It feels as if we are on a roller coaster. Press conference at 18:00 on 4 September, Monica, Paul Peters, cultural attache RNE and the rest of the band, in Hotel Amboina, where we arrived after a 04:00 start of the day, after a four and a half hour flight from Jakarta through Surabaya to Ambon.
We arrived in Indonesia on 2 September, had the first concert in Jakarta on 3 September with a late dinner, and after less than three hours sleep we left the hotel in three taxis at 04:00.
Organizer of the press conference was Victor Joseph, Free Voice , Dutch support for media in development, www.freevoice.nl Boi Akih was supposed to play at the Ambon Jazz plus festival, but it was postponed to 9-11 October. They’ll now do another gig tomorrow. and a workshop, sponsored by the Dutch Embasy, the Erasmus huis and Taman Budaya (cultural centre). E hav to go in the Karpan hills, 30 minutes away from the city of Ambon (more than 400,000) population.
Lagu lagu story
Victor had lined up five journalists for the press conference:
- Suara Maluku
- Siwa Lima
- Suara Pembaruan
- Radio Pelangi
- Marinyo
Monica shared with the journalists her story about the history of her Lagu Lagu recording, with songs from 1948 found in the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam she remembered from her Moluccan grandmother. They were rearranged by husband Niels. Other members of the band were asked about the first concert in Jakarta.
Line up for a Jakarta Post picture
Maarten Ornstein: ”We had at least 150 people in the first concert in the amphitheatre of the Erasmushuis, people enjoyed our music and reacted also nicely”.
The Boi Akih band in full swing
Drummer Owen Hart junior is the youngest in the band and in years of experience. He is happy to see new places and joining experienced musicians. At the same time he is having a hard time, because he forgot his mobile when we were in transit in Kuala Lumpur. He left his new son David and his wife the day after they returned from hospital. Later his afternoon sound man Marc helped him with a spare mobile and with a new sim card Owen was back in touch with his loved ones back home.