Mondo Gascaro

Born in Jakarta of Indonesian and Japanese parents, Mondo Gascaro began his musical exposure early in childhood. Aside from regularly attending the traditional Javanese shadow puppet plays, he spent his time listening to his grandmother playing “Bengawan Solo” on the piano, while his father who was also a singer, used to listen to the old crooners like Nat King Cole, Sinatra and Bing Crosby. His musical influence is varied, the Beatles, Antonio Carlos Jobim, old-­‐Indonesian popular Classics of Ismail Marzuki, and Steely Dan are a regular diet. Although he is known to compose music for notable Indonesian films such us Berbagi Suami aka Love for Share (2006), Quickie Express (2007), The Forbidden Door (2008), and Hello Goodbye (2012), to most people Mondo is recognized as the former member and one of the founder of the band SORE, from which he resigned in 2012 after releasing two critically acclaimed albums (Centralismo, 2005; Ports of Lima, 2008). Other than composing music for films he also produced artists and bands under his music label (Ivy League Music). Their past releases include Payung Teduh – Dunia Batas (2012) and Ayushita – Morning Sugar (2013). At the end of 2014 he started his own solo project, by releasing two singles “Saturday Light” and “Komorebi” in digital and 7” vinyl format. The releases were met with good appreciation from music aficionados. His first full-­‐length album, Rajakelana is released this year.