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'Wisisi' is taking over Wamena, then the world. What is it?
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Creating music: Asep Nayak performs at the opening of Biennale Jogja XVI, in October. (Courtesy of Organizing Committee Biennale Jogja XVI Equator #6 2021) (Personal collection/Courtesy of Organizing Committee Biennale Jogja XVI Equator #6 2021)
I
t began as an outré dance subculture initiated by teens in the West Papuan highlands. Now, is wisisi set to become international dance music’s best kept secret?
You don’t talk to Asep Nayak and peg him as a dance music provocateur. Timid, soft-spoken and disarmingly polite, he is more a reflection of his daytime self: a 22-year-old with wildly varying interests struggling to graduate from college. Drag him to any dance floor in the highlands of West Papua, though, and the kid turns into a star.
Except it won’t look like your garden variety dance gig. The music is fast paced, relentless, almost trance-inducing. A flash mob of men and women who barely know each other join forces in a choreographed dance routine they are instinctively familiar with. Meanwhile, a pair of small, rusty speakers are blaring music sourced from communal USBs or laggy YouTube connections.
Forget everything you think you know about dance music. Welcome to the world of wisisi, Wamena’s dance revolution that is ready to take the world by storm.
“It’s not music for rituals, it’s not music for kings and it’s not music for the sake of aesthetics,” said Aditya Surya Taruna, better known as Kasimyn, a producer and DJ who performs with Gabber Modus Operandi. “Listening to it is beyond happiness. It’s euphoria. It’s a conscious refusal of problems.”
“Wisisi is not traditional music. But it’s not modern or alternative music either,” said Wok the Rock, a curator and founder of Yogyakarta-based netlabel Yes No Wave Music. “It’s an expression of embodied aesthetics and experience. Simply put, it’s who they are.”
Barely attempting to hide his giddiness, Kasimyn breaks into glorious laughter. “This is just pure dance music, man.”
