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Alkisah (CN Edition)

by Senyawa

supported by
ben26
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ben26 What an amazing discovery thanks to Gimme Metal, a great introduction to Indonesian Metal on the Senyawa special! \m/
Martin Visser
Martin Visser thumbnail
Martin Visser Pretty mind blowing. But as with the Stone Rivver remix compilation, Zaliva-D steals the show with their version. I´m afraid Zaliva-D rules, listen to their album Sky Singing! Favorite track: CD - Menuju Muara (Zaliva-D Remix).
Eric K
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Eric K Of all the decentralized releases of Alkisah, I put my $ on this one b/c of the banging remixes, the strongest lot. The original Senyawa trax are unparalleled doom, but my fave remix = "Istana (33EMYBW Remix)" which is like the nightmare lovechild of Sleazy (of TG & Coil) & Phurpa. Favorite track: LP Side B - Alkisah II 往昔 - 曲貳.
Jordan Vauvert
Jordan Vauvert thumbnail
Jordan Vauvert Quiconque connaît Antonin Artaud et le théâtre balinais sait que le folklore indonésien n'est pas à prendre à la légère car il n'a pas son pareil pour faire sortir de son propre corps. Senyawa le prouve aussi avec Alkisah, son album iconique. Le duo de Jogjakarta rassemble des styles dont la rencontre était improbable : drone à la précision mathématique et improvisations ("Alkisah I"), drone et musique tribale ("Istana"), et tout ça sur un chant cadencé prenant. WV Sorcerer libère l'esprit ! Favorite track: LP Side A - Istana 宮殿.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €12 EUR  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    CN Special Edition (2nd Press):

    -12" Pale Grey/Green Marble LP
    - Printed ALKISAH Patch (size 11.5cm x 16.5cm)

    - Reverse-board Heavy Gatefold Cover
    - Obi & Full Lyrics
    - Exclusive Remix CD (9 tracks from artists of Mainland China & Hong Kong)
    - Postcards x12, Recording Session Photos
    - Limited Edition of 100 (Only a part to sell outside CN)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Alkisah (CN Edition) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 9 days
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 88 WV Sorcerer Productions 巫唱片 releases available on Bandcamp and save 60%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of 行歌走月 Strolling in the Moon, 旣 Apeiron, 魂靈獨居者 Soul Solitary, Musique Cryptique (Live in Li​​​è​​​ge), This is the Harsh Trip for New Psyche, Π​έ​τ​ρ​α (Petra), A Cast of Memories, Genesis of Cyclopian Sorcerer, and 80 more. , and , .

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  • 12" Gatefold Dark Green Marble LP + Exclusive Remix CD
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    CN Special Edition:

    -12" Dark Green Marble LP
    - Reverse Board Heavy Gatefold Cover
    - Obi & Full Lyrics
    - Exclusive Remix CD (9 tracks from artists of Mainland China & Hong Kong)
    - Postcards x12, Recording Session Photos
    - Large A2 Poster
    - Limited Edition of 150
    (Only a part of the whole press to sell outside CN)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Alkisah (CN Edition) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • 12" Gatefold Black LP + Exclusive Remix CD
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    CN Special Edition:

    -12" Black LP
    - Reverse-board Heavy Gatefold Cover
    - Obi & Full Lyrics
    - Exclusive Remix CD (9 tracks from artists of Mainland China & Hong Kong)
    - Postcards x12, Recording Session Photos
    - Large A2 Poster
    - Limited Edition of 150
    (Only a part of the whole press to sell outside CN)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Alkisah (CN Edition) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • 2nd Press - 12" Gatefold Ultra-clear Transparent Green LP + Exclusive Remix CD
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    CN Special Edition (2nd Press):

    -12" Ultra-clear Transparent Green LP
    - Printed ALKISAH Patch (size 11.5cm x 16.5cm)

    - Reverse-board Heavy Gatefold Cover
    - Obi & Full Lyrics
    - Exclusive Remix CD (9 tracks from artists of Mainland China & Hong Kong)
    - Postcards x12, Recording Session Photos
    - Limited Edition of 100 (Only a part to sell outside CN)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Alkisah (CN Edition) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

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about

▼WV 050 / 051: SENYAWA - ALKISAH (CN Special Edition)

WV Sorcerer is honored to present you the new album of Indonesian avant-garde duo SENYAWA: “ALKISAH”.

