After years journeying Ambon's remote outlying islands, Chalvin Papilaya returned to Ambon carrying notebooks and soundbanks full of poetry, mantras, and sung verses.

A treasure trove of folklore, legends, and dialogues with Ambon's ancestors, many thought to be long lost to time.

Picture the scene: a wandering priest meets a theater kid going through an existential crisis. Together, they sift through the collective histories of their people, documented in mantras and sighs, and create unspeakably beautiful music.

When Chalvin took these notes to producer Ardelony Imlabla, they concocted Archa. Their restrained mix of soundscapes, downtempo beats, and looped bass are blank canvasses for a choir of emotive vocals & spoken word, all inspired or copied from the ancestral verses Chalvin collected in his journey.

When we met Archa, tragedy had struck. Barely a month before we set sail for Ambon, Chalvin passed away after a short illness. In his place, Ardelony, still visibly shaken by grief, gathered a collection of local musicians, singers, and poets, turning the performance into an impromptu wake.