By Arya Adyuta
Edited by Jocelle Koh

Introducing the ‘What Makes a Legacy?’ series, where we dig into the careers, discographies and philosophies of artists one might consider ‘legacy artists’; and unpack the unique way in which they’ve contributed to the music scene or society around them. The second article in this series features none other than Indonesian legend-in-the-making, Gusti Irwan Wibowo, who bridged time and space through his music and infectious energy to unite the Indonesian arts scene.

Synchronize Festival 2025, one of the largest music festivals in Indonesia, has just announced its 2025 October festival lineup, and while the crowds are buzzing as usual over the exciting artists who will take to the stage this year, nestled on the poster is a tribute showcase to Gusti Irwan Wibowo, a talented young musician and producer who passed away suddenly in June this year. The tribute showcases a star-studded lineup of performers, comedians, musicians and close collaborators of Gusti’s such as Bunga Nafisa, Sal Priadi, Pamungkas, Iga Massardi, Nehru Rindra, Adjisdoaibu, and the comedy group GJLS; a unique combination that reflected the ubiquitous impact Gusti had on the Indonesian arts scene prior to his passing.

Seeing the poster of the tribute act takes me back to the excitement I experienced the first time I watched Gusti’s live performance in December 2024. When I found out that Gusti was holding a tour in Yogyakarta, I instantly looked for the ticket. I knew Gusti from his numerous productions for other pop artists and also through his own works. To me, Gusti’s music was often deep and emotive, a stark and exhilarating contrast to his hilarious, larger-than-life personality. This duality; it turns out was one way Gusti committed to bridging diverging musical worlds and various arts industries in Indonesia. In a world full of formulaic cut-and-paste personal branding, Gusti’s passionate pursuit of versatility and hybridity in music inspired me deeply.

Sure enough, the breezy night of 17th December arrived, and with the excitement of seeing a promising young artist, I arrived at Dagadu Yogyatourium, a small venue in the eastern part of Yogyakarta. After seeing a 70s-rock band rouse the crowd with their nostalgic high-amped melodies, I caught a glimpse of Gusti standing calmly beside the stage. While a few of his bandmates and crews were setting up their equipment, Gusti, with his white ukulele hanging around his neck, looked intently at the room full of young people awaiting him. His smile was small, and his gestures enacted a kind of anxious energy. He kept on walking back and forth, seemingly preparing himself to perform.

However, he became a new person as soon as he got up on stage—blooms of smiles, bursts of laughter, and a presence that could fill multiple theatres. Inserting quick-witted comical delivery between songs, Gusti’s performance that night invited people into the circle of not only collective musical enjoyment but also entertainment. His unpredictable jokes and clever music skills brought people together, dancing through amusement and awe. It was a joyous night that stays indelibly etched in my mind.

A few months after the gig, I saw Gusti’s face plastered across the internet. Invited to podcast shows, skyrocketing views through a YouTube show he co-hosted, and playing at national music festivals, Gusti had become one to watch in Indonesia’s burgeoning music scene. He quickly became known for his humorous and eccentric persona, notably seen from his TikTok videos commenting on certain music phenomenon, or opinion. Gusti was fast gaining attention amongst younger audiences. 2025 was sure to be his year.

Sadly, this bustle didn’t last for long. In the middle of June 2025, about six months after I saw Gusti live and witnessed his upwards trajectory, social media was flooded with news of the widely loved musician’s passing. Top-tier musicians and close collaborators such as Sal Priadi and Nadin Amizah, and comedians like Rigen Rakelna and Ananta Rispo expressed their condolences, paying homage to Gusti’s nature and legacy.

In an Instagram post, notable pop musician Hindia aptly captures the feelings many people had about Gusti:

“Gusti, thank you for all of your laughs and for fleetingly making people forget all of their problems. I’ve never met someone as funny and as talented as you, and probably there will never be another… You’re a good person, all of your friends testify to it, including me.”

However, Gusti also left his irreplaceable legacy for us in his wake. Known for his engagement with various Indonesian musicians such as Sal Priadi, Nadin Amizah, and Ardhito Pramono, the talented producer’s signature sound is characterized by vibrant instrumentation and an exceptional song structure which combines a diverse palette of musical styles. Apart from producing and orchestrating roles for other artists, Gusti also wrote his own music. His work spanned 2 LPs, an EP, and a bunch of singles.

