About This Album
Indonesia’s archipelagic landscape, which holds more distinct cultural communities than almost any other nation on Earth, has cultivated an endless well of musical creativity that feeds directly into the global landscape of world music, the category that frames the album Om Sera Via Vallen. For centuries, the islands that make up modern Indonesia sat at the intersection of major trade routes that connected South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and later European and American commercial and cultural spheres, creating an environment where cultural practices cross-pollinated to create entirely new forms of expression, many of which have persisted and evolved into the 21st century. Many of these forms carry deep ties to communal life, tied to rituals, celebrations, and shared moments that bind local communities together, even as the same creative work travels beyond the borders of the islands that gave it form.
