Yanger String Band in Taraudu, Halmahera Barat, Maluku Utara

I found this gem in the archives - was never happy with the quality of the video, but the music is just too great not to share. Yanger is a kind of string band popular on the island of Halmahera in Maluku, an area of Indonesia once famous as “the Spice Islands.“ Its Western sound should come as no surprise, as Portuguese and Dutch traders and colonialists dominated the area and its spice trade for around 500 years . This yanger group mixes Portuguese-inspired lutes called juk with struck double basses (stombas or bas tidur) and church-trained harmonies. Read and hear more at the Aural Archipelago post: