Batak Music album Collaboration Project
INDONESIA - AUSTRIA
Over the past twenty years there have been plenty of
music projects fusing Eastern and Western cultures – with extremely varying
results in terms of musical quality and commercial success. Thus it will be
surprising to most listeners, music professionals and fans alike, that there is
still “uncharted territory”.
Tobatak is the spectacular project by experienced
Austrian World musician Hermann Delago and Indonesian musician and arranger Viky
Sianipar which for the first time in the history of recorded music blends the
beautiful Batak music from North Sumatra with
modern instrumental and world music sounds.
Hermann Delago is s a renowned composer, arranger,
conductor and World musician living in the heart of the alps in Tirol. Since his first visit to Lake
Toba in North
Sumatra in 1997 he has fallen in love with the traditional local
music, the people and also the region as such. He found that Batak people are
very musical. And as they are mountain people, the region nowadays feels like
second home to him. In 2005 Hermann met a young professional musician (and
actually one of the best music arrangers in Jakarta, with already five successful albums
under his belt) by the name of Viky Sianipar. In 2010 Hermann Delago and Viky
Sianipar finally decided to do a collaborative album: The two great musicians
and arrangers created a completely new storybook of Batak music, supported by
several Batak as well as European singers like Dewi Marpaung and Dany K, and
musicians like hang player Manu Delago and flute player Korem Sihombing. Viky Sianipar
Says Hermann Delago: „It was exciting to learn that in
the region around lake
Toba hundreds of
extremely beautiful songs are sung by almost everybody. Their melodies may seem
simple at first listening, but they are never dull or boring. They
have an enormous gentle power and surprise with unusual melodic and harmonic
twists and turns. It is both an honour and a fascinating adventure for Viky and
me to put this musical treasure in a new context and thus present it to the
rest of the world!"
  
Manu Delago Dany K Dewi Marpaung
 
Korem Sihombing Henry Manik
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