Quick Facts:

Gardika Gigih is an Indonesian composer, pianist, and soundscape researcher. After studying music composition at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Gardika’s interest in the intersection of music, society, and culture led him to pursue a Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology. His work spans numerous genres, including concerts, contemporary improvisation, film scoring, multidisciplinary collaborations, and sound ethnography.

In 2019, he undertook a journey across Southeast Asia and Japan to listen to and study soundscapes as cultural narratives within societies. He recorded rituals, markets, villages, urban areas, and more. This research was supported by a Japan Foundation Fellowship and published at www.lostinsound.art.

In 2023, Gardika has been based in New York as an Asian Cultural Council (ACC) Fellow, studying multicultural collaborations within the city’s music scenes. In May 2023, his composition Mimpi Owa: A Duet with Javanese Gibbons—a response to the climate crisis—was awarded “Sound of the Year” by the BBC Radiophonic Institute and the Museum of Sounds at the British Library.

His most recent project, as a DeCoSEAS (Decolonising Southeast Asian Sound Archives) Visiting Fellow 2024 at the University of the Philippines’ Centre for Ethnomusicology, focuses on the traditional and indigenous musical cultures of the Philippines and their influence on contemporary Filipino composers.

Gardika continues to develop new works inspired by his global research, with a particular focus on the diverse musical cultures and soundscapes of Southeast Asia. He actively initiates multicultural collaborations, offering reflections on socio-cultural and environmental issues through his artistic practice.