Now what if the piano morphed by detuning into the gamelan?

Kafka, Postmortem is based on Kafka’s story titled “The Judgment.” At the end of the story, the protagonist committed suicide after his father condemned him to death by drowning (“And therefore take note: I sentence you now to death by drowning!”). The absurdity!⁠⁠ Who would drown themselves right after hearing such a literal condemnation? The story is strange without even adding elements of magical realism or surrealism; Kafka simply creates the story in a realistic manner, but with characters acting strangely, distant from how human usually acts. In the spirit of this strangeness, I asked Redian Pragina Jali to create a Javanese translation of the story’s ending. By working with a Javanese translation of this unusual text, I intend to turn the language into a strange unto itself. I sang this text with a style in between sulukan, Debussy’s Pelleas & Melisande, and kargyraa: recitative after recitative, and at several moments, accompanied by a syntactical breakdown into harsh noise (kargyraa+rebab overpressure+electronic distortion). While writing the vocal part, I was inspired by the idea of asemic writing⁠—a kind of writing in that represents grammatical breakdown⁠—and by Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic/the symbolic⁠—the semiotic refers to rhythm and tone, and the symbolic refers to grammar and syntax⁠—, where noise would function as the breaking point of the symbolic to the semiotic. I attempt to push forward the experiments that we did with our previous piece; here, we utilized four new gendèrs, which in total would form a 36-tone tuning system (two of the gendèr do not have octave repetition). The electronic materials are sourced from field recordings as well as from Denis Smalley’s Base Metals—I intend this to be an homage to the first piece that gave me a deep understanding of the power behind bell’s timbre.

Text
English: 
His father said pityingly, in an offhand manner: “I suppose you wanted to say that sooner. But now it doesn’t matter.” And in a louder voice: “So now you know what else there was in the world besides yourself, till now you’ve known only about yourself! An innocent child, yes, that you were, truly, but still more truly have you been a devilish human being!—And therefore take note: I sentence you now to death by drowning!”
...
He swung himself over, like the distinguished gymnast he had once been in his youth, to his parents’ pride. With weakening grip he was still holding on when he spied between the railings a motor bus coming which would easily cover the noise of his fall, called in a low voice: “Dear parents, I have always loved you, all the same,” and let himself drop.

Javanese: 
Bapakke kandha karo memělas, swarane ngěmu rasa pasrah, “Tak kira yen kowe bakale ngandhani luwih cěpět. Ning, arěpa saiki ya ora dadi pěrkara.” Swarane sangsaya bantěr: “Dadi saiki kowe ngěrti apa maneh ing donya iki kajaba mung dhapurmu dhewe, tekan sěprene mung ngěrti pěrkara dhapurmu tok! Kowe bocah sing lugu, ya, pancen běněr kuwi sipatmu sing biyěn, nanging luwih běněr yen kowe saiki pancene bocah kěparat! Saiki gatekna, kowe tak ukum pati, tak blěběgke urip-uripan!” 
...
Georg gěgeyongan kaya dene atlit, mempěr kayata sing tahu dilakoni Georg nom-nomane biyen, kabeh mau dilakoni kanggo nuwuhake rasa mongkog wong tuwane. Gěgěmane sangsaya suwe sangsaya suda dayane, ing wěktu kuwi uga dheweke nyawang bus sing arěp liwat, swarane kaprungu guměděr, swarane bisa dadi srana anyamarake tibaning si Georg. Dheweke kandha nganggo swarane sing gěrok, “Pake, Bune, aku tětěp trěsna karo Panjěněngan kabeh. Salawase!”, Georg banjur nglalu nibakake dhiri. 


Composer: Dion Nataraja

Performer:
Sandikala Ensemble
Yustiawan Paradigma Umar (gendèr)
Suseno Setyo Wibowo (gendèr)
Roni Driyastoto (rebab)
Mustika Garis Sejati (rebab)
Michael Wimberly (percussion)
Dion Nataraja (voice and electronics)

Translator (to Javanese): Redian Pragina Jali

Producer: Yustiawan Paradigma Umar

Mixing & mastering: Luke Taylor

Kafka, Postmortem

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