The Sacred Drones of West Kalimantan

Tresno Records is a new born record label that has arisen from the closure of Lil Pitch Records (2011-2016), which was fundamentally focused on urban music and which saw artists like Ether, Pinch, DJ Earl, The Host and Braille Funk (Colossius, UXO, Clap! Clap!) joining its ranks.

Tresno's first output is a truly rare document, a jewel that shines in its purity made of soulful and love-filled atmospheres. The Sacred Drones of West Kalimantan is the result of Ldgu's (former founder of Lil Pitch Records, now Tresno's architect) field researches carried on during the month of June 2015 in western Kalimantan (the indonesian name of Borneo) and more precisely in the areas of the river Mendalam and Danau Sentarum, Kapuas Hulu regency.

Inspired by the gargantuan work of american ethnomusicologist Philip Yampolsky, who spent most of the '90s recording traditional indonesian musics on behalf of Washington's Smithsonian Folkways Records, this compilation spans from dances to ritual musics to field recordings.

It involves two Dayak tribes: that of the Kayan (I've managed to find, not without difficulties, the same village Yampolsky had visited back in '95) and that of the Taman.

The Sacred Drones of West Kalimantan is a sound documentary, a record in which every nuance of Kayan's and Taman's daily life and rituals is present, not to mention unexpected moments of nature's manifestations. You'll hear ancient chants, bronze percussions sending people into a state of trance, smokey dances that smell like swamp and somehow remind what Tom Waits was creating in his first years, the traditional lutes of Borneo (both the sape'/sapek/sapeq Kenyah and the Kayan ones are present, alongside Taman's belikan, which makes this record the very first source where it is listenable) and magic rituals: these are some of the aspects you'll fall in love with, because this is simply a marvellous, meaningful sonic experience. A deep glance cast over a wild portion of Indonesia which is still unknown even to the Indonesians themselves, let alone western world; an extremely detailed survey of one of the oldest drone musics of Asia. The download of the album comes with a twenty-five pages booklet (including a photographic appendix) in which every aspect of Dayak's life and music is investigated, thus making the listener able to dive into this astonishing sonic universe. Close your eyes and brace yourselves: this is a journey into sound dimensions we barely know, but which are close to our hearts in ways we could ever imagine. Mastered by Colossius at QuasiStudio, Florence; cover by Serena Doe.

The sales of this album will be allocated to the village of Datah Diaan.