Budi Ayin has built dozens of instruments, one of which is played in a music video clip created by young people of Kampung Cempluk, who won an international festival at the end of 2020.
By
Defri Werdiono
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KOMPAS/DEFRI WERDIONO
Budi Ayin
Budi Ayin (51) is a project worker who spends his spare time fashioning musical instruments from waste materials. He has built dozens of instruments, one of which is played in a music video clip created by young people of Kampung Cempluk, who won an international festival at the end of 2020.
Budi Ayin is one of the happiest people for witnessing the achievement of the young people of Kampung Cempluk on Jl. Dieng Atas in Dau district, Malang regency, East Java. On 23 December 2020, they won 1st place in the instrumental and vocal categories of the Sopravista International Festivals, which is organized by Italy-based Sopravista Events to recognize achievements in folklore and contemporary arts.
In the latest festival, which was attended online by representatives from around 30 countries, a music clip entitled "Hijau Lestari" showed a performance by the group Duo Ethnicholic from Kampung Cempluk using a string instrument made by Budi Ayin. The instrument is called the four-string Dawai Cempluk.
Duo Ethnicholic is fronted by Anggar Syaf\'iah Gusti and Redy Eko Prastyo, who have been named pembakti (devotees) of their kampung. Pembakti is a term for young people who play a role in advancing Kampung Cempluk. Previously, the videoclip "Hijau Lestari" was aired on the iRL Gigs channel that broadcasts nonmainstream music works in Malang.
"My job is a project worker. Making musical instruments is only a part-time activity for when I have time. Alhamdulillah, I have produced about 30 musical instruments, such as the sape\' and banjo. There is also a cetik [resembling a small kulintang] made of bamboo,” he said on Sunday (21/2/2021).
Budi said that, every day his work focused more on producing house ornaments. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, he received orders to make decoration for school farewell events and small-scale stage performances. He has been in this line of work for decades.
My job is a project worker. Making musical instruments is only a part-time activity for when I have time.
For the past two years, he has spent his spare time to make musical instruments. He gets the raw material from logs of demolished houses, firewood given by neighbors and used cable rollers. There are also leftover materials from the production of face shields.
In his hands, those waste materials can produce beautiful tones. "This is leftover material for producing face shields. There was an order from Brawijaya University to make face shields at the start of the pandemic, I used the leftover materials to make this,” said Budi, pointing to one of his stringed musical instruments.
The youth of Cempluk Village held an internal "concert" entitled "Tribute" to songs by the late Azis Supriato or Azis "Franklin", an artist of Malang, Sunday (21/2/2021), in Cempluk Village, Kalisongo Village, Dau District, Regency Malang, East Java.
As a layman with no artistic background, Budi could not simply make stringed musical instruments. He faced a number of obstacles, one of which is the availability of raw materials.
Apart from availability constraints, the raw materials sometimes cannot be used immediately due to wetness or other factors. While there is no shortage of enthusiasm on Budi\'s part, these factors can delay the creative process.
“I put the used wood outside the house. Sometimes it gets wet from the rain, even though at that time I might be enthusiastic [to produce musical instrument]. This will delay the whole process," he said.
Another obstacle is related to work equipment. So far, he has used machetes and makeshift tools ranging from cutter blades to a piece of broken glass.
Once the body of a musical instrument is finished, Budi just needs to adjust the tone. The Malang-born creator said he had no difficulty tuning the tone and getting the pitch of his string instruments right. He uses a smartphone app as a benchmark.
He also coordinates with Redy Eko Prastyo, who has often played the strings and has become one of the initiators of the Nusantara Dawai Festival, which is usually held annually. "When it comes to the shape, I take the initiative, while for the sound, sometimes Mas Redy provides input. In my opinion, art is limitless. As long as it makes me happy, I will keep doing it," he said.
The 1989 graduate of vocational school STM majoring in production machinery says he became interested in making stringed musical instruments after seeing the sape\'. This traditional Kalimantan instrument has a beautiful sound, and it motivated Budi to make his own stringed musical instrument.
It took him almost a week to make his first creation, as he failed to source the right raw materials. He needed it to be 12 centimeters thick, but the available material was less than that. Budi also had to retune it many times until it finally worked.
"At that time, I was in the early stages of learning, so it took me a long time to find the right tone," said the man who admitted that he was only a perfunctory player of stringed music, aka genjreng-genjreng. In the process of his next work, Budi did not encounter many difficulties. With diligence and a willingness to learn, he put the musical instrument together step by step.
KOMPAS/DEFRI WERDIONO
Budi Ayin
Accompanying young people
Apart from making musical instruments, Budi Ayin also encourages the young people of Kampung Cempluk to fill their spare time with meaningful activities. Budi tries to direct them toward a lot of positive activities, so that they avoid negative activities.
“I am concerned about young people today. Their temptation is great. I want young people now to have positive activities, either through learning to play music or other activities,” said the father of two.
Budi and his friends\' efforts bore fruit. The young people from Kampung Cempluk are avid musicians. Some have gone on to record international achievements.
Recently, Budi received an invitation from the Malang Arts Council (DKM) to participate in an exhibition. On that occasion, he showcased about 20 of his homemade string instruments.
In the future, he hopes his instruments can be accepted by the wider community and developed into a typical Malang musical instrument. So far, Malang has no identity in terms of musical instruments.
Apart from that, Budi has hopes that what he does can be useful for the environment, as it is about turning waste into something useful. According to Budi, many people still do not care about the waste they produce, while the volume of daily waste just keeps increasing.
If most of that trash could be turned into musical instruments with beautiful sounds, everyone would be happy.
