Every Friday, we spotlight artists pushing boundaries and breaking forms. Batavia Collective don’t fit neatly anywhere, they are building their own lane. That’s exactly how they like it.
The Indonesian trio, keyboardist Doni Joesran, synth-bassist Kenny Gabriel, and drummer Elfa Zulham, are sonic shapeshifters. Equally at home on a festival stage or an after-hours club set, their music is a volatile mix of jazz chops, sound system pressure, and improvisational grit. Their upcoming EP, soon to be released in July, through Singapore’s forward-thinking Syndicate music label, is less about genre than it is about energy – boiling, breaking, flowing.
“We’re not trying to be a traditional act, but we are deeply shaped by where we’re from,” they tell us. You’ll hear echoes of classic jazz phrasing and underground beat culture, but Batavia aren’t interested in purity, they treat “jazz like a tool for chaos”, with a sense of rebellion and groove at the core of it. Their roots are in Jakarta’s chaos: a city alive with noise, density, and raw momentum. “That rhythm of the street, the improvisation it takes just to survive a day here, it’s all in the music.”
They’re part of a broader Southeast Asian wave challenging norms: where tradition meets club culture, and community drives the sound. Recent collaborations with Kamga and weish signal a commitment to building within the region, rather than looking west for validation. Their single, ‘Signals’, released recently featuring weish is something to jive to.
As for trying to market that? “It’s tricky. Too jazzy for the club kids, too electronic for the jazz heads,” they quip. “We play groove-heavy chaos. Makes more sense at 1AM.”
Cinematic influences? Try La Haine, City of God, and The Force Awakens. Tension, rebellion, and just a touch of space opera. You won’t get Batavia Collective by reading the genre tags. You’ll get them by hearing the friction, the pulse — and moving with it.
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