KANDE was founded in 2000. Initially, Kande members consisted of Rafly (vocals), Zulkifli (seurune kale), Alul (electric guitar), Amir (electric bass), Yan (drum), Munzir (keyboard), Kiki (rapa’i ), Puput (rapa’i), and Papi (rapa’i). Their current members have changed with the additional rapa’i players and some musicians of ‘modern’ musical instruments.
In the early 2000, Acehnese music was dominated by remix dangdut (Indonesian hybrid pop) and remixes of Indian songs whose lyrics were changed into Acehnese. These songs are played in various coffee shops which made Rafly thinks why nobody in Aceh wants to produce Acehnese ethnic songs.
His concerns that Acehnese popular music is taken away from its tradition, then Rafly and some musicians set up Kande, which focuses on traditional Acehnese instruments such as seurune kale (double reed), rapa’i (frame drum) and tambo (double headed drum) with modern musical instruments. Rapa’i in various sizes are played according to the genre of music, such as rapa’i geleng, rapa’i geurimpheng, rapa’i debus. They use seurune kale, blown in circular breathing technique. They also use tambo or geundrang, a double headed drum, beaten with a stick.