For the past six years, the Balinese town of Ubud has attracted a growing following of jazz fans, to the annual Ubud Village Jazz Festival. Held in early August, Yamaha Indonesia has been a Platinum sponsor of the event since its second year. This year, the company provided a Rivage PM7 digital mixing system and DZR series powered loudspeakers – used for the first time at the festival since their launch earlier in 2018 – as well as technical support.
Ubud has been a centre of the creative arts for many years. Coming to international attention in the 1930s, the town is still a centre of artistic excellence in Indonesia. First taking place in 2010, The Ubud Village Jazz Festival (UVJF) was founded by Balinese musician/composer Yuri Mahatma and promoter/recording studio owner Anom Darsana. It has quickly grown to attract high-quality jazz performers from around the world.
UVJF operates very much as a community event, with the involvement and support of local artistic organisations, a mission to educate and cross-promotion with other Balinese festivals. This year, the festival featured performances by 24 jazz artists across three stages, including the winners of the Ubud International Jazz Day Youth Band competition, which took place in April. ‘Our aim is to put a smile on the faces of 5,000 people, irrespective of age, ability, creed or wealth,’ Mahatma says.
Yamaha Commercial Audio systems featured on all three of the festival’s stages. On the main (Giri) stage, the Rivage PM7 system with Rio3224-D2 I/O racks supplied by Yamaha Indonesia was used alongside a CL3 digital console for monitors, provided by Soundworks Jakarta, with three DBR12, two DSR112 and two DZR12 powered loudspeakers for monitoring.
Front-of-house Pongky Prasetyo and monitor engineer Rio Felani comented: ‘Rivage PM7 is an excellent digital mixing system. It has great sound and the awesome features really spoil sound engineers who use it.’
On the second (Padi) stage, local rental company Doctor Sound provided a CL5 digital console and a Rio3224-D2 I/O rack to take care of mixing both FOH and monitors, while on the third (Subak) stage, UVJF co-founder Anom Darsana’s company Antida Music Production provided a QL5 digital console and two Rio1608-D2 I/O racks to mix FOH and monitors. Here, the FOH PA system comprising two DZR315 three-way powered loudspeakers and four DXS18 powered subwoofers in cardioid mode, plus four DSR112 active monitors.
‘The DZR range has an unbelievably crisp and accurate sound. The detail and the power of the loudspeakers is unbelievable,’ Darsana says.
‘Yamaha Indonesia is one of important components of this festival – the support and products that the company provides, and the results they produce, are always excellent,’ adds Astrid Sulaiman, composer, music teacher and director of UVJF. ‘Many engineers and rental companies visited the festival from throughout Indonesia, including Jakarta, and were very impressed with how the high quality Yamaha systems complemented the excellent jazz musicianship on show.’
After a very successful two days, the sound of music faded from the festival site for another year, but the goodwill will last much longer. ‘UVJF is a very special, unique festival and we are very happy to support it and the wider artistic community throughout Bali,’ says Chihaya ‘Chick’ Hirai of Yamaha Indonesia.
More: www.yamahaproaudio.com
