Epitaph is a composition by Dion Nataraja, developed in collaboration with Sandikala Ensemble.
"Epitaph is a continuation of an investigation into a compositional method in which the tempo progressively decelerates. This method is inspired by the concept of irama in Javanese gamelan, where as the tempo of a gending slows down, the spacing between the balungan (core melody) tones widens, while instruments like the gendèr, gambang, and peking become increasingly dense: there is a paradoxical sense of time.
In Javanese gamelan, this process is often likened to the image of a blossoming flower: a gending begins like a closed bud, and as the rhythmic level rises, as the ornamental density increases, the flower blooms. However, I am not interested in a blooming flower; I am interested in a flower that withers and wilts. This is why, in my works, including Epitaph, the tempo continuously slows down.
I have no desire to align myself with the glorification of tradition, but rather to further the critique of the adiluhung. Rather than glorification, this work pays attention to the wounds of history. In the middle section of the piece, there is an intervention of electronic sound resembling a broken radio: it is a collage of the voices of Wiji Thukul, Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet, and Frantz Fanon, the anti-colonial thinker and revolutionary from Martinique. Wiji Thukul sings his poem “Di Bawah Selimut Kedamaian Palsu,” Mahmoud Darwish reads a poem about his longing for the land of Palestine, and Frantz Fanon speaks on anti-racism and national liberation. But these voices appear obscurely, like traumatic memories arriving beyond the bounds of will.
These fragments are positioned between quotations from the traditional gending Laler Mengeng, a piece often associated with sorrow. Its presence, too, resembles trauma: a history that returns without control. The reference to Laler Mengeng also reframes the three voices mentioned earlier; the broken-radio-like sound is also reminiscent of a swarm of flies, hovering around a rotting memory of the past.
The piece concludes with a noise intervention, which stands in stark contrast to the rest of the composition. Poetically, noise plays the role of a Ratu Adil: a messianic figure who halts the unstoppable flow of History toward apocalypse. In an irrational world, the hope for redemption is the only rational response. But redemption can never clearly articulate itself—thus noise arrives. Noise is the future that refuses clear articulation".
credits
released July 7, 2025
Sandikala Ensemble is a Yogyakarta-based group dedicated to exploring experimental techniques and designing new gamelan instruments in order to expand the horizons of contemporary gamelan music. Founded in 2020 by Dion Nataraja and Yustiawan Paradigma Umar, the ensemble features musicians Roni Driyastoto, Mustika Garis Sejati, Suseno Setyo Wibowo, Muhamad Erdifadillah, and Muhammad Khoirur Roziqin. The ensemble has developed new instruments, including four genders with a 36-tone non-octave tuning system. More recently, Sandikala has added instruments designed by Dion Nataraja, including two gambang and two sets of gong kemodhong, crafted in Klaten by Karnadi Handoko and Siswo Pradangga.
About the Comporer
Dion Nataraja is a composer, experimental vocalist, and scholar from Indonesia, currently pursuing a PhD in music composition at UC Berkeley. His musical and scholarly works have been focusing on the intersection of areas such as Javanese gamelan, spectral techniques, instrument building, multimedia composition, and anticolonial theories.
The composer-pianist Anthony Cheung described Dion's music as “a true intercultural music for our time.” By the gamelan composer-performer Wahyu Thoyyib Pambayun, his music has been described as “succeeded in expanding the musical language of the Javanese gendèr.” He has attended masterclasses and studied with musicians of various genres, such as Toshio Hosokawa, Chinary Ung, Ken Ueno, Edmund Campion, Carmine-Emanuele Cella, Nick Brooke, Allen Shawn, Steve Lehman, Darsono Hadiraharjo, and Midiyanto. In 2020, he was awarded as a finalist of Talea Ensemble’s emerging composer competition, and in 2022, he was awarded as a OneBeat fellow.
His music has been included as a part of Brown University’s “Asian Musical Modernisms” course syllabus, as well as in concerts such as PGVIS Symposium (Traditions in Transition), Jogja Noise Bombing, Salihara Jazz Buzz, MATA Festival, Soundbridge Festival, and many more. As a scholar, he has published his writing in Jurnal Kajian Seni of Gadjah Mada University, and he has given lectures in venues such as California Institute of the Arts, Salihara Arts Center, Perpromi, October Meeting, among others. At the moment, he is focusing his work on Sandikala Ensemble, a Yogyakarta-based ensemble that develops experimental techniques and new gamelan instruments with the aim of expanding contemporary gamelan music’s horizon.
Instruments: gender barung, gender penerus, gambang, rebab, gong kemodhong, gong ageng, percussion, electronics
Produced by Dion Nataraja & Yustiawan Paradigma Umar
Composed and electronics by Dion Nataraja
Recorded in Sleman, D. I. Yogyakarta, 2025
Mixed and mastered by Luke Taylor
Recorded by Muhammad Khoirur Roziqin
Production crew: Muhammad Eko Sudarmanto
Illustration:
“Kerkhof in het park van Buitenzorg” by Raden Saleh
Edited by Wok The Rock
Sandikala Ensemble Logo and Cover layout by Wok The Rock
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