Batavia Collective are back! The Jakarta-based jazz-electronic trio — known for their fiery improvisation and genre-defiant live shows — are entering a new phase with their latest EP CODED, out now via Syndicate.
Described as “live jazz meets underground pulse,” CODED is a tightly sequenced body of work that explores everything from Bruk rhythms to techno minimalism, all anchored by the group’s live interplay and evolving club sensibilities. The four-track release includes standout collaborations with Singaporean experimental artist weish and Indonesian alt-soul singer Kamga, showcasing BTVC’s ability to blend emotional weight with dancefloor intensity.
With a reputation honed across stages like Wonderfruit, SXSW Sydney, Java Jazz Festival, and Art Basel Hong Kong, Batavia Collective are continuing to blur the lines between sweaty club chaos and refined musicality. We caught up with the trio to talk CODED, working with vocalists for the first time, and why they’re done trying to fit in.
At its core, CODED is about dancefloor pressure. From the very beginning, BTVC was built on the idea of bringing jazz back to the club… not a seated concert hall. Historically, jazz lived in underground spaces: speakeasies, juke joints, brothels… places of resistance, rhythm, and release. It wasn’t polite music. It was rebellious, sweaty, and raw. That’s the spirit we’re channelling.
Our musical language pulls from acts like The Comet Is Coming, Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, Slide Five, G-Force (Kaidi Tatham) & Seiji, and of course, Goldie’s live band… artists who prove that jazz doesn’t have to sit still. It can move bodies. It can bend rules. It can belong in the club.
CODED takes the chaos and spontaneity we’re known for and reshapes it into something tighter, heavier, more distilled. It’s still unpredictable and textured like our earlier work, but now it hits with more clarity and control. Some tracks slap. Others just haunt you. A huge part of that clarity comes down to the mix – Greybox really dialed it in. He understood the weight and intention behind every sound and carved space for it to land. We couldn’t have asked for a better pair of ears.
Our motto is simple: Groove first. Think later.
Some people might say this isn’t jazz. Honestly, we’re not here to debate definitions. This is our sound… and it moves.
We’ve always been an improvisational band. Most of our earlier work was built on live energy and off-the-cuff interplay. But with CODED, we wanted to take that rawness and shape it into something more focused. We’re still jamming, still tweaking synths and FX in real time… but now we’re thinking more about form, tension, and how each section moves. Structure isn’t limiting the chaos… it’s amplifying it. The structure helps us stay tight… especially Doni, who’ll solo into next week if we let him.
Bringing in vocals pushed that even further. With weish, the track turned ghostly and atmospheric. With Kamga, it took on this slow-burning, hypnotic quality. When you have voices like that in the mix, you don’t need to fill every gap… you just need to let the mood breathe. That shift changed how we arrange… less like a band trading solos, more like producers layering weight and restraint.
So yeah… we’re still wild at heart. Just sharper with the knife now.
We made that track at Potato Head Bali back in 2021… right in the middle of the pandemic, when restrictions had just started to ease. We’d just released our debut single 'Affirmation' featuring Kamga on R&S Records, and Potato Head picked it up, reached out, and flew us out to perform at their reopening party after COVID.
They set up a temporary studio at the Katamama Suite, top floor… big glass windows, ocean view, sunset right in front of us. It was surreal. Huge love to Dea Barandana and Pete Keen for making that happen. We heard the only other artists who had recorded in that space were Disclosure and Erykah Badu, so we felt honored to be part of that energy.
The track came together super fluidly. We started with this slow-burning instrumental, minimal but loaded, like walking a tightrope. Then Kamga came in and laid down this vocal that was restrained but heavy… almost meditative. It brought this beautiful human tension to the track without ever overpowering it. We didn’t need to over-arrange anything. The silence between sounds was doing the work.
At the time, we were listening to a lot of José James – 'Warrior' and Electric Wire Hustle – 'Bottom Line', and you can definitely hear that influence in the pacing and mood of the track.
We also brought Hondo, Kamga’s duo project, to perform with us at Potato Head. We reworked one of their tracks live… the video’s still up on Potato Head’s YouTube channel. Definitely worth checking out. Those guys are serious talent.
We got connected to weish in 2022 through our friend Kiat from Syndicate, but we’d been fans of her music for a while, especially her work with .gif. Her voice had always stood out to us… it’s like vapor: ghostly but present, poetic but direct. We just knew.
The instrumental came first. The early version of the track was actually recorded during our time at Katamama Suite, Potato Head… the same session that birthed 'Ring the Bells' (we still have a few unreleased sketches from that trip).
When she sent back her vocals, it completely reframed the track. She arranged all the vocal parts herself, layering harmonies and subtle textures that gave the song this haunting, emotional weight. It became less about the beat and more about the emotional residue. Her delivery softened the sharp edges… it added weight in the quietest places.
