Belgian producer Dijf Sanders plants himself in Indonesian culture, cultivates his future-exotica seed on forthcoming album JAVA

Belgian producer Dijf Sanders plants himself in Indonesian culture, cultivates his future-exotica seed on forthcoming album JAVA
Always best to test your tattoo ideas out before you commit to them.

Can you taste the Bintang on your lips yet? Can you see the endless terraced rice fields or the warring swarms of mopeds as they buzz the city streets? What about the angklung? Can you hear its pretty ancient melody echoing in the distance?

I can.

Why, you ask? Because I just sneak-peeked Dijf Sanders’ upcoming record JAVA, and it portaged my sappy little soul straight to to the palm-laden, tropical bowels of Indonesia. I’m not typically a tame-heart, but I suppose powerful music has the tendency to do things like that.

The ethnocentric album, which the Belgian producer/globetrotter/multi-instrumentalist assembled from a healthy collection of on-site Indonesian field recordings, is due out December 8 on W.E.R.F. records, and is guaranteed to light an exotic bonfire under your stodgy, home-stricken ass.

Dijf spent the spring of this year traveling to every nook and cranny of the massive island archipelago, corralling cultural sounds from local musicians and traditional instruments like the kacapi, kendang, and celempung; along with probably lots of other weird, exotic shit that you and I have never heard of. The finished product is a unique sonic kinship that masterfully weds two very different worlds — reverent enough to innervate comparisons to the late great Alan Lomax, yet au courant enough to solicit interest from even the most superficial of club-dwelling electronica-philes.

Sanders was commissioned by KAAP Creative Compass and the Europalia Arts Festival to collect the initial field recordings, which he then brought back to his Gentbrugge studio to mix and produce along with cohorts Nathan Daems, Filip Vandebril, and Simon Segers of the Belgium-based exotica group Black Flower.

I don’t know what your particular modus operandi might be when it comes to assimilating a promising new record, but I’ll go ahead and tell you that when JAVA drops next month, you can leave the psychedelics at home and sealed up in their little Ziplock goodie bags — the music alone will be more than enough to transport your adventurous inner being to some wondrous, far-off place.

In the mean time, tune your brain to the frequency vibrations of distant lands by acquainting yourself with some of Sanders’ previous work, and put-in your request for some vacation time. You’re gonna need it.



JAVA tracklisting:

01. AKIM
02. KASTER
03. CALUNPUNG
04. BANDUNG
05. SUSUKAN
06. JAIPONG
07. BANYUMAS
08. CIPENSI
09. TENGUH

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