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One last spin: Remembering legendary record store owner Lian Nasution
With his streetside record store and extensive knowledge of music, Lian Nasution became a local legend of sorts.
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Happy place: Lian laughs among his record collection. (Personal collection/Courtesy of Shunsuke Izumimoto)
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mong the sprawling antique businesses along Jl. Surabaya, Menteng, in Central Jakarta, one store has stood the test of time: a modest-looking roadside shop that has become a meeting spot for all kinds of music lovers from all over the world. It is a beloved record store owned by Lian Nasution, who passed away on July 13 at age 59 from a mix of liver complications and diabetes.
People would flock there just to converse with fellow collectors and the shop owner, spin a record or two, and start digging for vintage Indonesian records. They would go home with vinyl records or cassettes that Bang Lian, as he is commonly known, would recommend.
“If you like that, then you’ll love this,” he was wont to say.
But most importantly, they would go home knowing they would come back again. Not just for the collection, but for Bang Lian’s presence himself. His friendliness never failed to draw visitors in. His streetside shop has seen famous visitors such as Swedish band The Cardigans, Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Ros and superstar Katy Perry.
Jl. Surabaya’s central figure
“In the early 2000s, when vinyl records were not as popular as they are now, my friends and I in Jakarta who liked vinyl would go to Jl. Surabaya,” Samson Pho, owner of Laidback Blues Record Store in Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta, told the The Jakarta Post on July 14. “It has since become a routine for collectors to go there, hunting records and whatnot,” he said.
