Timeline (reissue, 2013)
DRAG CITY
8/10
NOT all band’s names offer immediate clues to the sound of their music. Yet this couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to North Sumatran band Suarasama, whose moniker is a combination of two Indonesian words: ‘suara’, which means voices or sounds but also opinions, and ‘sama’, meaning togetherness and equality.
Formed in 1995 by ethnomusicology lecturers Irwansyah Harahap and Rithaony Hutajulu, Suarasama made music that was a joyful exploration of was their second album, originally released in 2013 and now reissued for the first time on vinyl by Drag City. But this commemoration of its 10th anniversary is tempered by loss, as co-founder Harahap, a major creative force of the band who was responsible for all the stringed instrumentation, passed away in 2021 at the age of 60. To revisit now is not only to consider their music but also to pay tribute to the man behind so much of its spirit and power.
