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After 35 years, Abbhama's 'Alam Raya' finally gets its due
Punk never arrived in this country
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P
unk never arrived in this country.
While The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and Wire shocked the world with their nihilistic minimalism in the US and Britain, many of the leading musicians in this country's music scene, especially in Jakarta, were busy penning musical masterpieces that were steeped in either Yes' maximalism or the pomposity of Elton John's baroque pop masterwork, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
One of Indonesia's best-known releases on the world stage, Guruh Gypsy, a monster progressive rock record that mixed Chopin and Balinese Gamelan, was released in 1976, while the critically-acclaimed soundtrack to the movie Badai Pasti Berlalu (The Storm Will Pass), Eros Jarot's distillation of Elton John's chamber pop, hit the shelves in 1977, the year punk broke.
The Badai Pasti Berlalu soundtrack went on to become the number-one record on Rolling Stone Indonesia's list of the 150 greatest Indonesian recordings, while Guruh Gypsy came in at number two.
It was in this kind of environment that Abbhama's lone album, Alam Raya (Universe) was released. A complex, ethereal symphony written and composed by bandleader Iwan Madjid ' who passed away earlier this year after many years living in obscurity ' Alam Raya is the kind of music meant for eternity, composed with Bach, Chopin and Debussy in mind.
In fact, in some cases, Iwan and the members of his band ' most of whom were students at the Jakarta Art Institute (IKJ) ' quote Bach, Debussy and Chopin within a single song, something that could easily flop in the hands of lesser musicians.
Iwan, however, not only has the skill to pull of such daring songwriting, he also has the melodic and rhythmic sensibilities to make his music accessible after just a few spins.
The record's first track, 'Kembali' (Coming Back), for instance, features one of the album's most complex introductions, with guitar, synthesizer, conga and piano chasing and clashing with each other in such a way that Iwan's contemplation about nothing in particular feels something like waking up from a nightmare; and so beautiful that its six-minute running time feels like the duration of The Ramones' 'Blitzkrieg Bop'.
The track reaches its climax when a prog-rock guitar solo in the right channel races against a flute line cribbed verbatim from Jethro Tull's Aqualung.
The closing track, 'Indonesia' is a symphony written as an ode to the motherland ' but far from sounding grand, the long violin snaking through the song evokes sadness and languidness.
The title track is probably the record's high-water mark. Opening with a thunderclap and a wash of synth that conjures the vastness of the universe, the song transforms into a dirge, with Iwan's Jon Anderson-esque vocals summoning the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a five-year old getting his first look of the moon.
Iwan and lyricist Tubagus Benny, who has a background in theater and opera, had a thing for melancholia, and their existentialism-tinged lyrics suit the music perfectly. Rather than trafficking in cheap romance and heartbreak, the two ponder the meaning of life, existence and the serenity of nighttime. One standout track is 'Ketiadaan Yang Ada' (Being Nothingness), while on title track 'Alam Raya' (Universe), the band asks that eternal question: 'Dunia bertanya-tanya (the world is asking question)//Alam raya rhayalan (is the universe an illusion//Nan nyata oh maya (is it real or just perception). Never again has the country's music scene produced a record so musically and philosophically complex as Alam Raya.
And yet, upon its release, no one paid attention to the album, which was distributed by the now-defunct Tala and Co. on cassette tapes.
Over the years, however, music fans, especially in the country's progressive rock community, have begun to take notice. As more and more people discovered this musical treasure, hard-copies of the recording have acquired their own mystique, with a single tape fetching Rp 1.5 million (US$123.21) in the collectors market.
As for Iwan, none of his later musical endeavors'including the one with multi-instrumentalist Fariz Rustam Munaf in 1983 with the band Wow ' reached the heights of Abbhama.
He disappeared from the music scene and was all but forgotten until his name appeared in the crime section of some of the city's newspapers in 2001, when he was arrested for drugs.
Soon after, he turned to religion, and lived out his final days as a devout Muslim before his death on June 10, just days after the Jakarta-based Majemuk Records launched the remastered version of Alam Raya on compact disc and vinyl. The Canadian boutique label, Strawberry Rain, will release the album on the international market later this month.
