Musiques de l'Asie Traditionnelle Vol. 7: Java - L'Art du Gamelan

 

"The learned music of Java - one of the largest islands of Indonesia - is characterized by the use of a large orchestra based on metallophones named gamelan...there are several thousand types, the structure of which varies according to the kind of music they are used for, according to the period when they were built, finally according to the districts.  The oldest gamelan still in use nowadays date back to the hinduist period of Java, i.e. before the fourteenth century, and still have an extremely pure sonority"

Jacques Brunet

In sharp contrast to the often frantic gamelan music of Bali, these strange sounds emanating from Java exude an airless sense of stasis, or maybe the movement is slower than can be perceived, like evolution or galaxies being formed.

Tracklist:

01 Gending Babad, mode Slendro Nem
02 Gendin Tejanata suivi de Ladrang Playon, mode Pelog Lima

Get it HERE.

Bali: Les Celebres Gamelans (1972)

This is a lovely recording of Gamelan music from Bali. The album was released in 1972 and the recordings were made by Gerard Kremer at various Gamelan performances including dances and shadow-puppet theatres:

"Gamelan is comparable only to two things: moonlight and flowing water, it is pure and mysterious like moonlight, it is always the same and always changing like flowing water. It forms for our ears no song, this music, it is a state of being, such as moonlight itself which lies poured out over the land. It flows murmuring, tinkling and gurgling like water in a mountain stream. Yet it is never monotonous. Sometimes the sounds flow faster and louder, just as water also sometimes speaks more loudly in the night only to sink back again quietly."

--Leonard Huizinga when describing Javanese gamelan music.

Tracklist:
01 Rayamanat Ballet
02 Barung
03 Defile de Offrandes
04 Ketjak
05 Gender Wayang
06 Pendet
07 Legong

Get it HERE.