In addition to our traditional keroncong repertoire this show will feature two new ensembles performing experimental music from Java: an electric keroncong group that incorporates elements of surf-rock, noise, and metal, and a new percussion ensemble playing groove-oriented accompaniment on a hybrid set of gamelan & western drum kit.
Compositions by Peni Candra Rini, I Wayan Sadra, Danis Sugiyanto, Zoel Mistortoify, and Andy McGraw.
Renowned Indonesian singer Peni Candra Rini presents a concert of new music from Java, ranging from new works for traditional instruments to avant-rock compositions from her new album produced by members of Deerhoof. Peni will be supported by the Balinese master musician Gusti Sudarta and Richmond musicians.
In addition to our traditional keroncong repertoire this show will feature two new ensembles performing experimental music from Java: an electric keroncong group that incorporates elements of surf-rock, avant-noise, and metal, and a new percussion ensemble playing groove-oriented accompaniment on a hybrid set of gamelan & western drum kit.
Compositions by Peni Candra Rini, I Wayan Sadra, Danis Sugiyanto, Zoel Mistortoify, and Andy McGraw.
In addition to our traditional keroncong repertoire this show will feature two new ensembles performing experimental music from Java: an electric keroncong group that incorporates elements of surf-rock, noise, and metal, and a new percussion ensemble playing groove-oriented accompaniment on a hybrid set of gamelan & western drum kit.
Compositions by Peni Candra Rini, I Wayan Sadra, Danis Sugiyanto, Zoel Mistortoify, and Andy McGraw.
Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band are a contemporary group from Burkina Faso. Coming from Bobo-Dioulasso, the group is steeped in the Mandingue musical traditions of their ancestral legacy. The enigmatic lead singer Baba Commandant (Mamadou Sanou) is an original and eccentric character who is well respected in the Burkinabé musical community. A sort of punk Faso Dan Fani activist for traditional Mandingo music, Baba continues to redefine the boundaries between traditional and modern. In 1981, he joined the Koule Dafourou troupe as a dancer. Later, he embarked on his current musical direction as a singer first in Dounia and then in the Afromandingo Band.
His current band — when he’s not playing with the now-famous Burkinabé musician Victor Démé — is the Mandingo Band. At present, he is a practitioner of the Afrobeat style, drawing inspiration from the golden era of Nigerian music. Fela Kuti/Africa 70 and King Sunny Adé are big influences, as is the legendary Malian growler Moussa Doumbia.
Baba Commandant plays the ngoni, the instrument of the Donso (the traditional hunters in this region of Burkina Faso and Mali). His audience comprises multiple generations and strata of Burkinabé society; he accordingly adapts his repertoire to his surroundings, which range from cabaret Sundays in Bobo-Dioulasso to the sound systems of Ouagadougou.
Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band are a formidable force steeped in Ouagadougou’s DIY underground musical culture. Juguya is their sound.
PENI CANDRA RINI
Peni is a renowned Javanese singer, composer, and faculty member at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts. Raised in an artistic family in a small fishing village in East Java, Peni first began studying voice at the age of 5 under her father, a village shadow master. She later moved to the Central Javanese town of Solo to study at the Indonesian National Conservatory of the Arts, where she completed her doctorate and was hired as faculty in 2020. She is a master of several traditional forms and is regarded as one of Indonesia’s most daring young composers, one of only a handful of female composers in the majority Muslim nation. The Kronos String Quartet is currently performing her latest chamber work, Maduswara, which they premiered this year at Carnegie Hall. She is a former recipient of grants from the Asian Cultural Council, is a two-time grantee of the US State Department’s One Beat Program and in 2022 was named an Aga Khan Foundation laureate of the arts. During the spring 2023 semester she will be teaching as a Visiting Fulbright Artist-Scholar at the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. Her latest experimental album is being produced in collaboration with Deerhoof’s John Dieterich.
