Official press release, taken from the Kekal newsletter

Jeff Arwadi and Leo Setiawan are leaving Kekal effective immediately. Arwadi and Setiawan were the last two remaining Kekal members. Bassist Azharlevi Sianturi already left the band in March. Throughout the past few months, Jeff has been securing all copyright and other rights of the entire Kekal's "intellectual property" including the band's entire releases back-catalog as well as all official internet sites, and also plan to make some of the band's important albums for free download. However, after seeking some legal advices, he decided to keep Kekal to remain exist as a band (read: institution) albeit without active band-members.

The following is the statement made by Jeff: "I cannot describe how sad I am at this point, but the situation is simply inevitable and I have made a decision, a very tough decision I've been thinking about for more than a couple years now: I am leaving Kekal.

Tuesday, I celebrated the 14th anniversary of Kekal in a very low-key; drinking alone quietly in sadness and grief, remembering all those years we have been through as a band. It is hard to believe that I had to leave this way, but it is better to end like this than to suffer by not being able to express myself properly to the band, and not being able to handle the band all by myself.

After about 3 years of living in such a different atmosphere (being closer to the nature: parks, lakes & mountains, and being placed in the city of 1 million instead of overcrowded 13 million that I used to live), I found myself devoid of all the anger and bitterness within, and further, that turns out that I am unable to express myself with music. I realized that I had used music to express negative feelings for far too long, to channel pain, anger and bitterness, if you don't have them in you any longer to a certain level, you can't force yourself to make that happen or they might influence you back into your life. I am all against fake expressions, and there is no way for me to lie to myself pretending that I still have that kind of negative feelings and continue to write songs for Kekal.

There are indeed some other reasons which contribute to my final decision, but they are more personal and private.

As for the other remaining member, Leo, he agreed that if I leave Kekal, he will leave too. He has his own music project at this moment and he wants to keep his focus on that, so this means he is leaving Kekal with me. And Levi already left Kekal earlier this year.

So does that mean Kekal has ended? No, absolutely not. We all understand that Kekal CANNOT be dissolved as a band. No one has a right to disband Kekal legally as it is already bound to copyrights, licenses and all the legal stuff as an independent institution. But it is a good thing to see Kekal as a band will stay forever in the music world, even without current active band-members. The energy and music will stay there and it will touch many more people in generations to come. All internet sites of Kekal will remain running and active, and the band itself has as many as 7 albums on the back-catalog.

I am asking you fellow music enthusiasts, to keep listening to the music of Kekal and keep share it to all your friends as many as possible. I always believe Kekal should gain many more listeners than it has today, and it's up to us, including myself, to keep spread Kekal's music to the world.

I am asking you to please share Kekal's MySpace, Facebook, and Last.fm links to all your friends and let them listen the music and experience Kekal.

Up to 3 past Kekal albums will all be opened for Free Downloads, they will be available pretty soon on this site and I will also upload all the videos of the 2004 European Tour to my Youtube channel.

All upcoming updates will be announced on Kekal's blog (hosted by MySpace) as well as on the band's Facebook page. Thank You!"

Source:	kekal.org
Band profile:	Kekal