april 5 – 17 i was in indonesia to play concerts and give workshops. it was a really transformative experience in the best way. diary :

april 4/5 : amsterdam-doha-jakarta-solo. travelling with iwen legro, who does sound for the entire tour.

april 6 : day off. visit prince’s palace visit, check out the solo venue, attend a gamelan session.

april 7 : morning workshop in solo. evening concert and meet&greet at rumah banjarsari, a wonderful local outdoors venue with a young energetic audience. combination of 30+ celsius and analog lights makes for the hottest temperature i ever played at..

april 8 : travel day solo to salatiga. suni wijogawati from the erasmushuis is with us for tour, and for the length of it becomes our mom. she’s the connector, and crucial for a lot of the close contact i have with students, audience members, department heads, etc.

april 9 : long but super rewarding day at UKSW university in salatiga. lecture&workshop in the morning, concert in the evening. curious students, appreciative audience, overall a very warm-hearted place.

april 10 : travel day salatiga – jakarta.

april 11 : lecture & workshop at kesenian jakarta. noticable difference with salatiga students. this is definitely the big city and the students are more in the know and more career oriented. we cover a lot of ground, and geek out for a long while on tuning systems.

april 12 : concert and meet&greet at makara arts center. this hall is connected to a major university, and most of the audience is made up of students. a relief to be playing in some air conditioning finally. in general in these place i’m moved by the curiosity and openness of a lot of these people. very grateful that i had the chance to interact with so many students, some of which i’m still in touch with.

april 13 : concert and meet&greet at erasmushuis in jakarta. the entire tour was organized largely by the erasmushuis, and over the course of it i got to know several of the staff well. so playing the last concert here really feels celebratory. a full hall, and the best acoustics on the tour. huge thanks to iwen legro for doing sound, tuning kick drums, negotiating with all manner of exotic technical situations, and befriending the local crews. this made for a way more smoother safer funner experience.

april 14 – 16 : days off. train to bandung and scooter from there.

april 17 : bandung – jakarta – doha – amsterdam.