MELALI: THE DRIFTER SESSIONS

While wandering through Indonesia filming the award-winning surf movie The Drifter, Rob Machado met up with various friends for surf sessions on the best waves the Islands had to offer.

Set across the vast Indonesian island chain, Melali: The Drifter Sessions features Rob Machado — one of the most stylish and skilled wave riders of our time. Melali returns to the fundamentals of surf cinematography by focusing on the surfing experience, the artful relationship between man and surf, and the sharing of this experience with good friends.

Spearheaded by Machado and director Taylor Steele (the godfather of modern surf film), this two-disc set contains two versions of the 35-minute surf film, an audio CD of the original score, and a short film documenting the recording of the soundtrack. Joining Rob at the finest surfing locales Indonesia has to offer is an eclectic and world-class cast of wave riders: Dane Reynolds, Kelly Slater, Kalani Robb, Shane Dorian, Dan Malloy, Mike Losness, Marlon Gerber, and Rizal Tanjung.

Set to an original score written by Jon Swift, Todd Hannigan, Fernando Apodaca, and Machado (The Melali Sessions Band), the music complements the imagery of the synergy born from long-standing camaraderie.  “When we premiered The Drifter across the country, the best part of the night was the live improvisation with the band to the surf bonus footage,” Machado says. “That inspired us to make another movie with the unreleased surf footage and record some music as the score.”

Swift, a fellow surfer and Machado’s friend of 25 years, led the intense creative push by this team of accomplished musicians, who recorded the score in a barn in rural southern California. The result is a diverse mix of musical compositions ranging from simple ballads to full band improvisations that captures a broad spectrum of moods tailored to the soulful and dynamic surfing.