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Aksan Sjuman and the Committee of the Fest: Harmony in dissonance
Sound adventure: The members of Aksan Sjuman and the Committee of the Fest are (from left to right) Dion Janapria, Mery Kasiman, Aksan Sjuman, Indra Perkasa, Kartika Jahja and Nikita Dompas
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Sound adventure: The members of Aksan Sjuman and the Committee of the Fest are (from left to right) Dion Janapria, Mery Kasiman, Aksan Sjuman, Indra Perkasa, Kartika Jahja and Nikita Dompas. (Rumahkaryasjuman.com) (from left to right) Dion Janapria, Mery Kasiman, Aksan Sjuman, Indra Perkasa, Kartika Jahja and Nikita Dompas. (Rumahkaryasjuman.com)
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span class="inline inline-none">Sound adventure: The members of Aksan Sjuman and the Committee of the Fest are (from left to right) Dion Janapria, Mery Kasiman, Aksan Sjuman, Indra Perkasa, Kartika Jahja and Nikita Dompas. (Rumahkaryasjuman.com)
Aksan Sjuman thrives on the unpredictable when it comes to making music with Aksan Sjuman and the Committee of the Fest.
'When I took this project on stage, I didn't expect such an amazing response from the audience. When they asked for an encore, I thought, are they serious?' said a smiling Aksan when recalling a performance with the Committee of the Fest at a packed Java Jazz Festival in 2009.
'It amazed me how the music resonates with people every time we play live,' he said of his new musical adventure, an experimental rock group, which he described as 21st century art music.
For Aksan Sjuman and the Committee of the Fest, the jazz-influenced drummer recruited the help of like-minded bandmates Nikita Dompas and Dion Janapria on guitar, Mery Kasiman on keyboard, Indra Perkasa on contrabass and Kartika Jahja on vocals, to complete the band's experimental vision.
The band's name came from Aksan. 'It seemed like every day, in some part of the world, somebody is celebrating something. Therefore, every day is a celebration of something. We are the Committee of the Fest, because I guess, we were the first ones to realize it!' Aksan said while smiling.
The festiveness behind the name would explain the cover of Realitas Khayal (Imagined Reality), the band's newest album, which was designed to reflect different personalities, faces and colors in a collage depicting a frantic homage to experimentation.
'Why do we seem so festive?' asked Aksan. 'It's because we are a colorful band.'
The colorful songs in Realitas Khayal possess their own stand-out qualities. '[The album] is like a movie which starts out as a drama, but ends up in tragedy, with a little comedy in between,' vocalist Kartika explained.
Her descriptions could be heard as the album jumps through moods and sounds, channeling the intense sense of emotional freedom one could hear in Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, with the music traversing vibes and styles.
The opening track, 'Death of the Prophet' is distinct due to its fierce circular guitar riff that serves as the only sense of structure in the track. The album then continues into 'Hungry', an ode to self-control, presented as a free-jazz influenced implosion of dissonant sounds and intense lyrical delivery. The unpredictability continues with the psychedelic 'Love as a Punishment' paving the way for the King Crimson-esque piece 'Candu Cinta' (Love Addiction). The menacing happiness on 'World as a Festival' serves as a surprisingly fit path toward 'Hidden Track', which is a subtle reprise, sonically true to its 'Hidden' title, to the spoken word approach heard on 'Candu Cinta'.
The melodic dissonance prevails in the music; giving the perfect atmosphere to Kartika's distorted lyrics. 'When it came to the lyrics, Aksan would give me a sentence and I would freely interpret that my own way,' she explained, adding that her on-the-spot lyrics at the time of recording were influenced by Biblical themes, which she would interpret her own way.
Realitas Khayal was launched at an event at Largo Bistrot in Jl. Benda, Kemang, South Jakarta, last month. During the event, the band played an intense improvised five-song set, replicating the dissonance of the album.
'Whenever you want to come in [to the song], you come in,' Indra said, subtly explaining the group's schizophrenic musical mind-set.
The bulk of Realitas Khayal's recording was completed in one day in 2007. When asked why the band chose to release the album in 2014, the band answered that aside from the difficulty of assembling the constantly busy band members, it was because of the current musical climate was more welcoming to experimental music.
'I think if we released the album in 2007, it would have had a different response,' said guitarist Nikita Dompas. 'Today's musical climate is open to experimentation. What we made connects with the younger creative mind-set of today. Something as weird as this is more acceptable now than a few years ago,' he added.
In the seven years leading up to the release, Aksan explained that the band was offered gigs almost every year, saying no two performances were similar.
Aksan also noticed that their audience would run free with their own interpretations of the music that they heard. (dyl)
