What’s the difference between ‘mengenang’ (to reminisce) and ‘mengingat’ (to remember)? Why do we love to ‘reminisce’ about the past, but hesitate to ‘remember’ things that are ‘long gone’? We say that ‘memories’ or ‘nostalgic moments’ often ambush us suddenly, while ‘remembrance’ must be nurtured and fought for. The songs on Lucy Freia (Aya)’s debut album, in my view, take us on a mental journey in and out of these two modes.
Some friends agree that this album is highly cinematic: it evokes visual imagery of particular scenes. As for the genre of that cinema, I’d say it leans toward horror or thriller—territory that is not new for Aya. As a female composer actively creating music for string ensembles and orchestras, she has previously explored phenomena such as sleep paralysis (Ketindihan), the Sundel Bolong (a ghost in Indonesian folklore, in Anakku Mana), and ‘dreams’ as a space between sleep and wakefulness (30 Seconds Before Waking Up).
This time, however, the sonic elements she uses to craft these soundscapes have expanded: there are samples of fragmented news broadcasts, clips from childhood animated films, the sound of bells, and creeping-swelling piano/synth melodies layered over dark pads. Distortion effects and spatial audio techniques are also employed to immerse the listener’s body even deeper into each scene.
Occasionally, the crackle of a radio serves as a bridge between scenes—as if guiding us to tune in and out of familiar and unfamiliar sounds blended throughout the composition. This fusion might just be Aya’s special method for concocting ‘disruptive nostalgia’. The comfort of memories + the disturbance of recollections that surface during nostalgic moments = an experience of memory reproduction that is never as simple as we think. Enjoy getting lost in this dark and restless space. — Leilani Hermiasih
Lucy Freia is a composer based in Bandung, Indonesia. In 2022–2023, she studied composition privately with Matius Shanboone, and from 2023 to 2025 she continued her studies at the Royal College of Music, London, under the guidance of Kenneth Hesketh.
Freia is an active member of Perempuan Komponis and the Puantronik Study Club, and was also part of the Electronica Society at the Royal College of Music during her Master’s studies. Since 2018, she has been actively writing works in both contemporary classical and non-classical genres, influenced by 20th- and 21st-century composers, rock music subgenres, and electronic music. Since 2022, Freia has delved into electronic music and has written several works in fixed-media format, installations—presented at Electric Dreams: Constellation at the Royal College of Music—as well as acoustic-electronic hybrid pieces—performed by the Acacia Youth String Orchestra at Selasar Sunaryo in 2025 and at Museum MACAN in 2026.
