AIAA Music Shop

Indonesian, Folk and World Music

This Music Shop is a fundraising activity of Australia Indonesia Arts Alliance. 20% of all sales go to fulfilling the Aims of AIAA. AIAA is a non-profit-sharing organisation.
Please send order and payment to:

AIAA
PO Box 484
Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia
Phone: (61) 02 6695 7789

CDs' for sale

If you are interested in purchasing some Indonesian music, AIAA has some great CD's available.

Trio Madois “Crisscrossing”CD Review by Samantha Hall
Arimba Culture Exchange, 2002

Play Crisscrossing, lay back and close your eyes while the music leads you on an aural journey between Australian and Indonesian musicality, atmosphere and culture. Crisscrossing is the debut album for Trio Madois. It melds traditional Indonesian (karawitan) style and instruments with flute, piano and lyrics of Australian Margaret Bradley, underpinned by the philosophies of two styles of culture – not an easy task, particularly as this album explores the major differences between them. Margaret is a teacher and composer who has studied in Australia and Indonesia. She spent the last twenty years ‘criss crossing’ between both countries and lyrically expresses the spiritual and cultural differences, and her uncertainty of ‘belonging’ to either country, in collaboration with two Sundanese musicians, Dody Satya Ekagustidiman and Ismet Ruchimat from West Java.

The album features the gentle harp like sounds of the kacapi (the Sundanese zither), the Indian tabla, and suling, the Sundanese bamboo flute. Starting with a high energy heralding piece, typical of Indonesian composition, Criss Crossing transitions through aural reflections of history, emotions, sights and sounds, with the rhythm of bass, cha cha and samba stirred into the mix. Track two ‘Jembatan Naik Asia Afrika/The Bridge Into Asia Afrika’ evokes an aural landscape – music and voices gently rise, rest then swell, gaining a sense of urgency, and then landing again, musically describing the famous Jalan Asia Afrika, in Bandung West Java, the commemorative street of the first conference between Asia and Africa held in 1955. Rhythmic and bass sounds are prominent in tracks three through six, juxtaposing two atmospheres, as Margaret makes reference to “foreign fish flying over the ocean” and landscape patterns of urban and rural colliding. It is not until track seven ‘Impressions Into Crisscross’ that Margaret writes with the most honesty; “the challenge remains/defining my identity/a fish out of water/or a local”. The lyrics (which are sung in both Bahasa Indonesia and English) expose the question of identity, as if written straight from her diary - the words written before the music, the music providing the pathway for the words; “when I fly away|I start to think of all the days|spent confronting my life|it never stops”. Margaret’s flute melodies dance and weave around Dody’s kacapi and the percussive rhythms and ornamented suling melodies played by Ismet, becoming another voice, an extension of her own. Crisscrossing has a subtle aural shift, from the celebratory start through reflection and question, but fortunately it is not so sharp as to detract from the meditative style. Given the chance I would change the track order and close the album with the high energy of the second last track ‘Impressions into Crisscross’, a final contemplation of the essence of the cultural divide. So few Australians know of the richness of Indonesian culture. Crisscrossing is a great musical introduction.

Swara Naga

Metal Magic CD $30 plus postage
Metal Magic is a new CD of Indonesian music by the Australian group Swara Naga, and is to be released in early March on the NEA label. The 12 tracks range in style from traditional Sundanese pieces of gamelan degung music to "fusion" compositions incorporating Western instruments and techniques. Over half the tracks are original pieces composed by members of the group.

Swara Naga is based in Armidale NSW, but tours widely. This year the group performed at Woodford Folk Festival and has been invited to BEAT, an international festival of gamelan music in Wellington, NZ at the end of March

The Metal Magic cassette or tape is available for $15. It has 8 tracks.

Educational Resources

  • The Angklung Book - $16 plus postage
    Bi-lingual book of over 30 Indonesian songs and angklung music notes, as well as directions of how to play and teach Angklung.

  • The Angklung Tape - cassette tape $12
    Recording of Indonesian songs from the Angklung Book

Not Just Music by GengGong.

Australian Indonesian cross cultural mix with some Bulgarian Bagpipes. Very fine musicians, I'd say the best Indonesian contemporary music I have had the pleasure of listening to. Well put together, original sounds, newly released on the band's return from their successfull tour of Indonesia, 'GengGong' is an absolute triumph!
Price$25

Magical Match by Krakatau.

A magical match between eastern and western musical traditions. The band mixes a huge vaiety of sounds to fuse together an original album, with electric sounds from keyboards, Drums, Percussion, trumpet and vocals by Trie Utami there is no shortage of variety between tracks.
Price $29

Famle Drums

Hand-crafted drums created by Fred and Made Coblyn from Myocum, NSW. Sculptured drums made from camphor laurel trees - every drum is a work of art - unique in shape, design and character. Standard djembe drums made from pohon pasir - sand wood, using galvanised rings, goat and kangaroo skins.

Djembe


medium to large - $290 small size - $170

Sculptured Drums


Vary in price according to size and detail. $450, $720 +

If you would like buy any of the above items, please send your order and cheque to AIAA PO Box 484 Byron Bay 2481, Phone no: 02 66857789.Email: aiaa@aiaa.org.au