We’ve taken the COVID-19 downtime to develop new shadow theater techniques, applying them to new and existing crankies and music. Coming soon!
Category: Recordings
Jali-Jali on Line Today
Social media aggregator Line Today reposted our video of Jali-Jali, calling it “luar biasa fasih” (extraordinarily fluent). It soared past 100k views in a week!
Check out the thread on facebook but be sure to check out the full-resolution version below.
Akar video: live performance with crankie & shadow puppets
Last September was the US premiere of Akar, our intercultural retelling of Jack & the Beanstalk, here in Richmond Virginia, following our tour of Java.
Dust Up magazine reviews our debut album
Dust Up reviewed our debut album Rumput in their feature Bandcamp of the Week.
…melodies and break-downs that make Indonesia feel like a short highway ride away, instead of on the opposite side of a globe….
While that’s something that specifically speaks to us in 2017, it’s also a timeless inspiration, which is ultimately what Rumput has beautifully created here.
New video: John Henry
Check out John Henry, the first release from our forthcoming self-titled album.
More to come soon! Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
Album release!
Our self-titled debut album is available for streaming and FREE downloads on bandcamp!
See the album page for more info.
New video: Jali-Jali
Halo dari Bandung!
Java residency and scholarships
We’re excited to announce several emerging long-range developments.
We often call ourselves Richmond’s first and only orkes kroncong. That’s true, but it seems we’re actually the only active kroncong group in North America. We’ve been gratified by the positive recognition we’ve received for playing this music that is very dear to Indonesians: for every view our YouTube channel gets here in the US, we get 45 in Indonesia.
In the coming weeks we will deepen that connection. In August we are all being flown to Bandung, Java, for a 12-day residency where we’ll perform several hours a day and collaborate with local musicians.
Then singer / cakista / bandleader Hannah, bassist Natalie, and puppeteer Edward will stay on for a year of immersive study — Hannah as a Fulbright scholar studying kroncong, and Natalie and Edward as Darmasiswa scholars studying gamelan and wayang (shadow theater), respectively. (See the writeup on the VCU Music Alumni Kudos blog.)
Before our scholars depart we’ll drop into Montrose Recording in July to document some of our current repertoire. Then the rest of us stateside will retool and learn new and adapted repertoire in collaboration with master musician and visiting Fulbright Scholar Danis Sugiyanto from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, in residence at the University of Richmond during the spring 2018 semester. (You may have seen Danis perform with us as part of the Shadow Ballads tour in 2016.)
All of this means you have only one last opportunity to catch us in our current form: June 16 at Henrico Theater with Gamelan Raga Kusuma. Come out and see how far we’ve come in the last two years; we can scarcely imagine the next two!
Rumput live on WRIR
Many thanks to Carl Hamm of If Music Could Talk for hosting us for a little chat and in-studio performance in support of our Grace Street Theater show!
Shockoe Sessions
In Your Ear Studios invited us to play in their Shockoe Sessions series. Such a fantastic room and a wonderful audience! Watch this space for videos, etc.