Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine October 2014 | Page 103

Explore | Interview

101

ADDIE MS

SYMPHONY FOR
INDONESIA
Interview by Adeste Adipriyanti
Photography by Hendra Wiradi Wahab

One year on, Colours
catches up with award-winning
musician and composer Addie
MS to gain an insight into the
third instalment of The Sounds
of Indonesia album series for
Garuda Indonesia.
It began with a simple idea: to serenade
passengers boarding and disembarking from
Garuda Indonesia flights with the sounds
of Indonesia’s diverse musical heritage rendered
in orchestral beauty. The idea was born from a
chance encounter between the President and
CEO of PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk.,
Emirsyah Satar, and Addie MS in 2010.
Addie MS was simply the right man for the
job. He is well known in Indonesia’s music
scene, and as the founder, music director
and conductor of the Jakarta-based
Twilite Orchestra (which was formed in 1991
and has toured the globe from Sydney to
Berlin and beyond), he certainly has the
musical talent to take on such a challenge.
The goal from the outset was to preserve
Indonesia’s musical heritage in classical
format while promoting it to both domestic
and international passengers as a part
of the airline’s unique service concept,
dubbed the Garuda Indonesia Experience.
The project dovetailed Addie’s own personal
music philosophy of promoting to the public
artful music of any kind.
Since that serendipitous first meeting
with Emirsyah Satar, Addie MS and Garuda
Indonesia have released two volumes of
The Sounds of Indonesia – the first covering
patriotic songs and the second containing
a selection of cultural songs from across

the Indonesian archipelago. The first
two albums were packaged together and
comprised 24 songs with a total duration
of 80 minutes. While it was at first intended
only for use on board Garuda Indonesia
flights, following an iTunes release the
combined volumes were met with critical
and commercial success, so much so that
they topped iTunes’ top albums chart for
two consecutive weeks in 2013.
Addie humbly attributes the achievement to
the quality of the original songs. Researching
local musical traditions of villages across
Indonesia and bringing to light their cultural
significance are what Addie considers the
most challenging and his favourite
part of working on the past two albums.

There is a touch of
grandiose that we add,
but the songs are
inextricably tied to their
cultural Indonesian roots.
Respecting the origins of such songs is
paramount, Addie maintains, but that doesn’t
mean there isn’t room for creativity and
grandeur, especially considering these are
orchestral renditions. “There is a touch of
grandiose that we add, but the songs are
inextricably tied to their cultural Indonesian
roots. So it is a kind of balancing act; I have
to give extra care and attention in arranging
traditional songs since it becomes a kind
of benchmark for a wider audience.
I have to get it right,” explains Addie,
the perennial perfectionist.

Addie was assisted by other arrangers,
including Fero Aldiansya Stefanus, Dian
HP, Joko Suprayitno, Renaldi Wicaksono,
Singgih Sanjaya and Andreas Arianto, each
one equally passionate about the project,
understanding that the mission was to be
naturally guided by the original melody
and to not be too experimental.
Together with his team, Addie extends
the same ethics of arranging in preparing
for the next album, The Sounds of Indonesia
Volume 3. The toughest part of the process
remains the same, but it is as enjoyable as
ever for Addie. With this album Addie
targeted lesser-known regions of Indonesia.
“After mapping out the regions we wanted
to highlight this time around, we were
absolutely delighted to hear so many
songs that we had never heard of before:
songs that sounded foreign yet familiar
to our ears,” says Addie with a wide grin.
After finalising the arrangements, the
traditional songs were performed by
the City of Prague Philharmonic
Orchestra, who were also involved in
the making of the first two albums, and
recorded at Smecky Music Studios, Prague,
in the Czech Republic. The recordings
were then taken to Cambridge, in the
UK, for mixing and mastering.
The Sounds of Indonesia Volume 3 took
nearly two years to complete, and it begins
with the same song as the last two albums.
“We still open with ‘Tanah Airku’ [My
Homeland] by Ibu Soed, as the binding agent
of these diverse traditional songs. No matter
how proud we are of our local heritage and
the songs from our own region, we are
reminded that our unique diversity is what
constitutes one Indonesia,” says Addie.