Nongkrong Gerhana: The Dome with Ria Soemardjo & Keshav Yoganathan, Excited State!!! and Sundialll (ID/TW)

At The Dome of Mission to Seafarers, Gerhana presents three live acts that bring visibility to the invisible architecture of time, ancestry, loss, and continuity through sound. This event invites you to make collective noise, and listen to the experimental sounds of the diaspora that have been shaped by Country, relationship and movement. 

LINEUP: Ria Soemardjo with Keshav Yoganathan / Excited State!!! / Sundialll (ID/TW) 

Ria Soemardjo is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Naarm. Her haunting vocal style and mesmerising soundscapes reflect her Australian/Indonesian cultural heritage and her fascination for Javanese and Balinese gamelan traditions. Keshav Yoganathan is a percussionist active across multiple bands, solo projects and collaborations, including Melbourne-based electro-jazz fusion band, Firetail. Shaped by years of dedicated Carnatic music study and his Tamil heritage,  he moves fluidly across genres including hip hop, electronic to experimental improvisation.

Ria and Kesh will lead a spontaneous communal procession into the extraordinary acoustic space of the Norla Dome. Inspired by traditional rituals of dispelling and confusing negative spirits and restoring balance in the world using sound - audience are invited to play an eclectic mix of Ria's bespoke percussion instruments, frog buzzers and rattles. Opening the evening performances in the dome, Ria and Kesh explore mesmerising rhythmic cycles incorporating voice, water percussion, gongs, tabla and found objects.

Excited State!!! is a new project led by DJ and curator Kavil Patel, in collaboration with powerhouse drummers Rama Parwata (KILAT, Whitehorse and Rinuwat) and Rohan Rebeiro (MY DISCO). In play, the trio explores the potential of recorded music and possibilities for its improvisation, invocation and collapse. The sound of Excited State (!!!) is loosely rooted in the language of drum ’n bass, but all else is spare, unstable, and in constant motion.

Sundialll (ID/TW) is an alternative music group blending electronica, sludge, techno, and pan-Asia folk vocal and instrumentation. Based in Indonesia and Taiwan, Rama Saputra and Alica Han have previously released works with diverse styles and approaches—in 2024-2025, they released HUB, a live improvisation album released by WV Sorcerer (FR/CN) and Yes No Wave (ID) labels; Dyeying, a single released by Tradisi Records (ID/UK); and a self-released single, Ding Dong Ting 聽口嚼 in comissioned with the Leeum Museum of Art on Dreamscreen/Dreamscream exhibition in Seoul (KR).

Food tends to sell out at our events, so this year, we will be selling a limited number of preorder of Nasi Campur from Nongkrong Kitchen. Other food vendors will be also be on site.