Title: Headlong
Artists: Kemala Ayu
Price: IDR 50,000 (excluding shipping fee)
Description: The last time we saw Kemala Ayu in recording was in 2007 when she collaborated with Ireng Maulana in the album titled “Emotions”. She’s a unique singer with a very specific jazzy and expressive vocal style. She’s painted the music industry with her golden voice for over 3 decades. We might expect her to release a new jazz album, something that she has been living with for that many years, but what a surprise when she made a drastic turn in her new album, “Headlong”. This time she explores her ability in singing folk with some vintage nuances attached here and there. While she worked on the melodies, the Englishman Christopher Springer wrote the lyrics. Yan Machmud worked on the arrangement and did all the instruments in this album single handedly. This attempt works really well for her. One of the song “Nothing Useful to Say” was chosen to join many other country singers from abroad in the Australian compilation album “Absolute Country”. Yes we know that Kemala Ayu is a multitalented jazz singer, but with this album she proved that she can actually do more than that. A very nice, fresh and rich folk-ish album become the result. If you’re into folk where the combination of guitar and vocal sparks brightly, and if you want to feel the surprise when a jazz singer takes on the folk road and actually succeed with it, this album is for you.