Agus Arya Nugraha is a Indoneisan singer from Bali.

He has been singing for 14 years for his living.

Now he is working with Finnish producer for his 1 POP album.

Story:

For release 18 November, 2009
Two cultures meet in a song

The Balinese artist Arya, together with Finnish singer Tommi, are launching a unique new single entitled Engkaulah Nafasku. The and music and it's impressive video uniquely combine the Indonesian language and musical influences with the icy winter landscapes of Finnish Lapland and it's rare language.

The joint project was the initiative of Finnish producer Marko Stjärnvall, who happened to hear Arya singing on the New Year's eve in a Bali hotel, where he was vacationing with his family.

Arya and Marko quickly discovered similarities between both the music industries in Indonesia and Finland as well as common cultural elements in the music itself. Arya connected with one of Marko´s songs in particular and asked to compose lyrics and sing it in Bahasa. Within 24 hours, they were in the recording studio. Both liked what they heard and agreed to cooperate on more material.
Marko Stjärnvall comments: "I've been working as a producer in Finland for 14 years waiting for the project of my life to come along and finally I’ve found it. I just never expected it would be coming from Indonesia," he smiles.

Marko consulted Finnish singer/musician Tommi Kaikkonen on the project and together they collected Finnish songs for Arya to choose from. The team traveled to Jakarta to find a record company to publish the songs, and ultimately signed with Aquarius Musikindo, a well known Indonesian music label. Aquarius showed immediate interest in producing Arya and Tommi's Indonesian/Finnish duet as the first single.

The exotic location for video shoot was snowy Lapland, in the middle of Finland's winter season. To view the video for Engkaulah Nafasku, visit www.arya.fi

Aquarius Musikindo has now released the single for radio play and promotion has started in Indonesia. Listener interest has already been very positive and the next step will be airtime on music TV programs. All information regarding the promotion schedule will be updated on Arya´s website: www.arya.fi

Marko Stjärnvall, Arya Nugraha and Tommi Kaikkonen are currently in Jakarta for the promotion.
"It's been a remarkable experience to work with Arya and build a musical bridge between 2 cultures from opposite sides of the globe. It just goes to show what you can accomplish with a little dreaming and enough faith," Stjärnvall remarks.

Although the Finnish and Indonesian languages are not related in any way - what they do have in common is the borrowing of words from other European source languages. For example, Lampu means Lamppu: the word has been loaned to Indonesian language probably from the Dutch whereas it likely came into Finnish use via the Swedish language. And the Dutch acquired it from their German neighbors.

According to Marko, there are more language coincidences between Indonesian and Finnish: "Like Sama means Sama. But the unique feature is that we're able to pronounce each other's language quite easily and celebrate the musicality in both."

Finland facts