Psychedelic rock band Sendiket Jongkong Emas has released their long-awaited debut album sanggema.

The album’s journey first began during the pandemic, as the band members — Najid on vocals, Uzayr Khalid on guitar and syntheiser, Asyik Khalid on guitar and vocals, Aiman Nazrin on bass and Quizer Aliff on drums — self-quarantined together inside their recording studio at Mustaj Records at Cero’ Petaling Jaya.

To take things further and expand their sonics, Sendiket Jongkong Emas — also known as SaJE — embarked on a retreat into the ancient limestone caverns of Gua Penyu, located within the Gua Kota Gelanggi complex in Pahang. This retreat led them to their album title. Taken from the Malay words Sang Gema, meaning “the echo,” a tribute to Gua Penyu’s natural acoustics and the reflections of sound they experienced in isolation.

Music and lyrics were composed entirely by Sendiket Jongkong Emas. The album contains eight tracks, running 41 minutes. It opens with lead single “sejuk (nya),” released last June, while tracks such as “percikan (sinar)” and “malam (tidur)” have lyrics adapted from poems by Khalid Salleh and Latiff Mohidin respectively.

See the full tracklist below:

1. sejuk (nya)
2. percikan (sinar)
3. tujuh (lapan)
4. inter (bo)
5. kasturi
6. malam (tidur)
7. tanda (!)
8. cantik (dulu)

The band also announced a bonus track, “dengan (ku),” to be released exclusively on vinyl soon.

The album art is by artist Amir Akeef, titled “Serpihan Dari Gua” — the artist’s visual interpretation of sound fragments moving, bouncing, and resonating within a cavernous space. Rather than depicting a cave literally, the piece translates the movement of subterranean sound through abstract geometry.

“The deliberate use of red, yellow, and blue distinguishes the different movement paths of sound within a single space.”

“Through abstract forms, dark space, lines, and volume, the artwork imagines the fragments created when sound interacts with a cave — as if the physical cave itself becomes an instrument,” the band said in a statement.

Stream sanggema by Sendiket Jongkong Emas now.