A Journey with Fruitful Challenges and Without End: A German Musician’s Decades of Engagement with Southeast Asian Music and Culture

Abstract

This paper utilizes an autobiographical framework to examine intercultural issues between Southeast Asia and Europe. It provides an analysis of my life and career as a German composer working frequently in Indonesia. I begin with a discussion of my practices in rock and jazz, with early psychedelic electronic influences, and my conservatory studies in Freiburg, Germany. I then consider the ways in which my first trip to Bali in 1978 led to a complete turnaround in my philosophical outlook and approaches to music-making. I further draw on my experiences working as an exchange lecturer from 1992 to 2007 in Indonesia, and my later professional and artistic activities up to and including the present, to elucidate cultural differences between Europe and Southeast Asia. Woven through this narrative is an examination of the root causes of misunderstandings between practitioners on both sides. I conclude with a discussion of the challenges currently facing artists, teachers, and students working in Southeast Asia.