Indonesian Guitarists That Recognized By The World

JAKARTA - There are many talented guitarists in Indonesia. From the 1960s until now, so many guitarists have written blueprints on the country's music map. Rows of works to qualified guitar skills have made their names known not only nationally but also internationally. Who are the guitarists whose names recognized by the world? VOI editorial has chosen six of them. Here they are...

Dewa Budjana

Who doesn't know Dewa Budjana? Apart from being active with his band GIGI, Budjana is also productive in releasing guitar-oriented solo works. He even often collaborates with international musicians.

His third album, Surya Namaskar (2014) featured two international musicians, Jimmy Johnson (bass) and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums). The recording sessions were held in January and October 2013 at Henson Studio and Stagg Street Studio, Los Angeles, United States.

Then, on the album Hasta Karma, which is also under the United States record label MoonJune Records, Budjana hooked up the legendary vibraphonist from New York, Joe Locke, and the rhythm section of the Pat Metheny Unity Group consisting of Ben Williams (upright bass) and drum maestro Antonio. Sanchez.

On the next album, Zentuary (2016), this Balinese-born guitarist collaborated with Jack DeJohnette (drums), Tony Levin (bass), and Gary Husband (piano). On the album Mahadini, which was released in 2018, Budjana once again joined the ranks of the top international musicians. This time, he invited Jordan Rudess from Dream Teather, Mohini Dey, Marco Minnemann, Mike Sterna, and John Frusciante (RHCP).

I Wayan Balawan

The man who is familiarly called Balawan is known for his unique guitar technique, the touch tapping style. Claiming to be inspired by Eddie Van Halen, Balawan developed his own tapping technique. He played tapping with eight fingers so it was like playing the piano.

Balawan often performs at festivals abroad, including at the East Meet West Guitarren Festival Edenkoben Germany (2000), Open Strings Guitar Festival Osnabrueck Germany (2000), Tour International Guitar Nights in 12 Cities in Germany (2001).

Then Hell Blues Festival in Trondheim Norway September (2001), Hell Blues Festival in Trondheim Norway (September 2005), Australian tour 4 cities with Batuan Ethnic Fusion (October 2005), Pop Asia Fukuoka Japan (October 2005), and Tokyo Asia music Market Tokyo Japan (2005).

Apart from being a solo musician, Balawan is also known as a member of the Batuan Ethnic Fusion group, Trisum, BID (Balawan - Ito - Deva), and many others. Together with BID, this guitarist who was born in Gianyar Bali explores touch tapping which has become his trademark with John McLaughlin's picking style wrapped in droplets of rock and fusion music.

The guitarist born in 1973 is often regarded as one of the fastest guitarists in Indonesia. He is also nicknamed The Magic Finger, after the title of one of his solo albums.

Gugun

Gugun's actions with his blues rock trio, Gugun Blues Shelter (GBS) not only resonated in the archipelago and Asia, but also reached European and parts of America after GBS released the album Far East Blues Experience (2011) via a New York-based record label, Grooveyards Records.

This man whose full name is Muhammad Gunawan has appeared on the Hard Rock Calling stage at Hyde Park, London, England in May 2011 after GBS was selected as the best in the Hard Rock Battle of Bands event. Not long after that, Gugun et al also toured a mini-tour in England including at The Monto Water Rats London club, which was the location for the band Oasis' debut performance in 1994. In November 2012, for the first time, Gugun and GBS held an American tour for two weeks.

Not only England and America, a year before being signed by Grooveyards Records, Gugun et al also had a chance to appear on stage with Buddy Guy, Gipsy Kings, Jools Holland & His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, and The Fray at an event in Singapore entitled Timbre Rock & Roots.

Eet Sjahranie

At the end of 1982 Eet Sjahranie took sound engineering recording education in Chillicote, Ohio. After returning to Indonesia, after being involved in a number of music projects, he was invited by Jockey Suryaproyogo to join the formation of God Bless, replacing Ian Antono.

Eet's injection of hands succeeded in turning God Bless into a fresher and fiercer band on the album Giant (1989). The song Maret 1989 and Menjilat Matahari are two proofs that best represent Eet's ferocity.

Eet then formed the hard rock band Edane in 1991. At Edane, Eet devoted everything he could to playing guitar. His dream is to make Indonesian rock music, which is - at least - musically as high quality as the Western rock groups he is trying to achieve.

In 2004, Edane's song, Cry Out, was included in the soundtrack compilation album for the Spider-Man 2 film. Everyone admits, Eet managed to create quality rock music. His high-tech fingertips and his rich sound distortion experiment made an impression on Edane's seven albums.

Tohpati

Tohpati's productivity as a guitarist and songwriter is beyond common sense. The man who is familiarly called Bontot has launched a number of phenomenal albums. They are Trisum Five in One (Trisum), No. 1 (Supersonic), Riot (Tohpati Bertiga), The 6th Story (SimakDialog), Mata Hati (Ethnomission), Song For You solo album, and many others.

Especially on the Song For You album, Tohpati presented the song Change, the result of his collaboration with a jazz fusion band from Los Angeles, California, Yellowjackets. This song was recorded in 2008 when Yellowjackets stopped by in Jakarta to play at the JakJazz event with Tohpati.

Tohpati also released the album Tribal Dance (2019) featuring two foreign musicians Jimmy Haslip and Chad Wackerman. The album was launched in 2019 via the US label MoonJune which is distributed in Indonesia via DeMajors.

References and influences from Terje Rypdal, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, and Robert Fripp throughout Bontot's musical career have shaped him into a guitarist with a distinctive signature style. Through the second album of Ethnomission, Mata Hati, for example, Bontot seems to shout out loud to the guitar world that he has the strength and expertise that deserves to be reckoned with on the world music stage.

Iwan Hasan

As a multi-instrumentalist who has mastered the harp guitar, guitar, keyboard, and a composer, Iwan Hasan is a phenomenon that has carved Indonesia's name on the international scene since the early '90s.

In Indonesia, besides having founded the progressive rock band Discus in 1996, Iwan has also been the key behind the success of a number of songs and albums by Ungu and ST12. Following his departure from Discus, Iwan became the mastermind of a jazz band, Chamber Jazz, and a pop rock band called Atmosa.

Iwan also took part in a guitar-oriented compilation album titled Gitar Klinik I (1999) gawean RotorCorp with a number of top guitarists in the country such as Eet Sjahranie, Edo Widiz, and Andry Muhamad. His guitar playing in the song Transcultural Echoes on 33 Strings is recognized by many guitarists of the next era as a very inspiring composition.

Iwan Hasan chose the harp guitar instrument as his "soul mate" when he attended music school at Willamette University, Oregon, United States in 1991. It was his professor, John Doan, who made him interested in playing this musical instrument produced by the Renaissance. However, unlike most of the world's harp guitar musicians who play a 20-string harp guitar, Iwan chose a 21-string harp guitar by adding the E chord as the lowest key.

In the same period, Iwan also received the Outstanding Music Student Award from his school. The award was given not because Iwan entered a contest. However, Iwan is more 'greedy' in his daily development and activities to pursue jazz combos, classics, and composition.

Iwan then became the only Asian musician involved in the compilation album titled Beyond Six Strings which was released in Uncle Sam's country in 2008.