We finally met her in person at the first Sunda Festival in Singapore (2023), where we were invited to perform… shoutout to Florian Melinette for making that happen. We asked her to join us on stage and perform the track live. At that point, it didn’t even have a title yet. But that moment really sealed it for us. It just felt right.
We don’t really separate the two. Whether it’s synths, pedals, drum machines… we approach them like instruments. We play them live, we jam, and we let mistakes stay if they feel good. That’s where the energy comes from. We’re not producers trying to polish everything to perfection; we’re players chasing moments. Even if a track ends up in a DAW, it’s born from movement and conversation.
A lot of what people hear in CODED started as us messing around in a room, catching a loop that hits, pushing it further, reacting to each other in real time. If something interesting happens, we run with it. Sometimes we record the first take and keep it. Other times we loop it back live until it finds its shape.
We treat electronic music the same way we’d approach a jazz set: leave room for risk, tension, and surprise. Structure helps, but only if it doesn’t get in the way of the feel. That tension between control and chaos… that’s the sound we’re always chasing.
Aside from being run by our good friend Kiat and his wife Cherry Chan, and already being home to weish’s previous releases, it was also part of a broader strategy… to focus on owning our turf, starting with Southeast Asia.
Syndicate just made sense. From the beginning, they’ve been a home for artists who blur lines, whether it’s indie, bass, electronic, or something unnameable. They don’t chase trends, they chase identity. That aligns with us.
We’d previously released 'Propulsion', 'Affirmation', and our debut EP BTVC on R&S Records, which helped introduce our sound to a more global audience. But CODED felt like a pivot… darker, tighter, and more tuned for club dynamics. Syndicate understood that shift right away. They didn’t ask us to water it down or explain ourselves. They leaned into it.
Working with Kiat, who also introduced us to weish, made the whole process feel even more natural. It wasn’t just a label signing. It was a collaboration with people who get it. They gave us space to go heavier, go weirder, and stay true. That’s what made Syndicate the right home for CODED.
We used to overthink it. Now we just own it.
Some nights we feel like a jazz trio. Other nights we’re basically a hardware DJ set. The audience shifts, the energy shifts, and we respond in real time… but our compass is always groove. We’re not trying to be clever. We’re trying to connect.
We’ve never been interested in “blending” jazz and electronic music. We live in the tension between them. That’s the whole point. It’s not fully jazz. It’s not fully club either. And that’s not a problem, that’s the feature. We lean into that friction.
When we write, we follow feel first. If it needs to swing, it swings. If it needs to lock into a hypnotic loop, we ride that out. The form always serves the energy, not the genre. Our sets evolve the same way: built for movement, but rooted in live interaction.
At this point, we’re not navigating between two worlds. We’re building our own.
Yeah, kind of. It’s always a bit tricky when someone asks, “What kind of music do you guys play?”… especially if they haven’t seen us live. We usually give a vague answer like, “It’s jazz… kind of. But also club… kind of.” And just hope they show up and get it.
Sometimes we feel like we’re too electronic for the jazz heads, and too jazzy for the club kids. We’ve even been booked for sunset slots at festivals… and once, for a Christmas dinner (yes, really). Which is sweet… but let’s be honest… our music gets dark, intense, and loud. It probably makes more sense at 1AM in a sweaty room with a big system.
But we’ve learned from that. Now we shape our sets around the vibe… the venue, the crowd, the time of day. Some nights lean more groove-forward, others go full chaos. We’ll often jam out unreleased material or improvise something completely new. Since it’s all instrumental, most people can’t tell anyway… which we kinda love. Some festivals have even asked us for a full setlist in advance to display on LED screens… we usually just send the first and last track and tell them we’ll figure the rest out later. Our LOs are always confused… (Laughs).
But that’s the point, we like staying unpredictable. Sometimes we catch a sick riff or stumble into a new idea mid-set, and that becomes part of the show. The mess is part of the message. It’s not about polishing the edges… it’s about leaving enough space for something real to happen.
At the end of the day, we’ve stopped trying to fit into a box. We’re just building our own lane… one groove at a time. Spiritual jazz, sinful bass. That’s us! (Laughs)
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We’re heading out on tour across Asia and Europe this July for a full month… with stops in Hong Kong, Mongolia, Singapore, and France. While we’re in France, we’re also carving out time for a few songwriting sessions with local artists, which we’re really excited about.
So yeah… back to the bigger picture: owning our turf. We’ve got two more EPs on the way, one with a Japanese label, and another with a Hong Kong-based label. We’re not waiting around to be discovered by the West. We’re focused on building an undeniable foothold here at home.
Asia first. The rest will follow.
Syndicate presents a special showcase at RASA Floor, featuring a live electronic jazz peformance by Indonesian trio Batavia Collective featuring Singaporean artist weish on 29 August. The night continues with a headlining DJ set by renowned American hip-hop and electronic music producer Nosaj Thing, alongside local DJs Darren Dubwise, Kiat, Yetpet, and visuals by The Super System.
Click here to purchase tickets.
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