Java: Court Gamelan, Vol. 2

Four wonderful field recordings of ensemble music from the Royal Mankunegaran court in North Java. The recordings were made in an open pavilion during the rainy winter of 1976, and one of the ambient sounds heard in all the tracks is the croaking of frogs in puddles outside the court! This music is like hypnosis: if you keep an open mind, it will sweep you away into an eerie and haunting place where you can quickly lose yourself. Lovely stuff.

Track 1: Short, multi-layered piece with wailing fem vox. over choral chanting textured by cymbals and mettalophone.

Track 2: Bewitching, looping melody thunked out on large bronze keys. The piece becomes progressively tense as the pace accelerates towards the end. No vox.

Track 3: Predominantly vocal piece with soft flute and gongs. Almost like a slow, poignant ballad.

Track 4: Short concluding piece that originated from a children’s puppet song. Male + female unison singing in an off-kilter rhythm.