Peni Candra Rini album Wulansih released

Available now for free streaming and digital or vinyl purchase on Bandcamp, frequent visiting artist Peni Candra Rini‘s album Wulansih was officially released Friday July 12, 2024.

From label New Amsterdam’s press release:

The 8 songs on Wulansih exert a deep sense of spiritual calm and act as, in Rini’s words, “a reminder that you are still human, listening to expressions of other humans.” Her music is deeply inspired by the poetry of Rumi and Hafez, Wayang Kulit (Indonesian shadow play), and Serat, the tradition of Sufi thought in Central Javanese court poetry. Rini says that Wulansih aims to “express my inner feelings, my soul, to provide inspiration to younger Indonesian composers, and to introduce Indonesian new compositions to new global audiences.”

Rumput is featured on her original composition Warasih, recorded at Montrose Recording in Richmond. Andy features on every track as performer, co-arranger, and co-producer. A minimalist treatment of the traditional keroncong tune Jenang Gula features selo and guitar from Andy and John plus beautiful subtle additions from Shahzad Ismaily on guitar and Curt Sydnor on synthesizer. Other tracks feature experimental compositions and group improvisations featuring Andy, Shahzad and a rotating crew of stellar guest musicians at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn.

Peni Candra Rini at Reveler with Rumput and Gamelan Raga Kusuma

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From traditional performances in small Javanese villages, to performing with the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall, Peni has performed around the world.

Peni Candra Rini composes and performs traditional, neotraditional, and experimental music from Java. Faculty at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, she has received awards and support from the Aga Khan Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council (NYC), the Asia Society (NYC), the US State Department, the Fulbright Program (Washington DC), the Indonesian government, and many other programs. She has composed and performed with renowned musicians and ensembles around the world: from traditional performances in small Javanese villages, to performing with the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall, to touring the world as part of Robert Wilson’s I La Galigo project.

Peni Candra Rini is the daughter of a master puppeteer from East Java Indonesia, and one of few female contemporary composers, songwriters, poets, and vocalists who performs sinden, a soloist-female style of gamelan singing. Strongly committed to preserving and sharing the musical traditions of her country, Candra Rini has created many musical compositions for vocals, gamelan, and karawitan, and has collaborated with various artists worldwide, including Katsura Kan, Noriko Omura, Aki Bando, Kiyoko Yamamoto (JP), Found Sound Nation New York, Elena Moon Park (USA), Ali Tekbas (Turkey), Mehdi Nassouli (Morocco), Asma Ghanem (Palestine), Rodrigo Parejo (Spain), among many others.

Candra Rini has collaborated with various gamelan groups from all over the world, and has performed at major festivals including Mascot SIPA Solo International Performing Arts 2016, TEDx Ubud 2019, Big Ears Festival 2019, Mapping Melbourne 2018 Multicultural Art Festival, International Gamelan Festival 2018 Surakarta, Indonesian Tong-Festival Festival 2018 in The Hague, Holland Festival 2017, WOMADelaide festival 2014 in Adelaide, Spoleto Dei Duo Mondi Festival 2013, and Lincoln Center White Light Festival 2011. Her recorded albums include Ayom (2019), Timur (2018), Agni (2017), Mahabharata – Kurusetra War (2016), Daughter of the Ocean (2016), Bhumi(2015), Sekar (2012), and Bramara (2010).

In 2012, Candra Rini completed an artist residency at the California Art Institute with funding from the Asian Cultural Council. During that time, she appeared as a guest artist at eight American universities and participated in master classes with vocal master Meredith Monk. In addition to this extensive work as a performer, Candra Rini is also a lecturer in the Karawitan Department, an Aga Khan Laureate, and a former Fulbright Scholar. In 2021, she earned a doctorate in Musical Arts from the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) in Surakarta.

Peni will perform traditional keroncong with Rumput, and traditional gamelan with Gamelan Raga Kusuma.

Peni Candra Rini: New music from Java at Spacebomb

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.

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.

Peni Candra Rini: New music from Java at The Hill Center, Washington DC

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.

Peni Candra Rini: New music from Java at P.I.T., Brooklyn NY

 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.

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.

Peni Candra Rini, Baba Commandant & the Mandingo Band, and Mowder Oyal at LeMondo, Baltimore

BABA COMMANDANT 

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).