Art of Tree is a new breed of Indonesian musicians, presenting the new breed between hip hop and jazz music. The band was produced by EQ Puradiredja of Humania and designed to inspires other Indonesian musicians to start focusing on the international markets. The band certainly has their own unique way to approach the hip hop scene in Indonesia.
Art of Tree music is a crossover between hip hop, jazz, reggae, rock, electronics, and dance. Since they start recording the album, the band had create a great buzz in the industry, and called as “The Next Big Thing” by the people in the music industry. In fact, they seamlessly fuses a deep knowledge and respect for musical tradition with conceptual innovation in a way that is able to reach the most critical or most carefree audience.
Art of Tree formed in 2011 by the drummer, Muhammad Ibnu Rafi known as Rafi, and the guitarist, Felix. Few months after that Abram Lembono joined as the keyboard player, Dimas took the lead vocal, and Andre Rugebregt who is known as Shotgun Dreknown also joined as the MC. He is one of the most devastating underground MC in Jakarta at the time. Before this thing happened, Rafi stared his carrier as a soloist. He made his first album when he was 9 years old. That album was produced on 2006 in Los Angeles by legendary jazz drummer and record producer Harvey Mason. Through that album, he managed to feature 18 jazz musician such as Bob James, Nathan East, Paul Jackson Jr, Tom Scott, and Vann Johnson.
The name Art of Tree was inspired by the tree of music. As we know the picture shows an awful lot of music genre, where blues as the roots and other music as its fruit. The Jakarta based band has a strong commitment to spreading their message by their lyrics and general positivity to a young generation looking for something real to be inspired by. The band recently introduced their music with an official music video called “Dig It” via its YouTube site while their first album was launched few weeks ago at The Foundry No.8 Jakarta. Without any further information, please watch the music video above.