Ben Pasaribu

Ben Pasaribu, born in Medan, on the island of Sumatra, in 1956, is one of the leading figures in contemporary music in Indonesia. His training began in a rather unconventional way: he started out playing drums in a rock group before studying ethnomusicology at the University of North Sumatra.

After this initial phase, he broadened his education in the United States. He studied music at Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York, and took composition lessons with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. This experience led to a prolific output, both for electronic media alone and for electronic media combined with acoustic instruments.

Pasaribu belongs to the Batak people and has incorporated many elements of their traditional music into his work. The fusion of two very different sound worlds gives his pieces a highly recognisable character, and the use of ritual forms is one of his most distinctive traits. In Nerhen Surasura (1992), for tape and instrumental ensemble, the performers must enter a trance before they begin to play.

He is a professor of composition and dean of the faculty of arts at Nommensen University, run by the Batak Christian Protestant Church, in Medan. He also directs the Medan Percussion Ensemble, which takes part every year in the popular Jakarta International Percussion Festival, confirming his active and influential role in the musical scene of northern Sumatra.