BOI AKIH’s Voices of the Moluccas is built around vocalist and lyricist Monica Akihary and guitarist/composer Niels Brouwer. Together, they create a unique musical language.

The starting point is the Lagu Lagu repertoire: centuries-old Moluccan songs, captured in field recordings from 1948 and reinterpreted with the energy of today. In this new arrangement, the music is given more space, groove, and tension. Multi-layered vocals, deep rhythms, and open structures make every performance dynamic and unpredictable.

For Voices of the Moluccas, special texts were written by 14 young poets from the Moluccas. They use the original languages of their ancestors, combined with the language they speak daily on Ambon and Indonesian. Together with Niels and Monica, they breathe new life into the oral storytelling tradition and the original languages. BOI AKIH performs these texts in an expressive performance, where Niels Brouwer’s warm, rhythmically refined guitar playing creates a dynamic foundation for the impressive vocalists Julya Lo’ko, Maria Lekranty, and Monica Akihary, alongside the inspired drumming and percussion of Victor Lekranty and the warm bass playing of Nathaniel Klumperbeek. The result is a captivating musical experience.

Vocals, percussion, and guitar merge into a warm, expressive performance that touches, moves, and connects the audience, bringing together both history and contemporary interpretation in a powerful way.

The musicians share a long history, including through the Moluccan Moods Orchestra. Their deep connection is audible in their interplay: finely attuned to one another, free, and full of trust. Here, tradition is not a fixed concept, but a living source for new ideas and forms.

Voices of the Moluccas is a concert for curious listeners—for anyone who loves powerful grooves, distinctive voices, and music that is created in the moment. An evening where heritage and contemporary energy come together.

ABOUT BOI AKIH
With boundless curiosity, BOI AKIH (winner of the 2024 Indonesian Culture Prize) has been exploring new musical paths for more than twenty-five years. BOI AKIH does not have a fixed line-up, but functions as an artistic ensemble centred around guitarist and composer Niels Brouwer and vocalist and lyricist Monica Akihary, winner of the 2023 Boy Edgar Prize.

In changing formations, they build a shared musical world in which different musical languages, traditions, and cultural backgrounds come together on stage—meeting, influencing, and enriching one another.

“Ambition, dedication, originality, and musical craftsmanship come together to create something extraordinary: a highlight in the endlessly fascinating journey of Boi Akih.”
— All About Jazz, August 2024
“It is as if Boi Akih’s music has evolved from a melancholic longing for a lost homeland into the creation of a new musical land of the future—one that is bursting with energy and where everyone is welcome.”
— Jazzism, December 2023

Line-up Voices of the Moluccas — 11 September 2026
Ensemble

Monica Akihary — vocals
Julya Lo’ko — vocals
Maria Lekranty — vocals
Niels Brouwer — guitars, electroacoustic sounds
Mark Milan — piano, keyboards
Nathaniel Klumperbeek — bass guitar
Victor Lekranty — drums, reyong
Frans Wajon — FOH sound engineer (front of house)