The word "SENYAWA" in Indonesian has many layers. It can mean chemical compound and can also mean "becoming one soul".

“ALKISAH” describes a story of a collapsing civilization, the people realized the end is near and intended to create a better world for the future to survive the apocalypse. Nevertheless, the destruction is inevitable and doomsday is upon them.

Deep and powerful drone/industrial/tribal sound delivered directly from Yogyakarta of Java Island, with fire and ashes. This is a perfect album for WV Sorcerer’s aural and visual esthetic.

For this special edition, we have gathered several artists from Mainland China and Hong Kong, to interpret their own remix and recreation.

From psychedelic guitar feedback, dark pop, electric cello drone, tribal techno to harsh noise, every musician presents their own imagination about each chapter of "ALKISAH".

▼Remix artists:
盛潔 gogoj a.k.a Sheng Jie / Zaliva-D / 卓奇 Chucki / 33EMYBW / Nerve / 若潭 Ruò Tán / 王子衡 Wang Ziheng / Torturing Nurse / Beau Mahadev / 李劍鴻 Li Jianhong

LP comes in a heavy gatefold cover, with obi, exclusive remix CD, recording session photo postcards and a large A2 poster.
Tape version will be released by 無害 Mouhoi and 琪琪音像 Qiii Snacks Records.

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“Indonesian duo Senyawa is one of the most intense live bands in the world.”
- Red Bull Music Academy

“Senyawa can be counted among the most thrilling, edgy and original live performance units anywhere in the world.”
- The Wire

“Senyawa forged a sound that brings with it another dimension of weight, one that can’t be measured.”
- The Quietus

“Senyawa`s music rises from the belly of the beast and crawls out of its gaping maw.”
- Pitchfork

“Generally speaking, Senyawa operate on a force-of-nature level.”
- Resident Advisor


‘Alkisah’ is an apocalyptic album for apocalyptic times – but it’s not a doom-and-gloom record. As Rully points out, “it’s not about saying ‘oh, the world is ending and there’s nothing we can do about it’.” Instead, ‘Alkisah’ is about preparing for life in the aftermath, and rebuilding after a collapse (and not necessarily a physical one, either). It’s about coming up with new strategies, ideas, and methods for practice in a post-apocalyptic world. The big question for the band itself, Rully says, is “how do we, as musicians, cope with times like the present?”

- Azzief Khaliq, NME
www.nme.com/en_asia/features/senyawa-indonesian-experimentalists-new-album-alkisah-2021-interview-2828013

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It’s difficult to characterise Senyawa without leaning on inaccurate tropes or multihyphenates. From Indonesian gamelan to apocalyptic folk, post-punk, no wave, stoner metal and dark-doom-psychedelic-ritualcore, the Javanese duo’s output encapsulates such wide swathes of influences so as to be nearly impossible to summarise.

Their unprecedented style derives in large part from their unconventional instrumentation. Over the course of ten years and about as many releases Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi have honed a semi-improvisational sound forged from the percussive clattering and ceremonial mood of their homemade bambuwukir. The device, the size and shape of a tube zither, is sheathed in rows of metal and bamboo strings that emit a remarkable range of otherworldly tonalities and textures. On their newest album Alkisah it’s joined by another of Suryadi’s homemade creations built from a spatula and an electric guitar. Their combined effect is more industrially angular than the band’s past work, eliciting a symphony of pulverising riffs and guttural roars that sounds as if they’ve hatched straight from the fires and slimes of Middle Earth.

Alkisah’s feral march is the backdrop to a tale of impending destruction. The album, whose title loosely translates to Once Upon A Time, tells the dystopic fable of a formerly rich and powerful country approaching its dissolution. The story starts as the government crumbles. In “Menuju Muara”, or “Towards the Estuary”, the society disbands to create a new civilisation from the ground up. Pitch-shifting harmonics and gauzy, reverb-drenched background vocals sweep and stutter, punctuated by repeating power chords and a cacophony of metallic recordings. The loose rhythmic jam is reminiscent of early Einstürzende Neubauten before it evolves into a sludge metal dirge.

