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Hunter of the beat
Harbant Gill - 24 December 2004

NOTHING seems to faze rhythm-hunter Rendra Freestone when he goes on his wild adventures.

He eagerly sleeps on the decks of boats, tames rivers in a canoe and thinks nothing of walking for hours through dense jungles with treacherous river crossings.

He did all of these when he recorded the singing medicine men in the remote interior of Siberut Island, 100km off the west coast of Sumatra, for his latest project Sumatralia.

"It was a wild ride to get to these people who live pretty much as they have for thousands of years. They barter, wear loin-cloths, hunt with bow and arrow, communicate with two-to-three-metre-long log drums and are connected to spirit and land by the medicine men," says the Indiana Jones of rhythm during a brief Melbourne break.

He slept on a bamboo platform under which were pigs and chickens and just about everything else, but it was worth it.

"I've never heard anything like it," he says of the medicine men. "It's pretty haunting, like a cross between Tuvan throat singing and shakuhachi music.

"There's intense vibrato, a lot of going between falsetto and lower stuff, a bit of animal mimicking, all done in free time. They do it in phrases, then do a really big spit!

"It's ceremonial music, in an animistic culture. The idea of singing for entertainment is not known to them. We were lucky to get some great recordings."

Lucky, too, to find a 15-year-old champion in Islamic singing for Freestone's project, funded by the Australia Council and Asialink, which will culminate in a CD and some of the Sumatran musicians touring Australia with Freestone's group, The Rhythm Hunters.

Freestone also recorded a women-only group, in their 70s, who played multi-layered percussion they passed from generation to generation. And he met storytellers who improvised with rap-like witty verse and rhythm.

Wherever he went, the Sydney-bred musician had people leaning over his shoulder and whole villages crowding in to watch as he recorded.

In one village, his mission was nearly thwarted by about 15 suspicious village elders. In another, Freestone pitched a community into darkness when he plugged into a faulty socket.

His command of the local language helped him out of such tight spots – Freestone's mother is Indonesian-born and his father Australian.

Freestone, who also lectured in percussion at an Indonesian university for two months, says what fascinated him most was that music-making was very much about community, fun and tradition.


"Because of that, it's all about learning songs and being multi-skilled. They all play a little bit of flute, all sing, all do percussion, all dance," he says.

"Because of that, it's not like a tabla player who spends 10 years practising finger techniques and he's going to be revered in society for that.

"That's great, but in Indonesia there's an emphasis on being able to do just a bit of everything and on being able to join it."

In Aceh, where Freestone's mother comes from, he experienced body percussion, "Where they get amazing tones from slapping their bodies".

"They sit shoulder to shoulder and create intricate body and head movements that create visual illusions. It's crazy to watch because you're constantly being hit with dramatic visual changes," he says.


Freestone, who spent 15 years studying Tibetan kung fu, has been fascinated by the physicality of music since childhood.

It led to his Martial Percussion group then to intensive taiko training in Japan and later a degree in acupuncture.


"Acupuncture is also very creative, it's not like `diagnose and prescribe'. It's like a big web of relationships that are going on with the body and the environment and there's millions of ways to initiate change," he says.

Freestone, the intrepid musicologist, is tapping into quite a few of them.

RENDRA FREESTONE

When: Sumatralia the CD will be released in February. For performance details, visit www.therhythmhunters.com or ph: 0410 470 474

The Rhythm Hunters will perform at the Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Dec 27-Jan 3. Details: www.woodfordfolkfestival.com

Click links below to view previous newsleters:
• Newsletter No.: 1 - 9th July 2004
• Newsletter No.: 2 - 16th July 2004
• Newsletter No.: 3 - 24h July 2004

     more pics >

9.11.04 : View Slide Show of the latest
images from Sumatralia     -     [click here]

Asia Link Grant Newsletter No.: 4
17th August 2004

Today is Indonesian Independance Day and we have just arrived back from the Mentawai Islands. These are a group of islands 100km off the west coast of Sumatra.
 
We caught an overnight boat to Siberut Island which is an island covered by dense jungle, rivers and hundreds of tribes living in the remote interior.

It was deck sleeping which is a beautiful way to travel.  Except perhaps for the captains megaphone announcements that would abrubtly enter and exit the boundless ocean night.
 
In the deep interior of Siberut people live pretty much as they have for thousands of years. They have no use for money but use barter, there is no electricity, they where loin cloths & colourful beads, have elaborate tattoo’s all over their bodies, hunt monkeys with bow & arrow, communicate with 2-3 metre long log drums, marry young, have many children of whom a few are bound to die, live by traditional laws and are connected to spirit and land by the medicine men.
 
As a musical project our main interest was the singing of the medicine men. This is done primarily for ceremonies or healings. With recent influences from the outside you can now negotiate with some medicine men for non-ceremonial renditions.
 
To reach the interior we traveled for 5 hours in a canoe with a motor that kept destroying its propeller on rocks as the river got shallower. Eventually the boat gave up so we continued on foot.
 
Walking in Mentawai is tricky and funny. Paths consist of felled coconut palms or bamboo laid like thick tight ropes. Rainfall is high and the omnipresent mud makes the walkways extremely slippery. There are also precarious river and creek crossings every 15-20 minutes. You stay pretty wet and covered in mud even if your doing well. No one is spared from the odd slide. Sometimes you fall over, get up and fall over again and then repeat the event. It’s very funny.
 
The locals bound through the forest and along the thin slippery logs barefoot. They do this at speed and are always waiting for us. Old men and young girls alike, it’s a way of life. Walking for an hour or two is considered a short stroll.

Andy got a great photo a guy heading off with a 60kg live pig in a straight jacket made of palm leaves on his back for a 4-hour delivery run. He was delivering the pig as dowry for his 15-year-old nephew.
 
The singing of the medicine men was different from anything I have heard before. They use intense vibrato and a lot of falsetto and spitting at the end of long phrases. It’s very beautiful and haunting like Shakuhachi or Saluang music. We were lucky to get some great recordings.
 
We are now back in Padang Panjang burning CD’s and getting photos printed for all the groups and musicians that have participated in Sumatralia. We will deliver this material over the next few weeks as well as a Rhythm Hunters CD as initial gifts. We hope to continue on the good will we have been experiencing here in Sumatra.
 
Next Saturday night we are recording Islamic singing from a 15-year-old girl who is the west Sumatran champion in that style. It will be done in her village. We will also recording 2 percussion groups on the same night.
 
All the best to you back in Australia. Singing off…………..Rendra.