(Hit the back button on your browser to return to product listing.) The Village Voice Jody Diamond and Larry Polansky commissioned nine pieces from Indonesian composers, and five are here, all improvisationally developed. My favorite is Diya by Dody Satya Ekagustdiman: a thick ensemble piece with precisely out-of-tempo gestures, unnotable rhythms, and layer replacing layer with a leisurely time-sense. Suhendi Afryanto's Mbuh chants softly over drums and low bells, Harry Roseli's spooky Asmat Dream lays wild voices over taped crickets and running water. Ostinato zither performances by Nano S. twang more traditionally. Although the music pulses physical, the considerable overdubbing suggest it's designed primarily for recording. It's good enough stuff to influence us back; the whole disc has a deliciously complex, ever-changing atmosphere, exotic in its tunings and timbres, comfortably loose in its constructions. - Kyle Gann, March 2, 1993 The Beat Dody Satya Ekagustdiman, "Diya" (from Asmat Dream, Lyrichord). if you agree that an Indonesian jam deserves as much of a hearing as the latest from Sonic Youth, this is the release for you. Unlike most gamelan music which is based on traditional pieces, this album is a collection of modern and experimental compositions written for their intrinsic effect. Of course, as an innocent in the world of gamelan, I couldn't tell you exactly what traditions are being played with or subverted, but the results are atmospheric and wonderfully listenable. - Jimmy Hori, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1993 Daily Californian I was recently asked to be a judge in the "Traditional World" category of the annual INDIE Awards presentation by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors & Manufacturers (NAIRD). I had to pick a top 10 list, on the basis of "greatest musical integrity," from over 40 world music releases. Some of the discs were familiar: Chorus & Waltzes of Brazil (GSP), the songs of the Baka rain forest people of Southeast Cameroon on Heart of the Forest (Rykodisc), the Gambian kora sounds of Amadu Bansang Jobarteh's Tabara (Music of the World), but I was amazed by the number of recordings which I didn't recognize. Among these were a half dozen Native American albums and a diverse batch of Jewish CDs, including the haunting Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania (Rykodisc). Moreover, I was shocked and disappointed by the exclusion of music from Lyrichord Discs. The New York-based indie has been representing music from all over the planet for more than 40 years. Some of their releases are the most stirring collections of world traditions I have ever experienced. Yet not a single disc appeared in my NAIRD package. I guess they're not a member. This week I want to introduce Lyrichord's monumental New Music Indonesia series. The impetus for the project stems from the label's desire to represent the largely undocumented new music evolutions of this country. Each of the first two anthologies ‹ Asmat Dream and Mana 689 ‹ compiles compelling works by four distinguished, progressive and experimental composers. The composers' individual song writing philosophies range from Dody Satya Ekkagustdiman's theory of "pure music" ‹ the idea that any sound or rhythm, even the crowing of a chicken, can be developed ‹ to Suhendi Afryanto's urgency to "create a motif or a melody that no one has heard before," or "play a traditional melody on different instruments." It's interesting to compare Indonesia's modern master composers to New York City's avant-garde post-Cage players. In many cases, the visual spectacle of theater and dance converge with the music to set up both harmonious and contrasting balances of texture and dynamics. - Sam Prestianni, June 1994 Rhythm Music Magazine Indonesia's gifts to the world are formidable, but we tend to see them as fascinating remnants of a rich cultural heritage rather than works of living art. elements of Indonesian art - the delicacy of shadow puppet drama, the imaginative abundance of the Buddhist statues and bas-relief at Borobudour in Java, and the staccato rhythms of the Balinese monkey chat, to name a few -- have influenced graphic artists and musicians for more than a century. Asmat Dream, a recent CD on Lyrichord records, brings forth ample ad stunning evidence that Indonesia is a remarkable -- ad little noticed -- venue for contemporary musical composition. The music on Asmat dream may be unlike any recorded before. Indonesia is an archipelago of 13,677 islands, 300 ethnic groups and 365 languages ad dialects. Its environment of diversity would seen the perfect wellspring for musical experimentation, eclecticism ad individuality -- and it is. Heard on Asmat Dream is an aural banquet created by composers for traditional instruments played in unusual ways and instruments that may never have been heard before. These pieces deploy the evocative suling, or bamboo flute; the versatile kecapi, a horizontal zither; and, of course, the subtle reserves of timbre, tonality and rhythm of the gamelan. The track entitled Diya by Dody Satya Ekagustdiman uses sandpaper, the plastic visor of a motorcycle helmet, and five woks in continuo to add expressive power. From the versatility of color and nuance rendered by the kecapi in Nano S.'s Glaura, to the liquid electronic textures of Harry Roseli's title track, the trove of individualistic works on this CD are united by a common impulse: a determination to seek new musical forms and to explore emotions and the possibilities of pure sound. Asmat Dream is the result of a new music commissioning project, part of over a year's research by Jody Diamond, a composer, scholar and gamelan an artist. Diamond has taught Indonesian music at UC Berkeley, Mills College, and Dartmouth College and is director of the American Gamelan Institute. She first became aware of the new music scene in Indonesia at a festival for Indonesian music held in Vancouver and organized by Sardono Kusumo, an Indonesian choreographer and performance artist. She attended performances of experimental music from Java and Bali and, she says, "Even though I had been studying many forms of Indonesian music for sixteen years, this was a profound revelation." The music inspired Diamond to apply for a senior Fulbright Research Fellowship to survey contemporary Indonesian composition. "My idea was to re balance the international image of contemporary Indonesian composers," she says. "I went around the country, meeting artist, taping rehearsals and performances, and planning a book." Her research took her from Medan to Denpasar, covering centers for artistic experiment in Sumatra, Java and Bali. In interviews with 60 composers she became convinced that important contributions to contemporary music were being created and performed in Indonesia, despite the scant attention paid to them overseas. This development had occurred despite the obstacle that in Indonesia there is little tradition of performing musik total, or pure music. Much new music in Indonesia accompanies theater or dance. "I talked with a lot of composers," recalls Diamond, " and very often they would lament that there was little opportunity to perform new music that stands alone, much less get it recorded. And they simply lacked the means to record it themselves." Composer Larry Polansky, Diamond's collaborator on various aspects of the project, suggested that new pieces might be commissioned from some of the composers by Frog Peak Music (a Composers' Collective) and the American Gamelan Institute. Asmat Dream is the first of two recordings of komposisi baru, or new compositions, that resulted from these commissions. Diamond says, "when approached, the composers reacted with deep excitement: here at last, many said, was a chance to render their vision without financial constraint." Selecting and recording the works was no easy task, because of the multiplicity of talent that Diamond encountered. Musical innovation and improvisation have roots in Indonesian traditions, and Diamond notes that there have always been inventive composers and instrument builders in many regions of the archipelago. She also stresses that while the desire on the part of artists and musicians to break new ground is essentially a global occurrence, Indonesian artists often find their inspiration at home. "Many people insisted that they weren't influenced by anybody," says Diamond. "The experiments were their own search for something completely new." - Tom Leander, September 1993 |