Acoustic Across 2010 “ETHNICOUSTIC” : The Report
It was a rainy and cold night in Jakarta yet that couldn’t stop people to come and see a great event held in Borobudur Hotel – Grand Manhattan Club. Ethnicoustic – Explore The Ethnical Ambience In Your Music was the theme for the 5th Acoustic Across. It was a competition made to find new talents from wide ranging bands and musical groups. The audition itself was held in November 2009 and left 3 contestans for the night: 7thsway, 4tune and Roda.The panel of judges consisted of : Bin Harlan – the manager of Efek Rumah Kaca Band, David Tarigan – the manager of Raksasa Records and Mondo - Keyboardist from Sore Band. They managed to give a spine shiver to the contestants and for the supporters as well. 9 million Rupiahs and a chance to be a recording artists were the prizes to grab for all the contestants. Surprisingly for these 3 groups they always manage to give a touch of jazz to each of their music giving an impresion that jazz is a kind of music where people can deeply explore.
The show started with BSO band from FEUI (Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia) with Michael Buble‘s “Everything” and a song from Ecoutez!. 
Although this wasn’t a full jazz event, we got the sign that jazz is actually liked by many teenagers and youngster nowadays. We traced many jazz pattern used by the playing musicians tonight. It was nice to have the show at the venue Where everyone can relax and enjoy the music which are soothing and calming. The show continued on by the 3 contestants. 7th Sway gave out a cute ethnical and jazz tunes, 4tune delivered the dark side of music where you could really feel the darkness of the world especially by the 2 violists and the pianist, and finally the amazing Roda brought so many traditional Indonesian instruments from angklung to recorder, from harmonica to kendang, the traditional double-headed set of drums.
The night was also filled with great well known artists with their ethnical skills. Kunokini warmed the cold night and managed to make the people move along with their odd-funky beat with SGB tari (FEUI). They created a magnificent show that wow-ed the audiences. Endah n Rhesa followed, with their funny story lines and a little accident of loose guitar string. They gave away a comical sense in urban kind of jazz, creating one relaxing and soothing ambience after a great dance together. While the 3 contestants were tensely waiting for the result to come out, Sore gave a great show. Sore appeared with their great mood exploration and brilliant personels, an exceptional left-handed guitar and bass players, a keyboardist, a volatile drummer and each of them also sings. They managed to stopped every audience into a scene of understanding a world of music in every tone and beat that they gave away.
Then finally the winners were announced. Here are the results:
3rd winner: 7thsway
2nd winner: 4tune
and
1st winner: Roda
With everyone cheering for their prizes and chance to be a recording artist, Tompi and Tohpati closed the night. Tompi’s unique voice and Tohpati’s amazing guitar skills completed the night perfectly.
Congratulation to all winners and congratulation to FEUI whom once again proved their commitment for our music development. We are happy to see that there are actually many young talents in Indonesia with great ability and dare to go beyond limit, exploring the ethnical world of music into their musics. This is exactly what we need. It’s important to follow the current music trend, it’s important to understand what the market wants today, but yet we shouldn’t forget our ethnical heritage. There are thousands of unique and amazing cultures with their own styles of music, and it’s in our hand now to keep these amazing ethnical elements alive for a long time to come.
See more pictures:
Reporter/Photographer: Ata Michaella
Editor: Riandy Kurniawan
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