Alkisah - Once upon a time...

...is the formula that evocates the storytellers' resurrection about mythical ages that impacted their coming dreams ever since people began to tell each other stories that were related to their struggle with all kinds of elemental forces. Therefore with such magical powers, this opening will survive in a union for millenniums to come. Alkisah is the story of a new dream: It is rather about having an idea of the end of capitalism than putting too much attention to the fact that our worlds going to end. Apocalyptic misfortunes have been an instrument of power, regardless of the truth, that we have probably never been closer to a worldwide creation of almighty destruction. But as Rully puts it in this interview: Alkisah is "about coming up with new strategies, ideas, and methods for practice in a post-apocalyptic world". So we are already further...we are already dealing with the catastrophe being permanent, searching for various ways to overcome that status quo. Worldwide collaboration on a level of trust and mutual aid is one of the aspects. Another one is the anticopyright philosophy that lies beneath. The idea of universal creativity is mainly about an exchange of spirits and not of currency. A cross-cultural alliance of music lovers. This unifying approach is for the benefit of everyone involved. Artists, labels, and recipients.

Our young label is very much delighted to be a part of this tremendous project. That is why we considered very carefully what we wanted to accomplish. Our very own approach as a label is to break with conventions of packaging and materials. We work mostly on tape, because it is the easiest and quite robust medium, or lets say it allows us alott of independence. Since the start we deeply avoided plastic cases, because there is enough of this shit in this world already. So we came up with the idea to do pottery this time. We have used special self made carton cases for the past three releases, but for Senyawa's Alkisah the material became a gravitative force. We asked ourself, which is the material that connects us, without any connotation of colonial exploitation. So we discovered the vulcanic clay, result of erosion and sedimentation over thousands of years.

We took the task to work on a low-budget production basis which was one of our main objectives. But we spend plenty of our time on meditative methods. We tried as much as we could, to keep the production of this piece handcrafted. We unearthed the clay from the forest nearby. Its volcanic sediments became our formable base. We washed it. We stomped it with our own feet. We dried it. We shaped it with our hands. We dried it. We burned it carefully in a controlled heated fire.
We fully recycled the cassette tape, which now lies inside a bed of burnt past, shaped for future resistance. The Gunni sack (coffee sack) cover is the only piece that has this colonial background to remind us during the Japanese occupation in Indonesia between 1942-1945, Indonesian force labor had to wear this material as their clothing, which in the tropical area this material may contain tics and also very quite itchy once worn. One of our team is working in a coffee roastery and got it from there.
And we riso printed at the riso club Leipzig, which is a DIY print shop, that we often work with. And dubbed the tapes together with our friend Max at Aquarium, Leipzig in his DIY dubbing studio. And for sure asked all our friends that came to mind to contribute a remix. Here it is...

So now you may lift up this stone with us, you may hold this release with us and we all lift it together - together as one! Our mutual alliance and aid!

Alkisah. so again... it will have been once upon - is where the story started!