As someone once said: “Now for something completely different” … ART OF TREE. Art of Tree is an Indonesian music co-operative comprising of six young Indonesian musicians – Muhammad Ibnu Rafi (drums), Felix Tri Kurnia (guitar), Abram Lembono (keyboard), Dimas (lead vocal), Andre Rugebert a.k.a. Shotgun Dre (MC), and Fajar Nugroho (bass). They admit that they have diverse music backgrounds but they claim to have come together because they share one mission: “A commitment to spread “positive message and energy” through our music and lyrics. Our diversity is bound by a harmony of cacophony which transcends nations’ borders and musical genres. “
So far so good? The band also believes their mission is to “Seed the Sounds of the Global Generation” and the first step in that mission is the release of their album, the eponymous ‘Art Of Tree’. You can probably guess that it’s an odd album… the 12 tracker fuses all kinds of sounds and genres but broad minded soul folk shouldn’t write it off. In places the music backdrop comes over as an amalgam of EWF, Donald Byrd and John Klemmer while the rap lyrics are delivered in the manner of Guru. With titles like ‘Coded Verses’ and ‘Gibberish’ you know it’s not going to be an easy listen but if you have adventurous ears you may just connect!
