Jekshon is famous throughout the island, but finding him requires a superhuman feat.

One has to wander through the plains near his homestead, hoping to run into him on his horseback, herding his cattle and tending to his small plot of land

The young jungga prodigy lives a solitary life in the remote plains of East Sumba, barely accessible by road and almost certainly beyond most cell reception.

Once you find him and get him to sing, though, the journey would be worth it. Not a lot of people turned the heads of Sumba’s most celebrated jungga singers despite being only a teenager, but Jekshon did.

His eerily haunting voice, mature far beyond his years, strikes out without the naivety or rawness one expects of a young singer. Instead he is assured, expressive in his freeform poetry, and insolent enough to take on some complex melodic shifts in his singing. Among village elders and connoisseurs alike, his emergence has been seen as a sign that the rare artform has found new context in a younger generation.

Fresh from a recent marriage and with his blushing bride in tow, Jekson climbed aboard Arka Kinari to reminisce on his tumultuous life journey so far – barely hiding his dread at an uncertain future for young men like him, let alone a young jungga singer in a world seemingly growing more unconcerned with songs.