Tumirah interrupted ... gladly. And RIP David Bowie

Woohoo, I received a God-given excuse to interrupt the composition of my opera, Tumirah, Sang Mucikari ! The opera's vocal and piano score is almost finished, I just have to orchestrate it which will take a few weeks. But I feel my brain rather exhausted from it, and was feeling like taking a small break without feeling guilty about it ... and voila! ............................................................................................................................................. The young rising star poet Adimas Immanuel contacted me last week that he is having his new book of poem launched by publisher GRAMEDIA next month. He was happy that the also rising soprano star Mariska Setiawan (I guess they are of the same age, around 24-25?) has recorded my music based on one of his poems in her first CD. Since Mariska came to Jakarta for the Jakarta New Year Concert last week (she normally lives in Surabaya), all 3 of us made an appointment to meet very late after the concert. When I said "very", it means like eerrr ... almost 11 p.m., in a restaurant near my apartment. This photo was taken during that meeting, which was so inspiring and went on and on until very late ... or shall I say early? Adimas asked us if we would like to do (meaning: make music of) some of his poems for the launching event, and Mariska and me didn't think twice to accept it. And so, he emailed us both the softcopy of his new book, and both Mariska and me got the privilige to be the first readers (outside his publishers) of his new book, 1 month before its official launching! Of course we are "under oath" not to forward it to anybody else, since Adimas is now one of the hottest property of Indonesian literature at the moment and the launch of a new poetry collection is something that is much looked forward to. Everything happens very quickly. A few days later Gramedia had a meeting with my manager Chendra, and everything is set to be done for next month. ............................................................................................................................................. And so we are in the middle of the compositional process which is fun and unique, since to begin with, most of the poems are inspired by paintings. Therefore, setting them to music is a second step of the artistic transformation: from painting to poetry, and from poetry to music. So Mariska and I discuss a poem (and the painting that inspired each of them) every night before she sleeps. By the way, she sleeps "normally" as most of human beings do: around midnight. So we pick a random poem (like me, she is also a literature freak), talk about it, agree whether to set it to music (or not) and after she falls asleep I start to work on a chosen one until about 3-4 a.m. I then email the finished music just before sunrise before I walk a bit around the swimming pool and then sleep, so she wakes up and finds the music to learn it during the morning and gives me some feedbacks. Oh, the beauty of technology! Poor Brahms or Schumann couldn't do these kinda things with their singers. It's really a fun and inspiring way to write music. And I learn a lot from Mariska too. The human voice is a neverending mystery to reveal. Since Mariska is also a pop singer -- and a damn good pop-songwriter too, I feel a good connection, since I am a huge fan of many of her heroes, such as The Beach Boys, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson .... and from her I start to appreciate the great art of David Bowie, may he Rest in Peace. What a way to leave the world, with his latest farewell song Lazarus ... and dying from cancer at the age of a Cancer symbol, 69. ............................................................................................................................................. The concert and launch of Adimas' new book Di Hadapan Rahasia (Facing a Secret), plus the World Premiere of my new song cycle "Rangkaian Rahasia Untuk Mariska" (A chain of secrets for Mariska) will take place at Teater Kecil, Taman Ismail Marzuki, on Wednesday the 17th of February. We still discuss the time it should start, since there are many things happening there: book signing, a small discussion with some snacks and about 1 hour of concert, not only with the songs, but with some Rapsodia Nusantara as well. Please just contact my office Ananda Sukarlan Center for more info and details : ycep@yahoo.com or 0818 891038 (WA or sms too).