Anom Darsana, Removing Stigma Through Music

Putu Fajar Arcana

· 6 minutes read

Anak Agung Anom Wijaya Darsana is not a musician, but he wants music to become enlightenment for people who are in trouble. For this reason, he has become the producer for the band Antrabez, a music group formed inside prison. To him inmates should have the same opportunity for a better life because they are not trash.

“I hope music will free them from the stigma that they are the trash of society,” said Anom in February in Denpasar, Bali. When he first got a call from Oktav, one of the initiators of Antrabez, who requested a recording, Anom did not believe it.

“How could people in prison be able to record songs and music. It must be quite difficult,” said the founder of Antida recording studio in Bali in 2004. If Oktav was serious, Anom said, he must form a music group. “And, I knew for sure it wouldn’t be easy,” he said.

Soon, Oktav arrived at Antida studio and prepared for the recording. At that time, said Anom, Antrabez\'s five members were escorted by security officers from Kerobokan Penitentiary, Denpasar.

Initially, they only wanted to record a song created by Slamet Prihantara, head of Kerobokan prison at that time. Slamet specifically wrote a song titled “All Not Hoping”, which was later arranged by Oktav. In the end, Antrabez gave birth to the first album titled Time to Change, which contained five songs.

“During the recording, the band members were always guarded closely,” said Anom. Slowly, Anom began to realize that Antrabez could become an ambassador to campaign to show that no matter how cruel life was in prison, its inhabitants remained human beings who needed others.

“They are human, not waste like garbage. They also want to be better human beings,” Anom said.

Antida, he said, was the medium to lead the Antrabez members to enlightenment. “I expect music to make them better people,” he said.

It did not stop at the album, Antida then became the producer of Antrabez for concerts in various music festivals in the country. Anom never counted money. In fact, for the recording process to give birth to an album, he had to prepare no less than Rp 80 million.

“I do not expect cash in return. Maybe the benefits are the media coverage, which made Antrabez a boom,” said the graduate of French literature in Switzerland.

Personal experience

Anom has personal experience about stigma against prisoners. In the 1960s, his father Oka Darsana was detained as a political prisoner. When he was released in 1970, Oka was traumatized by politics. Apart from experiencing violence in prison, his father also witnessed a massacre that took place in Denpasar.

“My father was traumatized. He felt like people saw him like a piece of garbage, worse than a prisoner, even though he was free from prison,” said Anom.

That stigma then led Oka into exile in Switzerland. When Oka decided to leave, Anom was only six months old. “So, I never knew my father. My family always said that father had died,” said Anom.

When Oka returned home and Anom was 7 years old, he also did not feel Oka was his father. “We were like foreigners to each other,” Anom said.

When he was 19 years old, Oka asked Anom to study in Switzerland. Despite working as a bus driver in Switzerland, Oka insisted on sending Anom to the Ecole De Francais Modern Universite in Lausanne. “I studied linguistics in the French Literature department for five years while volunteering as a sound engineer on local television,” said Anom.

After graduating from college, as a foreign non-native speaker, Anom could not teach French in Switzerland. He decided to study at the Center de Formation aux Metiers du Son (CFMS) in Lausanne. The CFMS is the best sound engineering school in Switzerland. “Studying theory for two years and then two years working as a sound engineer at various concerts and shows in Europe,” said Anom.

Having mastered the science of sound systems, Anom built a recording studio with his wife, Tiziana Carla Darsana, in Switzerland. The name Antida is a portmanteau of their names. In Switzerland, Anom worked in the world of sound arrangement on television, music concerts, theater performances and dance performances. He was the sound engineer for Europe’s largest ballet group called Ballet Bejart, which toured in France and Italy. Anom was also contracted for six months to become the Expo National Suisse sound engineer, which was staged around Switzerland and in which world-class music groups performed.

In 2004, the couple decided to move to Bali with the intention of transferring sound-system knowledge, which had not been widely developed in Indonesia. They built Antida studio in Denpasar. From this studio, bands like Navicula, Early Morning Dialogue and Nosstress were born, whose popularity skyrocketed among fans in the country. Finally, Antida became the producer of music group Antrabez, which was born in the “darkness” of prison.

“I never expected to get cash in return. The first mission was that many people would be enlightened because they listened to music,” said Anom, who became known as Anom Antida.

In business it is very unlikely to expect a return of capital from the proceeds of album sales. When the groups become known to the public at large, Antida is automatically recognized. “That alone is enough,” said Anom. In fact, in the process of making each new album, Antida spent no less than Rp 80 million.

“Later Antida will be supported by other income, for example, recording studio rentals and holding festivals,” Anom said.

Actually, a few years ago Antida ran Serambi Antida, which consisted of literature, music and film. Later, remembering the growing need for public involvement, Anom and several musicians gave birth to the Ubud Village Jazz Festival, which is held every August in Ubud, Gianyar, Bali.

In addition, through strengthening its mission, enlightening many people with music, Anom has also taken Indonesian bands to perform at the Asia Pacific Music Meeting (APaMM) in South Korea. In this event, Anom met many festival initiators from all over the world. He has also taken Indonesian groups to perform in India and several other countries.

“My satisfaction is that I increasingly purify people through music,” Anom said.

The stigma that inmates are little better than garbage may be removed slowly thanks to music. Anom hopes that Antrabez\'s members will first clean themselves from the stigma, then clean the name of the Kerobokan prison as a nest of the worst offenders. What he has done is also to provide enlightenment for himself and his father, political prisoners who were considered lower than criminals.

Anom Darsana

Full name: Anak Agung Ketut Anom Wijaya Darsana

Born: Denpasar, May 31, 1972

Wife: Tiziana Carla Darsana

Children:

- Neyja Darsana

- Tara Darsana

Education:

- Ecole De Francais Modern Universite Lausanne Switzerland

- CFMS (Centre de Formation aux Metiers du Son) Lausanne Switzerland

Editor:

kompascetak