10 years of Aural Archipelago! Here’s a bit of the story behind this decade long project. To celebrate, we’ve launched a Patreon! To support DIY documentation of Indonesian traditional music, become a subscriber - there will be awesome perks from bonus recordings to behind the scenes, expedition reports, and more 😊 Check the link in the bio to join.
Yapet Baalut sings badendeluwa, a traditional song form of the Banggai and Sesea people of Central Sulawesi's Banggai Archipelago. The nonsense phrase "dendeluwa, dendeluwa, delu" sets a rhythmic track on which the singer spits improvisatory verse in the Banggai language, usually about an esteemed guest - in this case, me! How learned you must be, he sings, to have made it all the way to my village, Bonepuso!
Improvisatory song was once a cornerstone of both daily life in Banggai as well as ringing in festivals and weddings. These days, the best singers are from that singing generation - in their fifties at the youngest. With recorded music replacing live song in Banggai, the younger generation is not exposed enough to the song forms to understand them and try them out on their own.
Aural Abroad: Vietnam | Tà Ôi musician Ra Pat Curun and his aunt Blup Há demonstrate a nearly extinct musical tradition, the areng. Sound is generated by a vibrating reed carved into one end of a thin piece of bamboo or the stalk of a native fern - one player blows into the other's mouth as that player changes the pitch with two finger holes and "sings" by manipulating the buzzing reed sound through voicelessly mouthed words (the technique operates on the same principles as the Western "talk box" but far pre-dates it.)
This was courtship music back in the day, with a couple taking turns playing into each other's mouths and mouthing flirtatious poetry with their lover's tone.
Sadly, this tradition has essentially died out along with traditional methods of courtship - Em Curun, featured here, learned how to make and play the instrument from his grandfather in A Lưới, near Vietnam's border with Laos.
In the scarf dance (basalendeng), Banggai dancers (Sarni and Merry) hold their arms outstretched, scarves strung from hand to hand, bouncing with bird-like steps to the sound of batong gong and drums. Once brought out to greet visiting kings,this dance has been passed down for centuries here in the Banggai Islands of Central Sulawesi, where it is mainly performed during festive gatherings like weddings, harvest rituals and thanksgiving parties.
The batong music in the background traces its roots back to the animist past of the Banggai and Seasea people, where the goatskin drum (bobolon) and gongs (tutung, poduwol, and sinapit) imported from elsewhere in the archipelago were struck only for sacred, sacrificial feasts for the gods of the household*. Since converting largely to Christianity and Islam, these sacred associations have largely fallen to the wayside and it has taken its place in Banggai society as festive party music.
(*According to the last survey of Banggai art and music written a century ago by Dutch missionary-ethnographer A.C. Kruyt.)
📡 The Sonic Turn Podcast - Episode 1: Mouth Harps 📡
🎙️ The first episode of this new podcast series turns to the resonant yet over-determined world of mouth harps — small instruments burdened not only with history, but with dense layers of contemporary meaning.
🎛️ GUESTS: @palmernesia Palmer Keen ( @auralarchipelago ), @al_iorga Alex Iorga.
Hosted by @dragos_rusu_w
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#thesonicturn #thesonicturnpodcast #podcast #mouthharp #mouthharps
A closer look at batong, a musical tradition at the heart of ritual life here in the Banggai Islands of Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi. Communal gatherings from weddings to funerals must feature batong, which can accompany war dances like balatindak, martial arts (bakuntau or baganjar) and other dances like baaya.
In this village of Bonepuso on the island of Peling, the music is rooted in gongs (the name batong itself is like the verb form of gong, “gonging”?): the metronomic tutung is held in the lap and played with great power by Yesman Didia, while two hanging gongs, poduwol and sinapit, are played by Lean Molunggui in an alternating pattern. The greatest variation is in the loping rhythms of the leles, often struck on the side of the gong (a practice common in East Indonesia but unthinkable in gong cultures elsewhere) but here played with scrap wood on a used gas canister by Atnanius Baalut; and in the thump of the double-headed goatskin drum, bobolon, here played by Lamani Baalut and Ruben Kalumbatan. As the group plays a piece for the Baaya dance, the drummers chant improvised verse in their local dialect of the Banggai language.
This song called Bonet Circle. We were deeply inspired by @auralarchipelago ‘s field notes on Bonet. It’s more than just a circle dance, it is a living vessel of sung poetry. Performed for everything from harvest rituals to welcoming guests, the verses carry life advice and fragments of local history passed down through generations.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, the Bonet reminds us that wisdom is best shared when we are connected. It is a beautiful testament to how sound and movement keep a community’s soul alive.
Dive deeper into the sonic wonders of the archipelago. Visit Aural Archipelago’s website to listen to the heartbeat of Indonesia’s diverse culture through their incredible ethnomusicology documentation
I’m welcomed to the village of Bonepuso with an old war dance, balatindak, performed with incredible verve by Bu Mariam Toluuk. Here in the Banggai archipelago of Central Sulawesi, this dance is performed when greeting visiting dignitaries or royalty (or roving DIY ethnomusicologists.) The dance’s moves rhyme with war dances called cakalele which are common in nearby Maluku, echoes of a past where coastal Banggai people would assert their bravery and strength through music and dance to outsiders docking at their harbors.
