TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jazz-electro experimentalist Aryo Adhianto ventures out with debut solo album
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Wine music: On his new album "Sintaksis", soloist Aryo Adhianto creates challenging, experimental electronic music that you can sip wine to. (Aryo Adhianto) (Personal collection/Courtesy of Aryo Adhianto)
A
fter the hiatus of his well-respected group Space System, Aryo Adhianto moved on from his keyboard-based jazz into a more challenging rhythm-oriented minimalist electronic sound.
For Aryo Adhianto, playing music has always been about learning and experimenting. The 39-year-old keyboardist burst into Jakarta's independent music scene more than a decade ago with his now on-hiatus electronic jazz group Space System and his solo project, A Fine Tuning Creation. But it’s been almost five years since he put out any new material. After teasing us with a very short EP back in June, Aryo has just released Sintaksis, his full-length debut under his birth name, Aryo Adhianto — perhaps a sign of him coming into his own.
Compared to his previous efforts, Sintaksis feels even more challenging and abstract. Each composition relies on rhythm-oriented minimalist electronic sounds that free-flow into generative bleeps and bloops. Some parts recall the pattern of traditional Indonesian music and others wouldn’t be out of place being played in an underground nightclub somewhere.
Aryo conceded that Sintaksis is the result of his exploration in sound design and rhythm using a new device as he put aside his main instrument, keyboard.
“Back then, I would make sketches of my music on a piano, looking for melodies and chords, but since 2018, I’ve been exploring sequencing on the music software Ableton, so I’ve put melodies aside for a moment,” Aryo explained. “Now, I just use sequencing with very minimal tracks, mostly four. I wanted to explore the possibilities of just using this one device. I just got bored of [making music the way I used to] and wanted to try something new — it was that simple."
Affinity for jazz
Taking music lessons from an organ tunggal player (solo keyboardist that usually plays background music at weddings) in the second grade, Aryo started his musical journey on a Technics KN 1200 keyboard playing at family events.
