Jan. 30 was a big day for Rayen Pono as it was not only his 40th birthday and also the 20th anniversary of his professional debut in the music industry but, perhaps most importantly, it marked the release of his debut full-length album as a soloist, appropriately titled Empat Puluh (Forty).

Some might regard the record as long overdue, but, from the 40-year-old artist's perspective, Empat Puluh is primarily about him as a musician. Sometimes, to make the best record possible, an artist must be whole with himself as a human being first and foremost.

"I feel more liberated in my fourth decade, and what I’ve derived from this liberation is a new beginning," Rayen told The Jakarta Post four days before the album's official release. "I feel like [now] I am filled with more solemnity in making music. The confusion and the 'partitions' that I faced in the past five years are gone. And, entering this fourth decade, I get to know more about what I desire and what I want to make."

Did it take, perhaps literally, 20 years in the music industry for Rayen to come up with Empat Puluh?

"Seems like it," he answered. "It means that it was the journey that 'fed' me, as it turned out. I have just realized that now, in this very moment!"

A decade of 'idealism'

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