Music I would not have known of if not for the forum.
Posted by: Sloop John B on 28 April 2006
Well at the moment I am certainly listening to one.
Music from the Nonesuch Explorer Series - Indonesia.
I inquired on another thread about Gamelan music and Fred Simon was kind enough to reply.
This is totally different amazing music. One can't say one has never heard anything like it as snippets are either familiar from films or TV or where some contemporary artist has been influenced by it.
The first track Gamelan Gong Kebyar is at once hypnotic, rhythmic, propulsive with an insinuating melody. Recorded in 1969 this really sound superlative. You could imagine John Peel playing it in 1969 or 1999 and it sounding like it was recorded yesterday.
There are several other ( more traditional) tracks on it that I really can't rate high enough their sheer uplifting magical music and range of moods.
Tracks 2, 8, 13 and 15 being some of the most interesting music I have listened to in a long long time.
There are one or two more contemporary tracks that are good. a few of the other tracks have a some wind instruments on them and these to my ears are a bit whiny, as is a unaccompanied vocal which I find particularly atonal, rather like Irish sean nos music.
There is one theatrical chant song in the middle of the album which certainly stops ones attention wavering.
An album, that will introduce me to a genre that I would not know about only for the forum (Thanks Fred). This is well worth adding to your next list of purchases, this stuff wasn't recorded with MP3 in mind.
SJB
Music from the Nonesuch Explorer Series - Indonesia.
I inquired on another thread about Gamelan music and Fred Simon was kind enough to reply.
quote:Originally posted by fred simon:
You could always start with this (bargain-priced) sampler of various gamelan styles from Bali and Java:
Indonesia/South Pacific: Music from the Nonesuch Explorer Series
You'll get a little of this, a little of that, including a taste of the Ramayana Monkey Chant, a multi-layered polyrhythmic vocal tour de force unlike anything you've ever heard.
But most gamelan music is largely played by ensembles of metallophones (any percussion instrument consisting of a graduated series of metal bars struck with mallets), with each player playing only one part of a large interlocking multi-layered tapestry. In this, one can easily see how gamelan music had a significant influence on American minimalists such as Riley, Young, Reich, and Glass ... see the "Minimalism" thread for more info). Other instruments are used as solo accents (flute, bowed strings) and sometimes singing, but it's the magical shimmering of the multiple metallophones that gives gamelan its unique character.
By the way, the word "gamelan" refers to the music itself, the ensemble that plays it, and the physical collection instruments in a particular gamelan orchestra.
As I mentioned, Balinese gamelan tends to be faster and somewhat jazzy, while Javanese gamelan tends to be slower and meditative, but these are broad generalizations to which there are many exceptions. There are many different styles even within each country.
If you find yourself enthralled with gamelan music, as many people do upon first listen, you can add to the sampler with these two albums:
Gamelan Semar Pegulingan: Gamelan of the Love God
Music of the Love God ... need I say more?
Java: Court Gamelan
All these albums are on the Nonesuch label.
Gamelan music is music to surrender to, music to dream to, music with which your mind can fly to places you may never visit.
Enjoy!
Fred
This is totally different amazing music. One can't say one has never heard anything like it as snippets are either familiar from films or TV or where some contemporary artist has been influenced by it.
The first track Gamelan Gong Kebyar is at once hypnotic, rhythmic, propulsive with an insinuating melody. Recorded in 1969 this really sound superlative. You could imagine John Peel playing it in 1969 or 1999 and it sounding like it was recorded yesterday.
There are several other ( more traditional) tracks on it that I really can't rate high enough their sheer uplifting magical music and range of moods.
Tracks 2, 8, 13 and 15 being some of the most interesting music I have listened to in a long long time.
There are one or two more contemporary tracks that are good. a few of the other tracks have a some wind instruments on them and these to my ears are a bit whiny, as is a unaccompanied vocal which I find particularly atonal, rather like Irish sean nos music.
There is one theatrical chant song in the middle of the album which certainly stops ones attention wavering.
An album, that will introduce me to a genre that I would not know about only for the forum (Thanks Fred). This is well worth adding to your next list of purchases, this stuff wasn't recorded with MP3 in mind.
SJB
I would not have known of this excellent music - a great addition to the CD collection.