The accompanying music, batong, is played on gongs (poduwol and sinapit, by Leman Molunggui; tutung, by Yesman Didia) double-headed goatskin drum (bobolon, by Lamani Baalut), and a gas canister (leles, by Atnanius Baalut.)
This gem is just a teaser as the village and I recorded a whole morning of music-making that I'm looking forward to sharing bit by bit!
Merry Christmas from Aural Archipelago! A while back, I shared the incredible music of Om Nelis, a cassava farmer from Sulawesi's Banggai Islands who taught himself how to play a homemade "gitar" one-handed (bagitar tangan sebelah!). When I met him, he asked for nothing from me after sharing his music, only to inquire if I knew anyone with a "proper guitar." I shared the story with you all and the @auralarchipelago audience delivered: quite a few donations streamed until I had enough to buy one for him. After a bit of working out the logistics, though, an incredible company called Sweelee Indonesia (@sweeleeindonesia ) approached and offered to donate a brand new guitar (plus extra strings and tools) for Om Nelis!
It took a bit of logistics (huge thanks to my friend Karim in Salakan, who helped personally deliver it to Om Nelis' somewhat remote village!) but it finally arrived just in time for Christmas :)
Attached is a video that Om Nelis sent a few days later of him in his Sunday best playing a gospel song on his new guitar! He's been getting a hang of the six strings and different size, but it's nothing for a guy who pushed himself for months to get his fingers in shape enough to master his one-handed technique on his old instrument (which he promises he won't abandon, either!)
A massive thanks to @sweeleeindonesia for their generosity, proof that Om Nelis touched a lot of hearts with his music. (Speaking of which, any cash donations which got sent our way to buy the guitar were transferred directly to Om Nelis' family - he gives a gracious thank you, telling me he and the family are roasting up a pig for Christmas this year!)
I hope you're having a sweet holiday wherever you are, however you celebrate - @aural archipelago has so much more beautiful music to share in the year ahead!
Amateur musicians around Indonesia have been covering the country’s dangdut pop hits on scrappy homemade guitars for decades, but nobody does it quite like Om Nelis, a farmer who went locally viral on his island in the Banggai Archipelago of Central Sulawesi for his powerful voice and virtuosic technique.
Om Nelis labored for years to achieve his special technique “bagitar sebelah tangan” (one-handed guitar playing), where he strums with his thumb and frets with the remaining fingers of the same hand. Struggling with a kind of palsy since he was a young boy, music brought him a whole new lease on life, even snagging him a wife. Years later, he still brings his homemade gitar with him wherever he goes, strumming it at the end of long days to relax and entertain his family.
Here Om Nelis plays his arrangement of Pance Pondaag’s 1980s dangdut classic “Sampai Kapan Lagi” (“For How Much Longer?”). Want to hear the full version? You can hear and learn more about his music at the Aural Archipelago blog post at the link in the bio, and drop any comments for me to share with him (I’m in the process of sending him his dream guitar and chat with him regularly - he’s touched to hear that people around the world love his music.)
Om Nelis plays a dangdut classic, "Masihkah Ada Cinta" ("Is There Still Love?") on his homemade gitar at his home in Basosol in the Banggai Islands of Central Sulawesi. Partially paralyzed on his left side, Om Nelis uses his thumb to strum and his other fingers to fret a handful of chords. He mastered this technique of one-handed guitar playing (what Om Nelis calls "bagitar sebelah tangan") as a young man working in the cassava fields with his family.
Hear and learn more about Om Nelis' story at the new Aural Archipelago blog post at the link in our bio - recordings, full video, and more.
And a special thank you to those who reached out to help in my mission to buy Om Nelis a "proper guitar' (his dream!) After a few dead-ends, it's finally happening, with music store @sweeleeindonesia offering to send him a brand new one!
Where there’s a will, there’s a way! Negotiating the struggles of partial paralysis on his left side since a childhood illness, Om Nelis has never let his disability get between him and the music he loves. After teaching himself how to strum and fret his homemade “gitar” with one hand as a young man, his life completely changed. “I could never get girls before that!” he laughed.
Hailing from the remote island of Peling in Sulawesi’s Banggai Archipelago, Om Nelis has spent his life in grueling work, often walking for days across his island selling farming tools or working in mines to support his family. He made this gitar out of local wood and fishing line when working with his sons breaking up rocks at a mining operation in nearby Taliabu island - there he would sing this song, “Solilungon,” a beautiful bit of Banggai language pop about missing home. In the song, a migrant hears the song of a bird (solilungon) and, feeling homesick, plays his bamboo flute, tilalu, to ease his longing.
For Om Nelis, music has provided him sweet solace all his life, a way to momentarily forget his struggles and hardships and lose himself in pure expression. When I hear his music, I feel equally transported: watching him smile as his grand-nephew dances behind him, it’s easy to feel that, just for a moment, everything is going to be okay.
I’m on a mission to buy a guitar for Om Nelis - his one dream, he told me, despite already having a pretty sweet instrument - and lots of you have already donated or reached out. If any guitar makers in Indonesia are interested in donating, please reach out. In the meantime, any donations to Aural Archipelago (see the donate page at our link in the bio!) over the next two weeks will go towards buying a guitar and getting it to him! If an instrument itself is donated, any extra donations will be given in cash to Om Nelis and his family.
(Also for the Om Nelis-heads - join the Aural Archipelago Patreon - link in bio as well - as I’ll be sharing an EPs worth of Nelis tracks there in the next week!)