MOWDER OYAL
Mowder Oyal is a quartet of musicians and multidisciplinary artists that make hardcore punk and free jazz at the same time. With rapper/actor/arts advocate Eze Jackson on vocals, musician and arts lawyer Adam Holofcener on guitar, Konjur Collective’s Bashi Rose on percussion, and Mind On Fire’s James Young on bassoon, Mowder Oyal (phonetic Baldamore-ese for “motor oil”) is a sonic supergroup providing the soundtrack for the there-is-never-not-a-pandemic-goin’-on era we are all indefinitely in. Past members include founding vocalist SHAN Wallace (AKA Lor Ugly Yo).
In addition to our traditional keroncong repertoire this show will feature two new ensembles performing experimental music from Java: an electric keroncong group that incorporates elements of surf-rock, noise, and metal, and a new percussion ensemble playing groove-oriented accompaniment on a hybrid set of gamelan & western drum kit.
Compositions by Peni Candra Rini, I Wayan Sadra, Danis Sugiyanto, Zoel Mistortoify, and Andy McGraw.
We’ve been working on new recordings of Javanese experimental music adapted for electric keroncong, incorporating sounds of surf-rock, avant-noise, and metal to accompany Peni’s wild, beautiful singing!
Compositions by Peni Candra Rini, Danis Sugiyanto, I Wayan Sadra, and Zoel Mistortoify.
It’s being mixed and mastered by John Dieterich of Deerhoof, who’s cranking up the amps and the experimentalism for a sound unlike anything we’ve heard. We’re still working out when and how it will be released, but catch a preview at one of our upcoming shows!
Renowned Indonesian singer Peni Candra Rini presents a concert of new music from Java, ranging from new works for traditional instruments to avant-rock compositions from her new album produced by members of Deerhoof. Peni will be supported by Balinese master musician Gusti Sudarta and local Richmond musicians.
In addition to our traditional keroncong repertoire this show will premiere two new ensembles performing experimental music from Java: an electric keroncong group that incorporates elements of surf-rock, noise, and metal, and a new percussion ensemble playing groove-oriented accompaniment on a hybrid set of gamelan & western drum kit.
This is our only confirmed gig featuring the full range of this repertoire in Richmond before we head off to DC, Baltimore, and NYC, so don’t miss it!
Early show — doors at 6!
Compositions by Peni Candra Rini, I Wayan Sadra, Danis Sugiyanto, Zoel Mistortoify, and Andy McGraw.
Peni Candra Rini, our guest artistic director for this season, was recently featured in Voice of America Indonesia for the premiere of her composition commissioned by Kronos Quartet. In the associated youtube video, Kronos violinist David Harrington asserts:
When you think about the repertoire of music that has been written for string quartet since about 1770, there’s absolutely nothing like Maduswara…. My hope is that audiences will say “I’ve never heard a string quartet sound like that; I’ve never heard Kronos sound like that. But now…I want to learn more about Peni’s work.”
Rini joined Kronos for Maduswara, singing and playing the rebab…. Rini’s tradition is Javanese music, and Maduswara was an involving evocation of this. Rini’s writing for the quartet kept the traditional rhythms while opening up the textures so that every vocal inflection, bent note, and move from a pentatonic to a Western major scale—and back—had an extra expressive edge.
Photo by Peter McElhinney for Style Weekly
Peni and Kronos recently joined in a panel discussion at the University of Richmond regarding her composition and their process of adapting it. Andy asked her to sing a passage from it, and the effect was wondrous: the members of Kronos, no strangers to awe-inspiring talent, all spoke of being deeply moved by the power of her voice in close proximity, and began to think aloud about how that sensation might change their performance technique, to represent not just the “flotando” (floating, flute-like) timbre but also the deep resonance.
Update: the truly great news following this premiere is that Kronos has commissioned 4 additional compositions from Peni!
Renowned Indonesian singer Peni Candra Rini presents a concert of new music from Java, ranging from new works for traditional instruments to avant-rock compositions from her new album produced by members of Deerhoof.
BABA COMMANDANT 
PENI CANDRA RINI
MOWDER OYAL
