Gesang was born in the central Javanese city of Surakarta (Solo) where his father owned a batik-fabric business, which unfortunately went bankrupt when Gesang was still in his teens thus plunging the family into poverty. Gesang was a self-taught musician and artist but was however illiterate in musical notation but still managed to support himself and his family by writing songs and singing at local functions such as weddings and other formal occasions.

It was however during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War II that the impoverished 23 year-old musician composed a tune (using a flute) in the popular urban local style known as kronchong, a musical tradition of the region (with origins in the 17th century Portuguese influences in the area) which combined Javanese chord progressions with westernised vocal styling and melodies. It was however at the time associated with the urban poor and as such had somewhat of an unsavoury reputation, particularly among traditionalists. Gesang turned to the city’s river for inspiration. The Bengawan Solo River is Java’s longest river and a most important waterway for trade and agriculture, and seemed to Gesang to symbolize the durability of Javanese culture in those troubled times.

As World War II drew to a close, the returning soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army brought the song back to Japan. In the dark period immediately after Japan’s defeat, the song caught the public mood, and its fame soon spread throughout the country after best-selling recordings of it were released by popular singers such as famed Japanese singer of the time, Toshi Matsuda’s 1947 recording. In 1991, a group of appreciative Japanese war veterans arranged for a life-sized statue of Gesang to be erected in a Surakarta park, to mark their respects for the composer of the tune that had managed to cross the cultural barriers of wartime.

Not content to just being a singer, songwriter and poet, Gesang is also a very talented painter and has produced a few paintings which have become masterpieces in their own right. Highly collectable and rare, Gesang has managed to combine his singing and song writing talent with his love for art resulting in wonderfully painted and very much desired paintings.