Stefanus Raja Koten falls silent as soon as he hears an old recording in Lewoloba, a village in East Flores. The 75-year-old immediately recognises the song. However, he notes that the parts of the song appear in a different order on the recording than is customary. ‘I’m getting goosebumps,’ he says softly.
The recording is nearly a century old. It was made in July 1930 by the Dutch ethnomusicologist Jaap Kunst, who documented the music and traditions of communities across the Indonesian archipelago. During his research in Flores, Kunst recorded 182 songs on 75 wax cylinders. He also took photographs and made films. The material later became part of the Jaap Kunst Collection at the University of Amsterdam (see box).