A wang wung is a type of Asiatic rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) that feeds on young coconut palm leaves. The coconut beetle has a small horn like a rhino, hence its name. The coconut beetle is black or brown in colour, and eats the young coconut leaves before they have opened. The damaged leaves will then eventually grow and unravel to reveal the l triangular cuts made by the beetle.

But wang wung is also an expression used in East Java to describe someone who frequently changes their opinions. It is often used to describe politicians who change their stances to go with the current popular sentiment, and whose promises change like the weather in order to stay in power.

Catur dedicated the song “Wang Wung” to all the people at the bottom; the street people, the poor people and the forgotten people who are left to look after themselves.

The lyrics are written using the East Javanese style of humorous chanted poetry called Jula Juli. In Jula Juli poetry, the two first lines of the second verse onwards are comical phrases with not relation in meaning with the rest of the poem. These sentences are used to create rhymes with the rest of the composition. Typically, the Jula Juli songs are part of the East Javanese folklore called Ludruk. The Ludruk is a type of performing art that extends beyond simple entertainment and which plays an important role in the East Javanese society,. The Ludruk theatre is a tool for public education. It is often used to address current social situations and conditions facing the Javanese society. The performers use humour to freely express issues that are either prohibited and taboo, or to reveal the injustices occurring in society.

“Wang Wung” was composed using a pentatonic scale and is inspired from the North African Gnawa music; and played on the gunun, a unique lute with a desert sound, designed by Philippe Janssens.

The traditional form of Gnawa music gets its name from the Gnawa people, who have historically played it. Gnawa music has connections to all-night rhythm and trance ceremonies combining ancestral African practices, Arab-Muslim influences and native Berber cultural performances. During these rituals, people who are in need of physical or spiritual healing, gather to witness and dance. The musical jams are lengthy and are built atop hypnotic rhythms, sometimes played with drums and castanet-like qraqeb, and sometimes with stringed instruments such as gimbri.
But Gnawa music actually originates in the music of formerly enslaved black Africans who integrated the traditions and folkloric music of their ancestors into the Moroccan cultural and social landscape.