Laut Loud (((~~~))) Jekshon {S02E02}

Jekshon termasyhur di Sumba, tapi menemukannya butuh usaha khusus. Darah muda jungga ini hidup jauh dari mana-mana di pedalaman Sumba Timur, meleset dari jalan beraspal dan melampaui jangkauan sinyal ponsel. Kamu harus mengembara di perbukitan dekat tempat tinggalnya dan berharap tak sengaja menemuinya -- biasanya sedang berkuda, sambil menjaga ternak dan merawat tanah mungilnya.

Tapi setelah ketemu dan mendengar dia bernyanyi, perjalanan susah payah kamu tak sia-sia. Jarang sekali ada bocah yang berhasil bikin geger penyanyi senior jungga, tapi Jekshon sudah terpandang sejak masih remaja.

Suaranya bikin bulu roma berdiri, dan terdengar lebih dewasa dari usianya yang belia. Ia bernyanyi tanpa rasa ragu dan naif. Malah ia terdengar yakin, menyampaikan syairnya dengan ekspresif dan cukup berani mengambil nada-nada yang nakal. Di kalangan tetua adat maupun pecinta musik tradisional, kehadirannya dipandang sebagai pertanda bahwa seni jungga yang langka itu telah menemukan konteks baru di kalangan anak muda.

Masih kasmaran setelah belum lama menikah dan sambil menggandeng istri barunya, Jekson naik ke kapal Arka Kinari untuk bercermin tentang perjalanan hidupnya yang berliku sejauh ini -- sambil tipis-tipis menyampaikan keraguannya terhadap masa depan yang kejam bagi anak muda dan pendongeng sepertinya.

((( SUPPORT LAUT LOUD & ARKA KINARI   / arkakinari   )))

Jekshon is famous throughout the island, but finding him requires a superhuman feat. The young jungga prodigy lives a solitary life in the remote plains of East Sumba, barely accessible by road and almost certainly beyond most cell reception. One has to wander through the plains near his homestead, hoping to run into him on his horseback, herding his cattle and tending to his small plot of land.

Once you find him and get him to sing, though, the journey would be worth it. Not a lot of people turned the heads of Sumba’s most celebrated jungga singers despite being only a teenager, but Jekshon did.

His eerily haunting voice, mature far beyond his years, strikes out without the naivety or rawness one expects of a young singer. Instead he is assured, expressive in his freeform poetry, and insolent enough to take on some complex melodic shifts in his singing. Among village elders and connoisseurs alike, his emergence has been seen as a sign that the rare artform has found new context in a younger generation.

Fresh from a recent marriage and with his blushing bride in tow, Jekson climbed aboard Arka Kinari to reminisce on his tumultuous life journey so far – barely hiding his dread at an uncertain future for young men like him, let alone a young jungga singer in a world seemingly growing more unconcerned with songs.