Indonesia is a very diverse country. Just about every one of the 17,508 islands has its own cultural and artistic history that are the result of distinct ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. The archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the seventh century, when the Srivijaya Kingdom traded with China and India. Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished, until Muslim traders brought Islam to the region.
The first Europeans arrived in Indonesia in 1512, when Portuguese traders sought to monopolize the sources of nutmeg, cloves and cubeb pepper in Maluku. Dutch and British traders soon followed. In 1602, the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company and became the dominant European power. Following bankruptcy of the Dutch East India Company in 1800, the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalized colony.
All of these different cultures – both native and foreign – collided to produce an endless variety of amazing music. Much of it has been documented and recorded, but not all of it. Research by Indonesian and international scholars is still ongoing.
One of these variations was known as Instrumentalia, which was also popular in Malaysia and Singapore. Band 4 Nada, or “4 Tones Band”, were one of the first and more popular Instrumentalia bands in Indonesia. They took the instrumental rock sounds of The Shadows and The Ventures, and mixed it with other indigenous types of music, to create a new sound quite unlike anything else. Band 4 Nada were occasionally the backing band for singers such as Ernie Djohan, Lilis Suryani, Pattie Bersaudara and Titiek Sandhora. The main guy was A. Riyanto, who later went on to form The Favorite’s Group. Apparently, Jopie Item – of Trio Bintang – was a member at some point during the history of the band. Also, this album contains covers of several Koes Plus songs.