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Track Listing:
1. Lagu Kucing
2. Istirahat 1
3. Festival Kucing
4. Jalan Kucing
5. Jalan Laba-Laba
6. Istirahat 2
7. Cinta Kucing
8. Kucing Ekstra
9. Istirahat 3
10. Lagu Laba-Laba
11. Laboratorium
12. Istirahat 4
13. Keju Kucing
14. Lagu Gorila
15. Lagu Tikus
About the album:
“In early 2007 my wife, Carrie, found out that she had been selected as a recipient of a Fulbright grant allowing her to travel to Indonesia to study a form of contemporary multi-media shadow puppetry known as Wayang Sandosa. She invited me to accompany her to central Java for ten months to live in the city of Solo (Surakarta). When we arrived, I literally didn't know any Indonesian or Javanese language. One of the first words I learned in Indonesian (with exception to "hello" and "thank you") was the word for "cat". During our first couple days in Surakarta, I noticed plenty of stray cats and tried to make a point of addressing all of them (later, I discovered that they spoke only bahasah kucing & some Javanese). After we had been living in Solo for a month or so, a family of cats moved into our porch. They lived in a small hole in the side of the porch near our housemate Ignacio's bedroom. One morning before a lesson with our gamelan guru, I was practicing one of the songs we were going to work on when I heard the family of cats outside meowing along to the melody. The feeling that overcame me was indescribable.
Shortly after hearing the cat family singing, I was invited to participate in a group show of performative works by international and native artists living in Solo. I decided that I really wanted to do a shadow puppet show about stories various members of the cat family had begun sharing with me, so I invented the term "Wayang Kucing" ("Wayang" is a word for "shadow puppet theater" and "Kucing" translates to "cat" - it is also a play on the traditional form of Javanese shadow puppetry known as "Wayang Kulit" ("kulit" = "leather" (as the puppets are made from buffalo leather))). Although the subject matter was strictly feline, I wasn't sure if I should present the show in English or Indonesian. I knew that if the characters spoke English, I would alienate a large part of my audience; however, I also didn't speak Indonesan fluently enough to feel comfortable translating the script. I pondered this dilemma for a few days, until it occured to me that the most logical approach would be to present the show in "bahasah kucing" or "cat language" (bahasah kucing, for the most part, consists of various intonations of the word "meow").
The show was a success, and afterwards, I was invited to do more shows in central and east Java. After a few performances, I realized that I really wanted to do a show for our neighbors and my friends who worked nearby, so I decided to do a longer "Wayang Kucing" show in the street near our house. The actual organization of the show was a somewhat complex process. Carrie and I had to meet with the head of our neighborhood and presented our idea. He approved of it and gave us permission to close down the street we lived on. Two of my neighbors helped negotiate the process of renting chairs and tarps, hooking up electrical power, getting a sound system, closing down the street, hiring secutiry, setting up a stage, etc. It was actually quite a production and in preparation for the show, I recorded a series of loops and songs to act as background music for the show. My friend Jon triggered different loops during different scenes in the show. After the show, we decided to try and turn the loops into something of a more proper soundtrack.
The story for that show goes as follows:
There were once two cats who were playing badminton in a park. They were volleying for some time when one of the cats wound its arm as far as it could and hit the shuttlecock as hard as possible. The shuttlecock flew high above the second cat, who watched it sail over the mountains and over the ocean. The second cat offered to fetch the shuttlecock and flew high above the mountains and the ocean before landing in a parking lot where the shuttlecock was lying. At that time, a spacecraft landed and a huge spider exited. The spider used it eye lasers to decpitate the cat, then stole the shuttlecock and returned to its spacecraft. The spacecraft crossed the ocean and the mountains and eventually landed in the park where the first cat was waiting. The spider exited the spacecraft and after exchanging a series of insults with the first cat, the pair engaged in an epic game of badminton (made even more intense by the spider's eight legs and rackets), which the cat won after using a magical spin move. The spider exploded and the cat left the planet in the spiders' spacecraft. Meanwhile, on a planet nearby which was inhabited largely by giant arachnids, two small spiders were playing badminton. One of the spiders wound four or five of its arms as far as it could and hit the shuttlecock over the second spider's head and into a parking lot. As fate would have it, as the first spider was en route to retrieving the shuttlecock, a spacecraft appeared and the aformentioned cat exited, who eventually stole the the shuttlecock (after a misunderstanding with the spider which involving a fish being electrocuted) and left. This made the spider incredibly angry.
The cat eventually returned to its own planet. Upon landing, the cat encountered a gorilla playing video games on the beach. The cat and the gorilla played badminton for a short time before the gorilla used its incredible strength to knock the shuttlecock over the cat's head and into the city (where it landed in a wok). While travelling to the city, the cat encountered a beautiful feline in a head scarf who set his heart on fire. Shortly after their meeting, a large spaceship landed and several large spiders exited and laid seige to the cat city.In a moment of desperation, the cat convinced a scientist to use a new drug (which he had only begun to test) on an ordinary house cat. The results were impressive - immediately, the house cat grew two heads and a buff torso which weighed close to 200 pounds. The super cat was successful in destroying many of the spiders, however it was defeated (and subsequently split in half) by an especially large spider shortly after the cat had reunited with his newfound crush. After being discovered by the heinous spider who had defeated the super cat, all looked bleak for the pair of lovers until a tiny mouse appeared, which sent the spider into convulsions. Soon thereafter, the giant spider died of a heart attack. As the mouse ("tikus") and the cats celebrated, the gorilla returned and catnapped the first cat's love interest and took her to his fortress in the hills.
The cat and the mouse travelled to the fortress in the hills to retrieve their friend. Upon arrival in he fortress, a intense feeling of fear gripped them in such a way that they were almost unable to continue. When the cat finally did confront the gorilla, he realized immediately that the only way to avenge the catnapping was to defeat the gorilla in a game of badminton. Using the mouse as a shuttlecock, the two competitors engaged in a fierce game that raged on for some time. After watching the game from her cage in the same room and becoming quite bored, the hostage in a head scarf eventually grew anxious and bent the bars on her cage, freeing herself. She continued to sneak up on the gorilla and attack him quite viciously for some time. Following this series of events, the two cats left in the spacecraft and flew into the stars. The mouse lept into the sky and can still be seen today in the night sky. He sings the mouse song that never ends.”
--Patrick Elkins 2009 |
