster not unique to Indonesia.

The tracks that effectively inform listeners about Indonesia's natural proneness to disasters and the need for people to remain alert are Navicula's "Supermarket Bencana" (Supermarket of Disasters), The 70s OC's "Indonesia Supermarket Bencana" (Indonesia Supermarket of Disasters) and the Upstairs' "Siap Siaga" (Ready and Alert).

Navicula makes it clear in their lyrics that by looking at Indonesia's geological history we will discover that the earthquakes and the tsunamis that happened in the past will happen again in the future.

The lyrics, however, sound less strong or poetic than those of other songs, especially Efek Rumah Kaca's psychedelic track "Hujan Jangan Marah" (Don't Be Angry, Rain), a deep reflection on nature's wrath.

It is a difficult dilemma for the musicians: Poetic lyrics are too elusive to digest, while direct lyrics make the songs lose their artistic touch, which means they will fail to grab the audience's attention.

There is no room for indecision, as critics may eventually find the album disappointingly neither scientific nor poetic. But, of course, the album is not to be critically assessed as its main goal is just to get the scientific message across.

It is still a challenging task, though. Art, it could be said, has a language that science perhaps can never understand.

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