Works associated with musique concrète also exploit a special approach to listening called the “acousmatic situation,” in which sounds are divorced from their original sources and re-contextualized within new frameworks. Any sound may be repurposed to serve a new function or have new meaning depending on its relationships to other sounds in a given composition. In an exchange of emails with Fahmi, I learned that he had aimed to invoke the acousmatic situation, but as I listen I find the possibility of separating the sounds from their sources varies from track to track (though I don’t suggest this is a shortcoming). In the first track “Aneka Ragam (Various Melodies),” I hear gamelan, even though the sounds are layered and significantly processed; the second track, “Angin Malam (Night Wind),” is also constructed from manipulated recordings of gamelan instruments, but I hear a convincing and honest expression of the movement of nocturnal sounds in rural Indonesia – wind moving through tree branches, animals in the distance, clouds of insect calls, the bubbling of a neighboring rice field. The sounds are indeed divorced from their sources, and yet like so many of the other aspects of this music (and perhaps music in general), it is difficult to divorce it from its cultural context. I am not sure what is to be gained from the process of disassociation. Perhaps Fahmi needed to adopt such a mindset to ensure that he could express himself clearly without relying on traditional idioms. As a listener, I find the cultural context only makes the pieces sweeter.

“Akur,” literally “get along with” or “agreed,” highlights Fahmi’s desire to collaborate. Though Fahmi often operates as a solo artist, he frequently reaches out to others to collaborate. Occasionally these collaborations take place in person, as was the case with local gamelan musicians on track four “Gunung (Mountain).” However, more often than not he settles for long-distance online collaborations, as witnessed in countless works across his discography. This includes his work with Japanese experimental musician Yuko Araki on Akur’s “Aneka Ragam.” In our techno-centric age, the center of Fahmi’s village, like so many others, is online – a global community tied together by fiber optic cables.

Fahmi claims that although he has undertaken light study and performance of gamelan, he does not have a particularly strong connection to the music.  Initially, I found it natural to conclude Fahmi had a connection and/or self-identification with “noise music,” a music trend that has been growing explosively across Indonesia in the past decade.  Like Fahmi, noise artists tend to have prolific output and often collaborate and work under various monikers. Fahmi also frequently incorporates techniques from the noise genre – abrasive timbres, playful disruption, and extreme dissonance. However, the case for labeling Fahmi a “noisician” is not as strong as I first assumed. Though his music has appeared on a few noise compilations and has made appearances at noise shows, he does not self-identify with “noise,” and his music encompasses too many other styles to fit tightly into the noise rubric.

Fahmi’s creative work instead inhabits a liminal space, I think largely enabled by pre-established Indonesian attitudes towards music, creativity, and technology. Gamelan provides a sense of ritual or routine, while the past ten years of noise in Indonesia has provided a framework for exploration. Similarly, his approach to musique concrète (and everything else) on this album has demonstrated an ability to extend and innovate pre-established traditions. He sits on the fringes of all these places, allows some ideas to be taken in or just pass, processes them on his computer, and then deposits them neatly in his online repository. It seems as though he makes no assumptions about their inherent value either – his entire Bandcamp discography sits patiently waiting to be purchased in its entirety for a mere $15. It’s not about making a product or a grandiose work; it’s about collecting sounds via interactions with others, subjecting them to a personal (computerized) treatment, and as he stated in the last segment of our interview, “just letting it flow.”