Local Vocal (No.15): FLOAT

Float [floht] –verb (used without object): to move gently on the surface of a liquid; drift along.

In 2004, Hotma Roni Simamora (vocal, guitar), Windra Benyamin (guitar), and Raymond Agus Saputra (bass) collaborated in a musical project called FLOAT. Simple yet diverse in harmony, the name really suits their music. The band brings you laid-back tunes with beautiful, profound lyrics about life that’s both dreamy and fierce. It all started with their mini album “No-Dream Land” (2005) which led them to bigger pathway in music industry.

Running down the corridor in such fancy suit
To catch another 9 to 5
Hiding all your true desires and keep all of them mute
Seems the only way to survive
(No-Dream Land)

People started to recognize FLOAT from the movie “3 Hari Untuk Selamanya” produced by Mira Lesmana, in which they got involve to make the movie soundtrack. From there, several accomplishment were achieved: received Abhinaya Trophy for Best Soundtrack at the Jakarta Film Festival, chosen as Best Theme Song at the MTV Indonesian Movie Awards, featured the song “Surrender” in a promotional media for “Heroes” TV series, released “Waltz Musim Pelangi” for compilation album “Songs Inspired by Laskar Pelangi” (Miles Music), and contributed their work on the background music and the theme song “Songs of Seasons” for Indonesia Tourism Board’s TVC, appointed by Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of The Republic of Indonesia.

To the future we surrender.
Let’s just celebrate today, tomorrow’s too far away.
What keeps you waiting to love?
Isn’t this what you’ve been dreaming of?
Life’s to live and love’s to love

The album soundtrack of “3 Hari Untuk Selamanya” was the last album with satisfying amount of tracks before the band went astray, each with their own project. But they don’t call it quit, they took their music further to the land of Dieng Plateu, East Java last year. Because while their music makes us float, they realize that one of the best way to perfectly enjoy their music is by being surrounded by nature, far away from city’s crowd. Thus began the event called Float 2 Nature. The idea to combine music, travel, and nature this year will take place in Sukabumi, West Java on 2-3 November.

Why don’t we just stay this high?
Pretend we’re all that fly
Why can’t we just stay this high?
We might rule our own sky
(Stupido Ritmo)

Let’s hope there will be more tracks coming for an album. Before that, here’s to keep you floating around: https://soundcloud.com/floatproject.