![]() ![]() Upon reflection, that was when the magic of hearing music performed outdoors really hit me properly for the first time. The most significant ones revolve around dancing for hours under clear starry nights while sound pours out of huge speaker stacks, stretching into infinity. Twenty-one years on, my memories are smudged and blurry, edited down to a highlights reel. For my first New Year’s Eve in the adult world, I decided to make a pilgrimage to The Gathering. While spending time in those spaces, I met people who became lifelong friends. At the same time, chasing music took me places physically, like record stores, warehouse parties, and concert halls. When I was alone, listening allowed my imagination to run wild. As I looked around, I saw a new generation fall in love with the same experience that first captivated me over two decades ago in Cobb Valley, Upper Tākaka, the site of The Gathering, a short-lived but legendary New Zealand outdoor party.īy the time I finished high school at the end of 2001, music had become a big part of my interior and exterior worlds. Enveloped by smooth house music, sunshine, and the deep blue skies above us, I spent the afternoon dancing in the crowd. I’m sure on one especially hot day like this, my iced coffee will become runny and Chrisye’s mellow favorites will serenade me to a sleepy death.Įarlier this year, after a period of coronavirus restrictions, I attended a free daytime park party in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. As a person living in a tropical country with a ridiculous rate of deforestation, I will be among those who are the first to be killed at the dawn of the apocalypse. ![]() I heard that Europe in the summer of 2022 was hit by a powerful heatwave, something that maybe I have learned to love all of my 30-odd year life. I will wake up 30 minutes later drenched in healthy sweat, welcoming consciousness in the constant loop of my comfortable songs. I love it when it becomes too hot outside and I come back inside to lay down in my frameless bed and fall into a little nap. I love playing my oldies on the loop, sitting on the balcony, sipping my iced milk coffee with brown sugar. Meanwhile, I personally love the heatwave. People would shelter at home, while children could be found running topless flying kites at clearings. July in Indonesia is the dry season, when we enjoy – or rather, suffer – from excessive sunshine. Between the dreamy three-minute-window, I was again just a baby and had just woken up from a comfortable drowsiness in a cradle. Laying there in the twilight between slumber and consciousness in the peak of a tropical heatwave, the stream of the elegant track brought me back to a specific point in time and space when I occupied the most comfortable state of my life. ![]() It’s actually a playlist I made especially for lazy days like that, because I love the heavy sensation of nostalgia while having my head wrapped in the tranquility of a fresh nap in the middle of a very hot day. The song opens a playlist on my Spotify, Road Trip With Parents, which contains mostly Indonesian old songs my mom and dad used to play in our family stereo. Besides its status as a song that single-handedly lifted the benchmark of Indonesia’s pop music, «Sendiri» also has passed the test of time and still is one of the best local masterpieces today. It consists of only two instruments and one male vocal, arranged by an ambitious, young composer named Addie MS. ![]() Indonesia had never heard music like that before. My body: comfortable and unmovable in bed. The song enveloped me like a layer of sonic cocoon. Soothing, cold, and clear like a flow of ice water dripped onto my forehead. A dainty piano solo filled the hot air with the beauty of a swan gliding on a clear lake, followed by a weeping sound of cor anglais – an obscure choice of woodwind oboe. One sunny day in July 2022, I woke up from a siesta with a foggy head. It’s when our writer usually shelters at home listening to music, only to realize that the state between slumber and consciousness can not be as innocent as it used to be. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |