Indonesian avant metal vocal choir Ensemble Tikoro are streaming their new album Tortoise in full via The Sleeping Shaman, a day before its release. Jangjang Records, the label that rose from the ashes of Public Guilt, puts the album out this Friday, October 23, on cassette and digital.
Pre-order Tortoise on Bandcamp.
Tortoise is a three-part performance piece built from extreme metal vocals and throat singing, with singing bowls, shaman drums and tingsha, the small Tibetan ritual cymbals. Part 1 is reserved for live settings, so the album captures Parts 2 and 3. Part 2 is a sequence of seven short pieces, one for each of the seven chakras, while Part 3 stretches out into a longer exploration of extended vocals and ritual percussion.
“I dedicate this album to anyone who cares about mental health. […] Naturally, many sonic dimensions are lost when music is translated into a recorded format, yet I hope it still invites a multiplicity of interpretations without the need for a complete or definitive understanding. There is no expectation for you to grasp or even enjoy this work in any particular way. Please listen with slow and steady breaths, find your calm, and may you always be healthy and happy!”
Robi Rusdiana, founder
The album was recorded at Pilarin Corp by Ade Syaepudin, mixed and mastered by Rusdiana at 7 Kerikil, and features artwork by Tandani Mutaqim. If you missed it, the unsettling video for “Throat” is below.
Who Are Ensemble Tikoro?
The name means “Throat Ensemble” in Sundanese. Founded in 2012 by Robi Rusdiana in Bandung, West Java, the group is made up of metalheads from the city’s underground who write contemporary music in classical notation. They combine growls, screams and shrieks drawn from death metal, black metal, thrash, hardcore and punk with throat singing and traditional Sundanese elements.
They have created more than 50 works for dance, theater, visual art and experimental projects. In 2021 they collaborated with Melbourne dance company Lucy Guerin Inc., and in 2024 they released the album Hell Chamber on Italian label Artetetra Records. Their motto, “And contemporary music for all,” is a nod to Metallica’s …And Justice For All. We first covered Tortoise in August, when the label shared the opening piece.
Ensemble Tikoro are: Arum Dwi Hanantoro (vocals, singing bowl), Ardyansah (vocals, singing bowl), Handriansyah Nugraha (vocals, singing bowl), Mahatma Adi Hartoko (vocals, tingsha) and Robi Rusdiana (vocals, shaman drum).
Our Take
This is not a metal album in any conventional sense, and it does not pretend to be. Here, extreme vocal techniques become texture and breath rather than aggression, closer to a guided meditation than a mosh pit. Approach it the way Rusdiana asks, slowly and with headphones, and Tortoise is one of the most unusual and rewarding listens from the heavy underground this year.
Follow Ensemble Tikoro:
Website | Instagram | Jangjang Records