The son of 1980s legendary musician Timur Priyono, who has penned dangdut-pop hits such as “Yang Penting Hepi” (As Long as I’m Happy) by Dapur ‘61, Gusti cultivated his musical interest from a young age. In a podcast with fellow musician Iga Massardi from the band Barasuara, Gusti acknowledged his ability to be tone sensitive when he was invited to do a studio recording while he was in elementary school. His interest in music led him to attend a music-focused high school and later pursue a music degree at the State University of Jakarta. After college, as he said, all he wanted to do was “to be an artist” and “be famous” then he started to write and record his songs. 

But I see Gusti’s motives as a deeper instance. Later, Gusti explained that in music, he does not really care about money. In the earlier phases of his career, Gusti often helped people do music covers, arrangements, or simply forwarding a job call to someone in need. In his words, “My stomach will always be full, whether I have money or not.” 

Gusti was truly an artist with groundbreaking hybrid musical sensibilities. He kick-started his music and production journey through his sweet songs with ruminative lyrics. From the beginning, it was noticeable that Gusti had a strong historical awareness of Indonesian pop. This was depicted throughout his earlier works in 2020, like in his debut EP titled Platonis (Platonic), which explores a minimalistic approach towards piano-based pop, and seems to pay homage to the work of 1970s Indonesian pop composers such as Eros Djarot and Yockie Suryoprayogo, albeit in a stripped-down way. Combined with Indonesian lyrics that revive a similar old-school structure and vocabulary, this EP is both sweet and haunting in its refurbished sense of nostalgia. The opening track, “Peralihan (Transition)”, gives us a strong example of this impression:

Kini t’lah terus bertanya / Now I could keep on asking
Tak ingin ia berlalu / Don’t want her to leave
Dilihatlah bunga itu / Look at that flower
Mekarnya seakan merasuk / Blossoming, seemingly possessing

In the same year, Gusti expanded on this sound with a dual single titled Doa (A Prayer) and Desember (December), bringing an orchestral richness to his music. Here, Gusti still utilized his piano heavily, but with an expansive backing of strings and winds that became foundational for the song’s emotional texture. This style was also extended to his 2021 single titled Benalu (Parasite) with a sweeter, melodic gesture.

Gusti’s complex yet catchy production placed him firmly within the zeitgeist of contemporary Indonesian pop. Although compact, his portfolio of songs and production attracted prominent English jazz-pop artist Ardhito Pramono, who invited Gusti to co-produce a soundtrack for movie Story of Dinda alongside him, sung by renowned actress, Aurelie Moeremans. 

2022 marked the start of Gusti’s monumental production journey. Now close collaborators, Gusti worked on Ardhito Pramono’s iconic debut album Wijayakusuma (Queen of the Night), which made waves for its throwback to Indonesian pop from the ‘80s. Gusti and Ardhito were trying to revive the older Indonesian pop music, such as those made by Guruh Soekarno Putra, Candra Darusman, or Fariz RM. The title track blends this tendency with a traditional touch of gamelan and Javanese singing, while many of the other tracks enact a fun, refreshing blend of city pop and swing. An album that celebrated Indonesian pop’s roots and supported the resurgence of vintage elements in contemporary Indonesian pop, Wijayakusuma was a milestone not only for Pramono, solidifying his place in the Indonesian music scene, but also cementing Gusti as a musical historian who paved the way for the revival of older sounds in Indonesian pop.

Listening to Gusti’s discography is much like hearing his comedic jokes: cryptic yet easy to enjoy. In his somewhat ambiguously-titled 2023 LP Duh Gusti (literally means ‘Oh God’), Gusti presents his music through a series of stories. His lyrics now have become more narrative and confessional, and the music vividly portrayed his dramatic views on love and romantic relationships. In this album, the dangdut vibe Gusti tried to evoke begins to emerge, and we can hear pulses of percussion and soft strains of flute in many of the songs, reflecting his thirst for bridging tradition and contemporary musical genres in the most thoughtful and innovative of ways.

After his father passed away in March 2024, Gusti continued to pursue his passion for cultural revival, this time striving to revive Priyono’s eminent contribution to the Indonesian pop industry, a genre called endikup which is an abbreviation of ‘enak di kuping’, literally meaning ‘good in ears.’ Endikup has become a genre on its own, mixing various musical styles such as pop, rock, and reggae, with the popular dancy genre of dangdut.

These vibrant experimentations were cemented in Gusti’s posthumous release, ENDIKUP. Released in 2025, a few weeks after his passing and on his mother’s birthday, ENDIKUP offers not only a slicker production than Gusti’s previous discography, but also provides us with an earnest yet ambitious thread of musical exploration from a vast scope of musical periods in Indonesia.

