I Manipulate the Form'd and the Formless - Arrington de Dionyso's Malaikat dan Singa

Arrington de Dionyso (b. January 4th 1975) makes trans-utopian world music for a world that exists in fever dreams and hallucinations. His most recent project, Malaikat dan Singa, is a trance-punk outfit featuring bass clarinet, guitars, multiple drummers and his trademark wild vocals (multi-spectral harmonic throat-singing combined with grunts, yelps, and barks) -- this time, all sung in Indonesian. Malaikat dan Singa translates as "Angels and Lions," and de Dionyso's Indonesian lyrics combine mythology and fantasy with haphazard translations of poet William Blake on the debut Malaikat album. The project, however, ultimately defies a clean translation. Malaikat dan Singa gains power by crossing boundaries, both linguistic and psychic.

On the one hand, the Indonesian language allows Dionyso to communicate on levels more deeply subliminal than those accessible in his native English. On the other, he hopes to reach his growing Indonesian audience with his eccentric brew of ecstatic lunacy and prophetic madness, clarified to perfection during his 15 year tour-of-duty with Olympia's Old Time Relijun. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.