The Indonesian summer is very hot. It’s when our writer usually shelters at home listening to music, only to realize that the state between slumber and consciousness can not be as innocent as it used to be.

One sunny day in July 2022, I woke up from a siesta with a foggy head. A dainty piano solo filled the hot air with the beauty of a swan gliding on a clear lake, followed by a weeping sound of cor anglais – an obscure choice of woodwind oboe. Then, Chrisye’s vocals entered. Soothing, cold, and clear like a flow of ice water dripped onto my forehead. The song enveloped me like a layer of sonic cocoon. My body: comfortable and unmovable in bed. My head: wrapped in transcendence.

The song «Sendiri» was released in 1984. Indonesia had never heard music like that before. It consists of only two instruments and one male vocal, arranged by an ambitious, young composer named Addie MS. Besides its status as a song that single-handedly lifted the benchmark of Indonesia’s pop music, «Sendiri» also has passed the test of time and still is one of the best local masterpieces today.

The song opens a playlist on my Spotify, Road Trip With Parents, which contains mostly Indonesian old songs my mom and dad used to play in our family stereo. It’s actually a playlist I made especially for lazy days like that, because I love the heavy sensation of nostalgia while having my head wrapped in the tranquility of a fresh nap in the middle of a very hot day.

Between Cradle and Deathbed

Laying there in the twilight between slumber and consciousness in the peak of a tropical heatwave, the stream of the elegant track brought me back to a specific point in time and space when I occupied the most comfortable state of my life. Between the dreamy three-minute-window, I was again just a baby and had just woken up from a comfortable drowsiness in a cradle.

Sound is such a powerful time machine.

July in Indonesia is the dry season, when we enjoy – or rather, suffer – from excessive sunshine. People would shelter at home, while children could be found running topless flying kites at clearings.

Meanwhile, I personally love the heatwave. I love playing my oldies on the loop, sitting on the balcony, sipping my iced milk coffee with brown sugar. I love it when it becomes too hot outside and I come back inside to lay down in my frameless bed and fall into a little nap. I will wake up 30 minutes later drenched in healthy sweat, welcoming consciousness in the constant loop of my comfortable songs.

I heard that Europe in the summer of 2022 was hit by a powerful heatwave, something that maybe I have learned to love all of my 30-odd year life. As a person living in a tropical country with a ridiculous rate of deforestation, I will be among those who are the first to be killed at the dawn of the apocalypse. I’m sure on one especially hot day like this, my iced coffee will become runny and Chrisye’s mellow favorites will serenade me to a sleepy death.