(De)Conception by Sri Hanuraga

In the process of creation, a composer would encounter many forking paths, but one must end up taking only one. Hence, this inevitability only actualizes a single possibility, a singular present.

‘(De)Conception’ is an exploration of the unrealized presents in ‘Conception’, a renowned work by pianist George Shearing from 1950. But it’s not just about Shearing, ‘(De)Conception’ is an étude, in Dipesh Chakrabarty’s words, to unlearn the thinking of history as a developmental process in which that which is possible becomes actual by tending to a future that is singular. To put it differently, it is to learn to think the present—the ‘now’ that we inhabit as we speak—as irreducibly not-one.
 
When writing about the late George Shearing, jazz historian Ted Gioia had to say:
‘The resulting "Shearing sound”, as it came to be known, was tasteful and inoffensive-- but hardly measured the full depth of the pianist's talent…As it stands, much of his recorded output only hints at the depth of his musicality.'

Ted’s carefully chosen words – ‘tasteful and inoffensive’ – hints at the unexplored potentials and subversive sides of Shearing’s music. Subsumed by the spirit of his time, such qualities were not often conveyed. To realize such radical and subversive different presents, the need to borrow from a contrasting musical landscape arises. In this case, it is that of Balinese composer Dewa Alit, whom the artist have had the chance to work with recently. The motifs and phrasings present in Alit’s composition ‘Karang Awak’ are warped and extrapolated to produce extended sentences. ‘(De)Conception’ is a collision between Shearing’s history and Alit’s musical language, thereby creating a liminal space where Shearing stops being Shearing and Alit stops being Alit.

The role of the artist as an improviser in this realm is to plunge into a convoluted entanglement of ways to experience the present world from wider possibilities of existence. With this frame of thinking in place, ‘(De)Conception’ can therefore be viewed as a residency out of one’s self.

The sixth part of this suite, ‘After Conception’, was inspired by painter Hanafi and was part of his 2023 exhibition, ‘Af+ermasks’. During the collaboration process with Hanafi, Hanuraga saw one of his paintings called ‘Saat Guernica Belum Di Dinding’. He immediately felt the kinship and connection that the painting had with his approach in making ‘(De)Conception’ - a personal reading and reinterpretation of an existing work to create a totally new repertoire. This parallel drew him to choose that particular piece to visually represent the album.

JKT / IDN
Sound and Visual Arts Label

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