Sounds From The Corner : Session #24 Kunto Aji

“Aku, dan keinginanku. Di atas kebutuhan.”

Voracious, aren’t we all?

That night Kunto Aji was barefoot and standing between two realities: the quirky idol veteran who keeps getting noticed by random people on the street and the compelling singer whose task is to challenge people’s mind towards good Pop music. This session proves a lot about the latter, which compensates the idea of Kunto Aji as a robust personality, not just vague character spotlighted by scripted reality show and SMS-driven career.

Kunto Aji’s battle between two realities resulted in his debut album “Generation Y”, which wins my attention with his on-point narrative and vulnerability. Music co-creation process allows artists to architect their direction, often lyrics are produced under on-purpose escalation, but the album itself is a subtle craft and with consistency throughout the nine songs. Diversity of ballad topics is also a forte of Generation Y, Aji is quite versatile singing about being broke (Akhir Bulan), being clueless with girls (Amatiran) and being alone (Terlalu Lama Sendiri). Another great thing about Generation Y is it unfolds tens of millennials’ anxiety about - not just love - but also life in bigger perspective.

Indonesia is in a permanent Pop male-soloist monsoon: so hard to find genuine voice among ludicrous talents and revenue focused musicians. While we have passed the days of Glenn Fredly and Rio Febrian (they are all established now, not emerging), the last big male soloist was Tulus (figuratively, disclaimer). In the throne, Kunto Aji sits right beside Tulus, harvesting early acknowledgements via Idol history before finally re-introduced himself via this debut album.

I was surprised with Aji’s proactive attitude when we were conceptualizing this session. He came up with the Pantomime idea, which was a carbon copy set from his previous gig in JJF, but surprisingly contributed its value when it comes to message delivery. Spot-on soundbites enveloped the pantomime performance: Aji’s describing pointers from the song, dumbed down his idea of each song and putting a sympathetic understanding of these ballads.

Behind white curtain was full set artillery -including the enticing string section, leaving its shadows giving clues of harmony and gesture, a well-thought way to differentiate himself from other SFTC session, other local male-soloists, or even other musicians in the country. After all, two things matter most nowadays: consistency and character. It seems that Kunto Aji has both of them. Ladies and gentlemen: Kunto Aji! - Teguh

00:00 Intro
2:45 Buka Buka Buka
7:30 Akhir Bulan
12:52 Amatiran
19:43 Mercusuar

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