Album narratives by LAIR:

LAIR is a music project from Jatiwangi, West Java, which was founded in early 2018. Lair’s music is inspired by classical tarling which is explored in the typical pantura style, ‘raw’ and as is. The songs in Kiser Kenamaan are born from daily observations in large places where the personnel live, from Jatiwangi to Cirebon and Indramayu. Each song departs from the experience of living in the north coast region; there are stories of fishermen sailing in the north sea, the chaos of the roads on the north coast route told by intercity drivers, anger from the political situation in the election of village heads, there is also the optimism of the working class. “Lair” is taken from the Cirebon classic tarling language which means “born”, which is then interpreted to keep giving birth to something; music, thoughts, experiments, narration, and stories. The tile and clay musical instruments played are entirely made from Jatiwangi soil, which is the result of exploration of ‘other possibilities’ of roof tiles, the identity of Jatiwangi since 1905 which has begun to erode and is being pushed by the times. From the start, Lair didn’t specify one particular type of music to play, but if it had to be included in a category, Lair chose the term ‘pantura-soul’ for their music, while the music curator of Rrrecfest called Lair as a-kitschy mojo spectacle band. Lair has released their debut album titled “Kiser Kenamaan” that collects the life story of our neighbor that pictured the life of people you can meet at our hometown in Pantura.

Label Notes:

In the eyes, or ears, in this case, of laymen as ourselves who do not dabble in the art scene, LAIR’s materials were vivid. Even when being taken outside of their album’s narratives, the music and lyrics speak for themselves, describing in details, through aural means, how it is to live in the northern coast of Java. The feeling of salt in the air,
the tiniest drop of sweat as it run down the neck of a trucker, the gaudy set of stickers decorating the windshields of the public transports. The heat.

Long after its release in 2019, Kiser Kenamaan had never got the physical release treatment that it deserved. Also in relation to their departure for their tour, spanning across 3 continents in 6 montsh (from March to September 2022), we decided to do a re-release of Kiser Kenamaan, both in physical and digital formats (as it turned out the digital release been taken down from streaming services as well). With the support of Taraturu Collective as the designers, the album is also released on tapes. Duplicated at Lokananta Records in Solo and was painted by hand by 1Spesifikasi in Bandung.

Only 120 copies were made for this press.