23.09.25: Kuntari (ID)
Electronic primal core and Indonesian rhythms
KUNTARI is one of the latest offshoots from Indonesia’s vibrant experimental scene. In their adventurous soundscapes — aptly described by the duo themselves as “primal core” — Indonesian rhythms, animalistic mating calls, and electronic effects merge into a dark, organic sonic wilderness.
Tuesday 23.09.2025
Doors: 19.30
Show: 20.00
Price: 120 dkr + fee
Venue: Råhuset, Onkel Dannys Plads 1-9 1711 København V
Buy tickets: https://tikkio.com/events/57393
Kuntari (ID)
The vibrant Indonesian experimental music scene has long been home to a wealth of intriguing projects, and one of its most recent breakthroughs is KUNTARI. The project is led by Tesla Manaf, who originally came from a jazz background but set aside his guitar in favor of a world of drum machines, noisy effects, and synthesizers. Together with drummer Rio Abror, he crafts captivating, exploratory soundscapes where hypnotic Indonesian tribal rhythms, electronic elements, and primitive vocalizations—often simulated animal mating calls on trumpet—merge into a dark, organic, and untamed sonic wilderness.
KUNTARI themselves describe their genre as primal-core, and indeed the music emerges as a percussive, primal universe layered with brooding ambient textures and driven by an intense, ancient dynamism that unfolds live in a raw, organic, and almost unruly form.
Following extensive tours across Thailand, Taiwan, and Malaysia, KUNTARI made an indelible mark with a 12-day tour of Japan, including a performance at the Fuji & Sun Festival. Most recently, the duo completed a monumental European tour in the spring of 2024: 35 days, 31 shows, 27 cities, and 9 countries, solidifying their reputation far beyond Asia.
KUNTARI’s 2021 album, Last Boy Picked, was named Album of the Year by the Jakarta Post and secured a top spot on Vice’s list, while their latest EP, LAHAR, released this year on the Italian label Artetetra, has been described as “a deeply atmospheric, bone-melting session of ancestral doom sounds.”
KUNTARI has collaborated with a wide range of genre-defying artists, including Keiji Haino, Fuyuki Yamakawa, Rully Shabara, Arthur Hnatek, Morgue Vanguard, Jonas Engel, Dirk Wachtelaer, Luigi Monteanni, Yuji Ishihara, and Yasushi Yoshida.