Digging Through the Network of the Indonesian Noise Scene

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Noise music scene in Indonesia has grown its popularity in recent years, thanks to the movie Bising: Noise and Experimental Music in Indonesia (2014) about people who do Noise in Indonesia, Senyawa who plays everywhere, and the Jogja Noise Bombing Festival, which draws attention from Noise musicians and fans around the world who come to attend the annual festival. It is already acknowledged not only abroad, where it first gained its popularity, but also by several national media and music festivals who feature some Noise musicians in their programmes. From an unknown yet obscure genre, Noise music has been part of the independent music ecosystem in Indonesia. Nowadays, the Noise scenes in Indonesia are not limited to Java island, but include other islands such as Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, Sumatra, Batam, and spaces in between. Studying the connections between the Noise activists in these islands through their network of touring, releasing an album together, or simply via Whatsapp group chat is interesting. This article aims at exploring the connections between Noise scenes in Indonesia. After studying the network directly through direct involvement and conducting interviews with some key figures in the scenes, we found some interesting facts such as the historical origin of its performers as well as infrastructures of the scenes (including but not limited to records labels, venues, communities, instrument builders, and festivals). The motivation of these Noise artists for networking and their desire to connect on a broader scale has helped the Noise scenes to achieve recognition.