hara

hara is Indonesian singer-songwriter Rara Sekar's solo project. Her music blends inspiration from folk with Indonesian traditional music, ambient and field recording with a focus on exploring themes of ecology, vulnerability and politics. Her interdisciplinary work weaves music, research and critical pedagogy.

Her debut EP Kenduri (2021), was highly celebrated and reviewed by national & international media particularly in Asia. Her independent debut tour, Tur Kenduri (2022-2023) gained much attention as a tour that applied an alternative approach to music. This tour exercised the ecological themes of the album into practice: how the tour was done. hara did the tour on a bike where she performed under sacred trees, in the middle of rice fields, by the sea—in nature without a sound system. She also organized foraging workshops, cooking indigenous wild plants and eating together by the river, and allowed fans to exchange tickets with food for a music performance-potluck at the foothill of a mountain.

She has since released her second EP Layar Terkembang (With Sails Unfurled) in 2023, and two original soundtracks. Her music was featured in the BBC Music Life Podcast, BBC Radio 3 Ultimate Calm with Ólafur Arnalds and writer/photographer Teju Cole’s playlist, “the same sun”.

She has collaborated with Indonesian artists including the legendary Iwan Fals, and has opened for international artists such as Ichiko Aoba. She is currently based in Wellington, New Zealand.