W_Music’s very first attempt at a live Setlist session available for the general public went down last Saturday at the Dia.Lo.Gue art space in Kemang. While it’s tempting to pick an easy route and select more ‘accessible’ and much less ‘difficult’ music for this first foray, being the music snob as I am, I’m personally glad that it wasn’t the case.

Featuring two disparate yet extremely gifted musicians in their own right, the charismatic and virtuosic keyboardist Aryo Adhianto in the guise of A Fine Tuning Creation as well as the insanely talented and incomparable drummer Tatsuya Yoshida as Ruins Alone, the evening was a dedication to music purists and nerds of the capital.

Despite a 60-minute delay due to prolonged sound checks, A Fine Tuning Creation kicked off the evening with three stunning compositions presented on his keyboard, assisted by a Korg synthesizer. The first, an ode to his mentor I Wayan Sadra, was a beautiful piece that swivelled and swerved in many directions. Aryo effortlessly utilized strong Javanese sounds, combining it delightfully with the basic jazz and chamber music structures that underlined it.  Doing so would normally easily fall under the realm of ‘corny’, yet Aryo avoided such pitfalls. His second and third compositions were no different in its tranquillity, beauty and complexness, with the former evoking strong East-Asian sounds and the latter returning to its Indonesian roots.

After AFTC’s 30 minute set, it was the turn of the Japanese master to enter the fold. And a finer contrast of styles there cannot be. The seasoned virtuoso Japanese drummer –an integral member of a plethora of progressive and avant-garde rock bands and projects- but most notably Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei, Korekyojinn and Daimonji has over 40 years experience as a drummer, and boy did it show. His half-hour set offered everything from masterful speed drumming, math/prog-rock (and even jazz-rock) style chord riffs, anime references, sequencer madness and far-out vocalisations of something I can’t quite pin point (I doubt he was shouting/singing/scatting in Japanese). In short his outstanding yet sometimes hard to digest set was perhaps avant-garde/noise/prog/math rock’s equivalent to a latter-day Coltrane performance (well to this specific jazz fan’s ears and sensibilities anyway).

After the performances the crowd were left either exhilarated, stunned, happy, or a combination of all three. To sum up, it was a very entertaining and educative evening, set in a stunning backdrop of a garden/art gallery (despite the hoards of mosquitoes feasting on everybody). Here’s waiting for more Setlists from the W_Music posse.