Gamelan Br. Teges Kanginan

Among the many composers who have drawn inspiration from the music of Indonesia, the one whose outlook became most pervaded by the structure of gamelan music may be Barbara Benary (b. 1946), co-founder and guiding spirit of New York's Gamelan Son of Lion. ...Hers is a spiritual music, and the spirituality resides in the universality of her lines, universal because they are simple, particular to no one culture. Like Harrison and Virgil Thomson, Benary has a faith in the power of music's most basic elements, which she knits into intricate patterns before letting them unravel again.

Lou Harrison's ambitious composition "La Koro Sutro" (translated from Esperanto as "Heart Sutra") does not simply borrow from the gamelan tradition of Indonesia. An Americanized gamelan ensemble, with instruments built by William Colvig utilizing more Western tunings, allows Harrison's composition a new, more stable sonic texture, and the ability to add various different percussive sounds that build on the virtues of the ancient metallophone. The American gamelan is complemented by the 100-voice choir of the University of California, Berkeley, along with harp, violin and organ players, and percussion instruments consisting of inverted metal garbage cans, bell-like oxygen tanks with stripped bottoms, brake drums, aluminum sheets, and a gigantic over six-foot triple contrabass metallophone made of huge PVC pipes, tin can resonators, and steel and aluminum components.

Among the many composers who have drawn inspiration from the music of Indonesia, the one whose outlook became most pervaded by the structure of gamelan music may be Barbara Benary (b 1946), co-founder and guiding spirit of New York's Gamelan Son of Lion. A quiet, self-effacing presence on the New York music scene for almost four decades now, Benary has maintained a low profile, but behind the scenes she is well connected. A child of Manhattan's conceptualist movement, she was the designated violinist of early minimalism, a pioneer in American gamelan, and an early example of an increasingly frequent type, the ethnomusicologist-turned-composer.

A historic live recording celebrating the 40th anniversary of a landmark cultural moment including performances by Echo & The Bunnymen, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, The Beat, The Drummers of Burundi, The Musicians of the Nile and many more.

A historic live recording celebrating the 40th anniversary of a landmark cultural moment including performances by Echo & The Bunnymen, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, The Beat, The Drummers of Burundi, The Musicians of the Nile and many more.

The lushness and easy melodiousness of these four orchestral works is almost startling, given Ziporyn’s (b. 1959) history, but it is certainly not an unpleasant surprise. An essential element in the texture of this music derives from the large percussion section, reflecting the composer’s intense and life-long interest in gamelan music. ... The gamelan world does not dominate the current release, but it is nearly always lurking in the shadows, if it is not now and again bursting through in a more exuberant fashion.