The album delivers Gusti’s masterclass in excavating the deep historical intersection between music and culture, playing with a style of early formation of dangdut, heard on various dangdut groups in the 1970s, like Pancaran Sinar Petromak and Pengantar Minum Racun. Incorporating his orchestral skills and other genres throughout the album, like rap in “Hari Yang Mantap (A Nice Day)”, bossa nova in “Bagaimana? (How?)”, and 2000s alternative rock in “Menunggu Ujung (Waiting for the End)”, alongside its retro dangdut makes for an exhilarating listening experience. These bold amalgams define once again the fresh yet familiar soundscape Gusti offers for contemporary Indonesian pop that traverses time, space and culture to inspire wider audiences.

Here Gusti not only revisits the legacy that older Indonesian pop musicians from the 1950s to 1980s such as Ismail Marzuki and Elfa Secioria have bestowed upon us. ENDIKUP also sparks a skilled musical negotiation between dangdut and pop, the two oft-opposing genres in Indonesia. This move indicates how Gusti strives to break the regional-based genre classifications. He continues to attempt through music to encourage urbanites to listen to dangdut, a genre stereotypically tied to rural and lower-class people, and appreciate its musical features breaking away from its associated stigma. As seen from the streaming stats, ENDIKUP has reached more than 500,000 Spotify listeners within three months of its release. The first track, “Hari Yang Mantap (A Nice Day)” has also gained attention through social media with more than 130,000 reels using it as audio in Instagram. As a musician, Gusti has successfully bridged diverging worlds, something important to challenge the unfolding polarization throughout Indonesia.

In many parts of ENDIKUP, Gusti also inserts his comedic narrations or dialogues to better articulate what he means; creating a perfect segue for his infectious personality and love for music to meet. In “We Always Together”, comedian Hifdzikhoir reads energetic poetry to his wife and daughter, and in “Ngambek (Grumpy)” Gusti presents theatrical dialogues between a boy and his girlfriend. It seems that Gusti’s eccentric personality is always present throughout this album, a game-changing move in the industry filled with seriousness and rigid musical rules.

Much like his musical works that mediated various styles, Gusti was a person who also bridged two distinct industries in Indonesia: entertainment and the music industry. Besides being a musician, Gusti was also known as the co-host of a YouTube show called #TRICKROOM. In this show, Gusti, with his best friend, Nehru Rindra, invited artists, musicians, actors, celebrities, and comedians to talk about their lives and creative processes in a playful manner.

If you watched the show, you could see how Gusti’s jokes never looked like a strategic move. His humor was always effortless. He would throw out impromptu, almost unfunny jokes, with no punchline or proper timing—and that was exactly what made it hilarious and relatable. It was somehow similar to jokes we casually throw at informal meetups and hangouts with friends and close people. This easy-going nature of Gusti was precisely what made people from a range of industries and art worlds befriend him without hesitation. 

This move is groundbreaking, as many artists in Indonesia almost always try to avoid being iconized, therefore shying away from more potential listeners. However, Gusti successfully created an approachable personality to better embrace his solid base of musical work. As seen from the YouTube comments of the album ENDIKUP, Gusti’s listeners come from all walks of his career; for his comedic moments on YouTube podcasts and his personable TikTok videos. Gusti proved that artists could carry multiple titles—musicians, comedians, producers, content creators—and still be a true artist.

However, behind all of the bursting energy that Gusti always gave us in his performances and stages, there is something rich and powerfully contemplative in his music. His songs explore human relationships and their surrounding existential and emotional issues deeply, yet in a fun way. By fusing various styles and genres, Gusti was indeed a skilled person in engineering our feelings and helped us express them through music.

Through his music and personality, Gusti is a person that very much captures a hybridity that is the soul of Indonesian music. Indonesian music has historically been characterized by blends and mixtures; and through both ENDIKUP, his discography and his wider career as a multi-faceted artist, Gusti has become a ubiquitous embodiment of the richness apparent in Indonesian music; starting a radical movement that encourages diversity and fluidity in the most groundbreaking of ways.

As a true one-of-a-kind musical genius, Gusti left audiences devastated with his absence; no longer able to be captivated by his comedies and performances. Yet while he left us unexpectedly, Gusti’s music will always be a comforting remedy for the loss we endure on our journeys. As Gusti sang in his track titled “We Always Together”, “we will always be together forever.” His songs, words, and robust, vivacious spirit is sure to keep him alive in our hearts for a long time to come.