Pre-order of BUNYI BUNYI TUMBAL. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
BUNYI BUNYI TUMBAL 12" Vinyl. Pressed on black vinyl with sturdy carton-board outer and black inner sleeve. Vinyl includes tracks 1 through 12.
Edition of 300.
Written, recorded, and mixed by Aditya Surya Taruna (aka Kasimyn)
Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk (Berlin, GE)
Artwork by Kasimyn
Includes digital pre-order of BUNYI BUNYI TUMBAL.
You get 2 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
In Kasimyn’s own words BUNYI BUNYI TUMBAL translates to ‘Synthetic Feeling for Anonymous Sacrifice’; the mixed and inexplicable emotions aroused from browsing the Indonesian war archives from various sources for years, which marked the commencement of the project HULUBALANG. Instigated by the secondary characters in the pictures, the unimportant ones, the unnamed, uncredited trivial props in history, mere tools in ‘lessons learned’ from the sides of the conquerors and the defeated, TUMBAL, the non-belligerent ‘sacrifice’, takes a turn to mean more than its translation, neither a victim of nor a martyr for civilization, but a curse of the system that continues to disappoint.
Alas, the album should not be thought of as political in any sense, it is a personal ‘letting go’ of a long lineage of anger; a tribute to some small village whose ritualistic dance one night was disrupted by external forces, causing the tune to become broken; a dance that was dragged out, wonky between innocence and pain.
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Kusnah walked slowly on the edge of a sand dune, across the coastline. It's safer here, she thought. On the horizon she saw a mirage, a fata morgana. In her mind, thinking of fata morgana as a destination is a better objective than the fact that she has to stay and live in the village: her body is needed for offerings, perhaps for the gods who are thirsty for the anatomy of human body or for the cults of development that is built by blood and the construction of fractured human bones. Perhaps as a political sacrifice too. For her, in a landscape where politics is intertwined with zoē, that's where the world really is at work.
While gazing at the piles of oysters on the beach, in her head she heard a peculiar party music with dank beats and messy strings. An umwelt. This was a victory song that she often plays loud in her mind when she feels defeated—however, not losing, but giving in. In her life, she spent more time giving in. She looked at the pile of oysters. Why do humans see oysters as lowly creatures compared to more advanced species like them? Oh more precisely, she remembered Plato’s comparison of a hedonist man with an oyster. Live only in the moment of the here and now.
But Kusnah felt she was a hedonist. She lives for the here and now. She lives not for progress. To hell with the progress and development. She lives to experience time. She lives for jouissance. So for her, Plato had a point. As she looked at the oyster again very carefully, the weird music in her head transmitted louder and louder. She asked herself: as hedonist animals who just stay quiet and experience the waves, do these oysters also have music that revolves around their bodies and makes them feel victorious amidst an ocean of defeats?
Kusnah's gaze grew intense. From behind, came the sound of human footsteps running in a crowd. One, two, three, four the familiar sound of boots stomping. Five, six, seven, the clapping of ugly flip-flops. The fata morgana on the sand dune was instantly broken up by a bloodthirsty mob. As time went on, she heard faint screams. "That's her!" sounds vague but firm. The steps became louder. The music in Kusnah's head played louder. It didn't take long for her to start dancing. Like a possessed ghost, many people say. She wasn't in a trance, she was just enjoying the music playing in her head. Tens of people started to look in high-definition when Kusnah opened her eyelids.
"We will offer you to the gods of progress!" shouted the men with machetes and cleavers in their hands. Kusnah dances like she is out-of-body possessed. "Come on! Take her!” the men rushed to Kusnah, carrying ropes to tie her up. Kusnah smiled widely, while unable to control her dancing body.
"Take my body, but I will never share the hulubalang that roars in my mind!"
Kusnah's head separated from her body, right after she shouted those words.
Riar Rizaldi
Written while listening to Hulubalang’s first album (translated from Indonesian)
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Aditya Surya Taruna (aka Kasimyn) is one half of the Indonesian electronic duo Gabbar Modus Operandi known for their acclaimed records PUXXXIMAXXX and HOXXXYA (out via Yes No Wave and SVBKVLT, respectively) and overwhelming, hyper-active and unprecedented live experiences which have made them a popular act on several festivals of experimental music. In 2022, Kasimyn contributed with beats on Björk's latest album, Fossora, featured on three tracks: "Atopos", "Trölla-Gabba", and "Fossora”, and appears in two of the album’s music videos Atopos and Fossora. After joining Björk on her Cornucopia tour in Japan, Kasimyn is announcing his solo album on Drowned by Locals under his new project HULUBALANG.
credits
releases June 26, 2023
Written, recorded, and mixed by Aditya Surya Taruna (aka Kasimyn)
Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk (Berlin, GE)
Artwork by Kasimyn
Album text by Riar Rizaldi