Thursday, 3 November 2011
Viky and Herman`s story
by Viky Sianipar
Butet is the first single of the
Tobatak Album. This is a very nice old Batak songs and probably the most
popular Batak Song in Indonesia (and perhaps in the whole world). The
song has so many interesting story behind to Batak people in general as
well as to us.
HERMANN`S STORY
Hermann came
to Indonesia the first time in 1995 after have had a recommendation from
one of his friend in Ims, Austria. The hometown fellow had told Hermann
how great experiences he has had during his staying in Bali. Especially
the story about nice people and rich culture of Bali had also made
Hermann very interested with this tropical island and decided to come. -------------------------------- Then
it was all happened exactly as planned. Hermann stayed in small villa
called Padang Bay, made a lot of friends there and happened to be taught
by a Balinese friend Indonesian traditional song called "Butet". That
was the first Indonesian song he learned, ever. He did not know, by that
time, that it was a Batak song or what so ever. He loved the song so
much and always played the song in every restaurant or friend gatherings
he went with a acoustic guitar. Even until his visit to Samosir Island
in 1997 he always played this song in "kedai tuak" and made many people
in the village gathered and delighted with what they saw, a "bule`
(White people) tourist in Samosir singing Batak song.
Amazingly,
this song has quite changed Hermann`s life mysteriously since then.
Everything in his life turned to be different and getting better ever
since. His luck, his musical taste, his new life gave him a Batak wife,
lovely kids, and many other great things.
And now, 15 years later, Hermann is producing this song, "Butet" with me in Jakarta.
THE SAME SPIRIT BUT DIFFERENT ANGLE
This
was actually a female song from the 30`s during Dutch colonial time
written by S. Dis (they said??) about a mother who tells her Butet
(daughter) that her father is on the war field. Many Batak producers
have released this song with female singers. But since we have a male
singer (Hermann) in this album, so I changed the story a bit.
It
was during Batak war era in the late of 19th century. A soldier who was
badly injured in the enemy`s (Dutch colonial) war camp sang this song
with the last voice he had. He kept calling his only daughter at home,
his only precious in life hoping that she could hear him dan prayed that
she could grow faster and join the national red-cross team helping the
injured. At the end of the song, he desperately called her daughter
three times and then he passed away. What a tragic feeling we created
for the song. I think this feeling would keep the same spirit then the
original version, but from different angle. Then, we kept that feeling a
long throughout the production of the song. It is like switching the
"she" to "he" on female version of The Beatles` "Ticket to Ride"
PRODUCTION NOTE
I
started the arrangement with more surreally Ambient New Age style. I
put a lot of effect on the focal and flute to give the "other dimension"
sense in the song as the soldier sang the song at the edge of his life
with hardly clear mind. Hermann as well as Christoph (the guy from
record label, BSC) loved it very much. Irish war drums was the perfect
choice to describe a war vibe. The Batak Essential bamboo flute phrasing
by Korem Sihombing has set the Lake Toba scenery in it that kept the
originality of the song.
During arranging this, i didn`t
know what and why, but there were these voices that kept repeating in my
mind that forced me to sing the interlude part at 3 o`clock in the
morning because of too afraid if I let them go. It was a great backing
vocal arrangement. Even Though Hermann loved it`s color, I (insisted) to
replace my voice with Dewi`s (Marpaung).
One of the best
part of the song is the 2nd voice of Daniella in the refrains. It was
kind of out of the wall backing vocal line but fitted the main vocal
nicely.
After a lot of brilliant correction and editing done by Hermann, I think we have created a masterpiece in Tobatak Album.
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