Guruh Gipsy is a 1976

1976 in music

-January–February:*January 5 – Former Beatles road manager Mal Evans is shot dead by Los Angeles police after refusing to drop what police only later determine is an air rifle....

 Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 released by Guruh Sukarnoputra

Guruh Sukarnoputra

Muhammad Guruh Irianto Sukarnoputra is a member of Indonesia's People's Representative Council and an artist. He is the youngest son of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno with his third wife, Fatmawati....

 in collaboration with the band Gipsy, consisting of Keenan Nasution, Chrisye

Chrisye

Chrismansyah Rahadi , better known by his stage name Chrisye , was an Indonesian progressive-pop singer and song writer of mixed Chinese-Indonesian descent. He was born in Jakarta on 16 September 1949, and died there on 30 March 2007 following a long battle with lung cancer. He recorded 21 solo...

, Roni Harahap, and Oding Nasution. Mixing modern instruments with traditional Javanese and Balinese

Balinese people

The Balinese population of 3.0 million live mostly on the island of Bali, making up 89% of the island's population. There are also significant populations on the island of Lombok, and in the eastern-most regions of Java The Balinese population of 3.0 million (1.5% of Indonesia's population) live...

 music styles, it is now considered a landmark album. In 2007, Rolling Stone Indonesia voted it the second best Indonesian album of all time.

Production

Guruh Gipsy was produced independently; Guruh Sukarnoputra contacted Gipsy and asked them to help. Guruh wrote the songs and also played the piano and gendér

Gendér

A gendér is a type of metallophone used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan music. It consists of 10 to 14 tuned metal bars suspended over a tuned resonator of bamboo or metal, which are tapped with a mallet made of wooden disks or a padded wooden disk . Each key is a note of a different pitch, often...

. Both Chrisye and Keenan provided vocals, with Chrisye also playing the bass

Bass (instrument)

Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...

 and Keenan on drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

s. Roni Harahap played the piano, Oding Nasution was on guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, and Abadi Soesman on synthesizers. The Hutauruk Sisters provided female backing vocals.

The cover art

Cover art

Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...

 was designed to convey a meaning. On the cover, there is the term "Dasabayu", consisting of 10 figures of Balinese script

Balinese script

The Balinese alphabet is an abugida that was used to write the Balinese language, an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the Indonesian island of Bali. The use of the Balinese script has mostly been replaced by the Roman alphabet. Although it is learned in school, few...

 which convey meaning; I-A meaning "event", A-Ka-Sa meaning "emptiness", Ma-Ra meaning "new", La-Wa meaning "truth", and Ya-Ung meaning "eternal". Underneath is written Kesepakatan dalam Kepekatan (Agreement in Darkness).

Track listing

Musical style

Guruh Gipsy combines modern, Western instruments like the piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

s, and various rock instruments with traditional music forms, including Balinese gendér, Central Java

Central Java

Central Java is a province of Indonesia. The administrative capital is Semarang. It is one of six provinces on the island of Java.This province is the province of high Human Development in Indonesia and its Points Development Index countries is equivalent to Lebanon. The province of Central Java...

nese vocal styles, and West Java

West Java

West Java , with a population of over 43 million, is the most populous and most densely populated province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, it is slightly smaller in area than densely populated Taiwan, but with nearly double the population...

nese melodies and scales.
It has been described as progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 and heavy pop.

Release and reception

Guruh Gipsy was released on the indie label Dela Rohita. It was well received.

Guruh Gipsy has been described as a "landmark album" and "a pillar of the Indonesian pop music industry". In December 2007, Rolling Stone Indonesia selected Guruh Gipsy as the second-best Indonesian album of all time, behind Badai Pasti Berlalu

Badai Pasti Berlalu (album)

Badai Pasti Berlalu was remade in 1999 by Chrisye, with the songs rearranged by Erwin Gutawa. It cost 800 million Rupiah to produce and promote, which it made within three months....

. In 2009, they selected one of the songs from the album, "Indonesia Maharddhika

Indonesia Maharddhika

"Indonesia Maharddhika" is a song by Indonesian progressive rock band Gipsy, consisting of Chrisye, Keenan Nasution, Oding Nasution, Roni Harahap, and Abadi Soesman, together with Guruh Sukarnoputra. It was released in 1976 on the album Guruh Gipsy with the names of its contributors hidden in the...

", as the 59th best Indonesian song of all time. The song "Chopin Larung" was also well-received.

Guruh Gipsy is considered an influence for the 1990s Indonesian trend of mixing traditional instruments with pop music.