Jabitudu                                                            Persilasi

Liner notes by Jimmy Trash

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Genjer-Genjer

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Composer: Muhammad Arief

T.S – vocals, fretless electric guitar

Claudio Jolowicz – tenor sax

Johannes Schleiermacher - baritone sax

Mark Roman Wickham – contrabass

Sebastian Maschat – drums, percussion

Over the course of this album, a listener will recognise Tomi's ability to consume, distort, and find hidden meanings within original tunes, meanings perhaps that were even hidden to the original composers. As the song at the centre of Tomi's "Genjermania" project, his revamped version of M. Arief's "Genjer Genjer" contains all of the darkness and shrouded violence of the period of Indonesian history it represents. It is permeated with the horror of his father's experience of uncovering severed limbs, leftover from sloppy executions, whilst playing in the wild. The language is that of M. Arief's mother tongue, East Javanese Osing

Jabitudu Persilasi

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composer T.S 

T.S – vocals, fretless electric guitar

Claudio Jolowicz – tenor sax

Johannes Schleiermacher - sampler

Mark Roman Wickham – contrabass

Sebastian Maschat – drums

Title track "Jabitudu Persilasi" was the name of the game Tomi and his sister would play before their parent's divorce and their relocation to Germany. In a recreation of the mythical plane they never knew they would take, Tomi would act as the aircraft while his sister would act out the roles of the individuals they imagined to be on the plane. You can hear the playfulness of foreboading nostalgia and imagination sweeping over the track. "Jabitudu Persilasi" was originally composed for the Chor der Kulturen project staffed by Berlin's Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt. The scale is based on javanese slèndro.

Gundhul-Gundhul Pacul

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composer trad arr. T.S 

T.S – vocals, fretless electric guitar

Claudio Jolowicz – Javanese flute

Johannes Schleiermacher – Javanese flute, baritone sax

Taylor Savvy – fretless electric bass

Sebastian Maschat – drums

Here is another example of Tomi's remarkable reprocessing plant – a glammed up, almost Roxy Music'd version of a Javanese children's song with a double dose of hidden political message. The traditional Javanese lyrics depict a baldhead balancing a basket of rice on his head. When the basket slips and his rice is lost, it is a subtle hint to any ruler who has lost their dignity; that soon their power and influence over the land and subjects will also fall. Tomi experienced this fairytale fall while listening to the radio reports of Suharto's downfall in 1998 from his new German home.

Teutoburger

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composer T.S

T.S – vocals, fretless electric guitar, guitar synth

Claudio Jolowicz – tenor sax, cowbell

Johannes Schleiermacher – baritone sax, cowbell

Mark Roman Wickham – contrabass

Sebastian Maschat – drums

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Teutoburger, an intimate song expressing Tomi's internal split between leaving Indonesia as a child and arriving in Germany, uses English and German language and 5:4 polyrhythm throughout the song to solidify the awkwardness of his out-ofstep realities to the listener.  The scale used is based on maqam Husseini.

Jangan Pergi

composer T.S

T.S – vocals, electric guitar

Johannes Schleiermacher – sampler

Mark Roman Wickham – electric bass

Sebastian Maschat – drums "

Jangan pergi" in Indonesian means "don't leave". This is Tomi's (Californian Indie-rock) spin on the Indopop genre, a contemporary style of pop that is primarily about love and breakup. The lyrics of "Jangan Pergi" are about time passing too quickly and the subject's fear of change, originally seducing the listener to believe it is a break up song. The final line of the chorus reveals that it's actually sung from the perspective of a little child – and undoubtedly an attempt by Tomi to heal the wounds of the fragmented family his inner child experienced.

The Tourist

composer T.S

T.S – vocals, electric guitar

Claudio Jolowicz – tenor sax, vocals

Johannes Schleiermacher – bar. sax, vocals

Mark Roman Wickham – contrabass, vocals

Sebastian Maschat – drums, vocals

Daniel Nentwig – vocals

As always, Tomi's songs on Jabitudu Persilasi are rich, caramelised onions which get sweeter the more layers you peel off. "The Tourist" is the height of this impressive songwriting, mixing a semiautobiographical account of Tomi's own chemically enhanced Berlin burnout period, with the soundtrack of the Balkan hype movement from the city of the same time. However the Hijaz scale is also wrenched through a Zappa/Danny Elfman filter into this incredibly complex and dancey tune.

God Bless The Child (that's got his own)

composers Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog

Arr. T.S.

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T.S – vocals, electric guitar

Claudio Jolowicz – tenor sax, vocals

Johannes Schleiermacher – baritone sax, vocals

Mark Roman Wickham – contrabass, vocals

Sebastian Maschat – drums, vocals

Again, Tomi borrows the tone and theme of a classic orchestration and makes it his own: this Billie Holiday "sacred and profane" classic is given a completely unique makeover. Rock elements and a careless attitude towards the songs' 7/4 complexity give this standard an anthemic volume that it's predescessors lacked.

Sound Home Theme composer T.S

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T.S.– voc., el.guitar

Claudio Jolowicz – flute, tenor sax

Johannes Schleiermacher – flute, baritone sax

Mark Roman Wickham – contrabass

Sebastian Maschat – drums

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"Sound Home Theme" is the sound of an intense longing, as felt by a deep soul who is lost. One who is feeling, ambitious, intelligent, but has still succumb to wistful clouds of doubt and shadow. The scale is based on Javanese Pélog, reharmonized in a Western Romantic style. The flutes imitate gamelan instrumentation, by dividing one melody line up between two instruments in a push-pull/call-response fashion

Sabilulungan

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trad arr. T.S 

T.S – vocals, electric guitar

Claudio Jolowicz – flute, tenor sax, vocals 

Johannes Schleiermacher – baritone sax, vocals 

Mark Roman Wickham – electric bass, vocals 

Sebastian Maschat – drums, vocals 

"Sabilulungan" is a Sundanese (West Java) folk song about team spirit and peace. Again the complexity of Tomi's influences and skills are on display to mash Sundanese folk with Afro-funk vibes. This is clearly influenced by his work with the Whitefield Brothers and the Poets Of Rhythm. In this song, Tomi reflects on the strength embedded in him from his bandmates.

Wake Up Machine

composer T.S 

T.S – vocals, electric guitar,

      electric bass and drums

Claudio Jolowicz – tenor sax

Johannes Schleiermacher – baritone sax

The album closes out on a personal note from Tomi's own philosophy: his positivity, which many people have had the opportunity to experience personally throughout the journeys expressed in Jabitudu Persilasi, is a force within itself. "Wake Up Machine" is the buzz you get from seeing Tomi perform onstage and hearing the depth of his personality, musicality, spirituality.