That was when four brothers – Andy, Reggy, Loulou, Ponthon and their sister Jane – were inspired to start performing traditional folks songs and dances at parties by their musically-inclined father, Herman. Within a year and half, they were on tour as The Timor Rhythm Brothers, playing the music and dances of their homeland with costumes and even war-like rituals employing spears and swords. The musical style they played, kroncong, was a fusion of traditional Indonesian music with Portuguese fado and saudade, sounds that came to these islands when European explorers arrived, with their guitars, in the 16 th Century.Īll that changed in 1951 when the Tielman’s heard the hillbilly rock of “Guitar Boogie” by Arthur Smith. In search of a harder, more American sound like Smith’s, they moved brother Loulou over to the kit drum set. Tielman’s story begins in 1945 in Surabaya, Indonesia, then a Dutch colony. Although it was big in continental Europe for a time, Indorock has remained virtually unknown in the world beyond. That honor goes to The Tielman Brothers, a quartet of Indonesian immigrants to Van Halen’s native Holland, who helped pioneer a new musical genre in the early years of rock-n-roll. It was a fusion of exotic world and American musics – a high energy, theatrical and largely instrumental guitar-driven variety played by Indonesian immigrants to the Netherlands dubbed Indorock.

The late, great Edward Van Halen wasn’t the first musician of Indonesian descent to set the world ablaze with his fiery guitar work.

The reggy woods trio