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Legendary studio Lokananta makes much-anticipated comeback
Kicking off its revival with a festival featuring roster of chart-toppers and music legends, storied music label and recording studio Lokananta has gotten a makeover as an all-around creative economy hub.
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Once eroded by time and neglect, legendary music label and recording studio Lokananta in Surakarta, Central Java, has finally gotten its much-deserved revitalization. The revamped studio opened on June 3 to coincide with Lokananta Festival 2023, which ran from June 3 to 4. (Courtesy of Irama Nusantara/via Twitter/-)
A
growing sense of excitement enveloped the crowd that had gathered one recent evening at M Bloc Live House, a music venue located in South Jakarta’s popular M Bloc Space.
In supersized font, the event organizer’s name “Lokananta” flashed onscreen during its presentation of the music festival held last weekend.
For many, the reveal was the culmination of a years-long promise to bring back one of Indonesia’s most storied cultural institutions.
“M Bloc wouldn’t exist without Lokananta,” Handoko Hendroyono, cofounder and president director of PT Radar Ruang Riang (M Bloc Group), said at the event, asserting that all of the creative space’s music-oriented aspects were inspired by the renowned music label and recording studio.
Founded in 1956 in Surakarta, Central Java, Lokananta was considered among the first of its kind in the country.
Housing the works of many legendary recording artists from Gesang to Titiek Puspa, the music establishment was treasured for its priceless archives consisting of 5,670 master recordings and 53,000 vinyl records.
Over the last few decades since the 1990s, a good few years after its heyday, however, it infamously fell into extreme disrepair, its soundproofed walls crumbling slowly, its roof leaking in streams and its vinyl pressings gathering layers of dust.
