Kraton Surakarta / Gamelan Of Central Java 6: Kraton Surakarta
Album: Gamelan Of Central Java 6: Kraton Surakarta   Collection:World
Artist:Kraton Surakarta   Added:Mar 2006
Label:Dunya  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2007-09-09 Pull Date: 2007-11-11 Charts: Reggae/World
Week Ending: Sep 30 Sep 16
Airplays: 1 1

Recent Airplay
1. Feb 10, 2020: Everything
Gendhing Nonang Tukung, Gendhing Bonang Danaraja
3. Sep 09, 2007: Raymundos stunt double
Gendhing Bonang Danaraja
2. Sep 25, 2007: "In Your Ear ..." with David Bug, hm ... ah, melissa.
Gendhing Kombang Mara

Album Review
Red West
Reviewed 2007-08-21
This disc reprises a fine performance from forty years earlier, and is a bit of a spiritual experience for the performers and audience. It comes through in the recording, making it a meditative jam session, organic minimal compositions.

+1. Slow, after a few minutes I imagine I hear bits of "twinkle little star." Speeds up last two minutes, fun! Calm again at very end.

2. Raspy bowed string instrument and wailing singer take lead, until the last couple minutes which feature duet between that "fiddle" and a "fife". Gorgeous, mysterious, strange. Long! (I love the low notes 11 minutes in, which isn't even the halfway point...) Imagine would do strange things to altered states of consciousness.

3. Simple delicate opening. Stately. Gradual accelerando, by ending it's a party!- comparatively speaking- then it winds down like a spent lover. The disc's most minimal.

For those of you unfamiliar with gamelan, it's an ensemble of percussion instruments tuned to a scale unlike those used in the west. It sounds "off" to us at first but it grows with time- and the pieces are generally 8-20 minutes, so they give you time! Most gamelan I've heard has been from Bali or Java, with the Balinese being more energetic and the Javanese being more lyrical.

Track Listing
1. Gendhing Bonang Danaraja   2. Gendhing Kombang Mara
  3. Gendhing Nonang Tukung