In Pictures: The colourful sleeves of ’50s & ’60s Indonesian vinyl

Catch a glimpse of the visual culture of modern Indonesian vinyl in the ’50s and ’60s.

Soundway Records are releasing a compilation called Padang Moonrise: The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording Industry (1955-69), which grants an insight into the first chapter in the story of modern Indonesian music, on Friday, November 25.

The music is taken from the sounds that emerged “underneath the volcanoes of Java and Sumatra” from a “small group of state-sponsored musicians” tasked with “consolidating a geographically disparate country with a new language and new ideas of national character”.

Padang Moonrise brings together a selection of these recordings from the ‘5os and ’60s across the genres of regional Indonesian pop music, Islamic Gambus, traditional Padang songs, Javanese and Balinese Gamelan and Kroncong. To celebrate the release and the work of the acts included in the compilation such as Orkes Teruna Ria, Yanti Bersaudara, Orkes Suita Rama, Band Nada Kentjana and Orkes Lokananta, Soundway have shared a selection of beautiful sleeves from the artists’ original releases.

Check out the sleeves below. You can pre-order Padang Moonrise: The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording Industry (1955-69) now.