By “Kabau” an echoing chorus of screams and wails merge into a singular vocal line. The new world order, which has collapsed into yet another bloody insurrection, looks to the traditional wisdom of these chanted Minang proverbs that bring the album to a haunting close. It seems, for all their novelty, as though Senyawa speak to something more ancient in these images – the timeworn threat of empire building and supremacy’s inevitable fall.
- Chloé Lula, The Wire

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「 2014年的時候在德累斯頓的一個電子音樂節演出,第一次看到Senyawa的現場,嚇壞了,他們的音樂即原始又迷人,主唱誇張戲劇性的演唱方式象一個叢林里的國王,聲色俱厲的講著一些聽不懂的故事,巫術般的召喚出那些故事里的人物,樂手很酷像個溫暖的小鬼。沒想到6年後能做他們新專輯里的一首Remix,榮幸了。」
- 盛潔

「他們的音樂結合了人聲吟唱和自制樂器,有著濃濃的爪哇部落感。其中自制樂器的 Wukir Suryadi 更是一位有名的樂器制造家,他最著名的創作是由一根長長竹子做成,在上方綁著鋼弦,功能與樣貌類似電吉他的概念。經過不同的效果器,改變並放大樂器本身的音色。這樣的聲音可以制造出巨大音場,Wukir 的演奏有著傳統爪哇音樂的空間感,配合 Rully 現場吟唱,讓聽者仿佛進入巫毒世界的異次元。Senyawa 的音樂融合了實驗與噪音,並將傳統的爪哇特色融合其中,他們的音樂致力於將傳統帶入當代,並用全新方式詮釋,創造出超越想像的當代印尼風格。」
- 何灝(上海藝平台)


「 在融合中突顯個體特質,又在個性中回歸集體的意識,巫的音樂更像一種觸媒、一種介質——連接、轉化天與地、肉與靈、迷信與科技、人與系統。」
- 這是無解音樂網對WV Sorcerer巫唱片的一段描述,但是用來形容Senyawa的音樂特別合適,這份出品,完全契合了巫唱片的一貫審美風格。

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Jogjakarta’s Senyawa uniquely manage to embody the sonic influences of Javanese music through the framework of experimental music practice—pushing and pulling the boundaries of both traditions. Their music strikes a perfect balance between their avant-garde influences and cultural heritage to create truly contemporary Indonesian music.

Their sound is comprised of Rully Shabara’s deft extended vocal techniques punctuating the frenetic neo-tribalism of instrument builder, Wukir Suryadi’s modern-primitive instrumentation. Inventions like his handcrafted ‘Bamboo Spear’; a thick stem of bamboo strung up with percussive strips of the plant’s skin along side steel strings. Amplified it fuses elements of traditional Indonesian instrumentation with garage guitar distortion. Sonically dynamic, the instrument can be rhythmically percussive on one side whilst being melodically bowed and plucked on the other.

They have collaborated and performed with many notable musicians such as Stephen O'Malley, Yoshida Tatsuya, Lucas Abela, KK Null, Keiji Haino, Jon Sass, Damo Suzuki, Jerome Cooper, David Shea and Kazu Ushihashi. In 2012 they completed a film in collaboration with French filmmaker Vincent Moon.

credits

released February 21, 2021

SENYAWA

Wukir Suryadi: custom instruments
Rully Shabara: lyrics, vocals

Recorded & mixed by Iwan Karak at Eloprogo, September 2020
Soundscape of Eloprogo recorded by Tesaran
Digital version mastered by Marlon Wolterink at White Noise Studio
LP mastered by Cordey Lopez
Remix tracks mastered by Cyril Meysson

Minang proverbs on “Kabau”
compiled by Taufik Adam
Drawings by Sopeng
Design & layout by Ruò Tán 若潭
Recording session photography by Reza Darwin

WV Sorcerer Productions 巫唱片 2021
LP: WV 050 / Remix CD: WV 051
www.facebook.com/wvsorcerer
soundcloud.com/wv-sorcerer
www.youtube.com/c/wvsorcerer
Instagram: @wv_sorcerer_productions


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WV Sorcerer Productions 巫唱片 France

Avant-garde esoteric music label.
Based in France & China.

noise
drone
ambient
free jazz
black metal
psychedelic
esoteric tribal
ritual industrial
traditional music
free improvisation

Human decadence & cosmic existence.
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