Dwiki Dharmawan - 2025 - Anagnorisis

(69:00; Moonjune Records)





















It has been more than five years since the last album from master pianist Dwiki Dharmawan, 2020’s ‘Hari Ketiga’ but at long last he is back with a new line-up. This time he is working with the well-known Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon (The Orient House Ensemble, Robert Wyatt, Pink Floyd, The Blockheads) on saxophone and clarinet plus a quartet of Greek musicians in Kimon Karoutzos (upright bass) Harris Lambrakis (ney flute),  Vironas Ntolas (electric guitar) and Nikos Sidirokastritis (drums). This may seem a very strange mix of cultures, but Atzmon has been undertaking quite a bit of work with Greek musicians recently and he, Lambrakis, Ntolas and Sidirokastritis are all members of Potamos (we are just missing double bassist Xrisostomos Boukalis) who released their debut last year.

This means that Dharmawan has been presented with a group who have mostly been working together already and understand how they each operate, which is key when recording an album together. I have long been a fan of Dharmawan, who along with Dewa Budjana is one of my favourite Indonesian musicians, and here we have a combination of classical, ethnic and jazz, which is sumptuous and wonderfully compelling to listen to. This is  Dharmawan’s fifth album on the world stage, thanks to Leo Pavkovic of Moonjune, but he has been co-leading one of Indonesia’s top bands for more than 40 years, Krakatau, so he is no stranger to the studio. Pavkovic needs to be credited with making Indonesian music more available outside that country, as while it is Western in some ways it is very different indeed in others, and this is a hugely addictive album. The piano is not always the lead, but it is indeed often the case while the rest of the guys shows they are far more than just support players, sometimes providing a foundation, at others a counterpoint melody, and they also have their time in the spotlight.

I have really enjoyed this mix of styles, as one never knows where it is going and consequently is a very fine journey indeed. Well worth investigating. 

Kev Rowland, April 2026

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/DwikiDharmawan.page
https://moonjune.com/

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