INDONESIAN PROG ROCK PIONEERS: THE GANG OF HARRY ROESLI

Roesli was born with the full name Djauhar Zaharsjah Fachruddin Roesli in Bandung, East Java, on 10 September 1951; he was the youngest of Major General Roeshan Roesli's four children. In 1970, he enrolled in the aviation engineering program at the Bandung Institute of Technology. He also studied music under Remy Silado and Slamet Abdul Syukur.
In the early 1970s, Roesli formed The Gang of Harry Rusli. He released his debut solo album, Philosophy Gang, in 1973. Although initially interested in becoming a writer like his grandfather and writing numerous pieces of poetry, his work was never published. After his album with The Gang of Harry Rusli, he went to the Jakarta Art Educational Institute. then studied on scholarship at the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands for two years; he graduated in 1981.
Upon his return, Roesli began work on an avant-garde project mixing the sounds of Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, and Karlheinz Stockhausen with poetry by Yudhistira Ardi Noegraha. In 1982 Roesli began occasionally collaborating with Putu Wijaya; the two would sometimes go overseas together for performances. Roesli also collaborated with Nano Riantiarno's Teater Koma and several international troupes. He also took a position as professor of music at the Indonesia University of Education and Pasundan University, both in Bandung. Read More

GURUH GIPSY

Guruh Gipsy is basically a collaborative effort between Guruh Soekarno Putro - the fifth child of Indonesia's first President, Soekarno - and Gipsy. Guruh was born in Jakarta, 13 January 1953 and since his childhood her mother (Fatmawati) reckoned that he had strong passion for art and strong sense of accomplishment. Unlike his sister, Megawati, whom later became Indonesia's President, he pursued his dreams in art including music and choreography. He later established his own dance and music group called "Swaramaharddika" which was very famous in the 70s and 80s.

While Gipsy was basically a music group which its members are Nasution brothers: Gaury, Keenan, Odink, and Deby. It was previously established in 1966 under the name of Sabda Nada with members: Ponco Sutowo, Gaury Nasution, Joe-Am, Eddy, Edit, Roland and Keenan Nasution. They were very familiar with Balinese music and they ever did a gig at Bank Indonesia combining western with Balinese music with gamelan group led by Wayan Suparta Wijaya. In 1969 the band renamed themselves as Gipsy and the new line-up was established: Onan, Chrisye, Gaury, Tammy, dan Atut Harahap. They did cover for 70s groups like Procol Harum, King Crimson, ELP, Genesis and Blood, Sweat & Tears. In 1971 the line-up changed again: Keenan, Chrisye, Gaury, Rully Djohan, Aji Bandi, and Lulu. With this line-up the band played a gig in New York, USA.

This collaborative effort called GURUH - GIPSY was made possible due to Guruh strong passion for combining ethnic music of Bali based on pentatonic notes and western music which is based on diatonic notes. The effort took such a long time as it required sixteen (16) months of recording time. The elapsed time was used by Guruh for various complex activities, i.e. financing the project, scheduling with the only studio available at that time with 16-track system (Tri Angkasa), composing the music with Keenan Nasution (drums), Odink Nasution (guitar), Abadi Soesman (keyboards), Roni Harahap (piano/organ), and Chrisye (vocal). Actually, total studio days was 52 days. Read More