Gamelan Semar Pegulingan Saih Pitu ~ The Heavenly Orchestra Of Bali [CMP, 1991]

01. Gending Lasem, Saih Selisir 23:13
02. Gending Tembung, Saih Tembung 18:55
03. Gending Tabuh Gari, Saih Selisir 10:25
04. Gending Unduk, Saih Baro 10:06

Producer - Kurt Renker , Walter Quintus
Recorded By - Walter Quintus

Recorded at Pura Batur, Kamasan, Bali, September 1991

'Semar Pegulingan gamelans were originally royal ensembles and used a seven-tone scale. Later, various different ensembles with the same name developed, all of them pitched higher and with a brighter, more delicate sound than gong gede. This group is one of the few remaining seven-tone Semar Pegulingan gamelans. Its music seems almost weightless, slower and less insistently virtuosic than modern styles.' ~ John Storm Roberts

more mellow than the previous creative music productions publication & likely headier as a result. this must be the 'weightless' factor jsr spake about in the blurb above. it's raining like crazy here & the kool breezes make these tunes owl the more evocative. heavenly

Kusuma Sari - Gamelan Batel Wayang Ramayana [CMP, 1990]

1. Tabuh Petegak 11:17
2. Pemungkah 11:40
3. Gending Petangkilan 3:28
4. Gending Bendu Semara 21:20
5. Batel Adeng 7:27
6. Gending Meganada 4:59
7. Gending Batel 5:39
8. Tabuh Penyuwud 2:53

Ensemble - Kusuma Sari
Conductor, Performer - Pan Menga
Directed By [Artistic Director] - I. Nyoman Wenten
Performer - I. Ketut Artama , I. Ketut Narga , I. Ketut Senter ,
I. Nengah Widia , I. Nyoman Astina , Mangku Pembungan , Pak Teri ,
Pan Jigeh , Pan Selamet , Pan Sipon , Pan Tarmi
Photography - Ute-Elke Schneider
Producer - Kurt Renker , Mark Nauseef
Recorded By, Producer - Walter Quintus

Recorded at Pura Dalem Pembungan temple, Sading, Bali, August 1989

'From cremation ceremonies to a tooth filling at the local dentist, Balinese gamelan ensembles provide invaluable musical accompaniment to an endless variety of secular and religious activities; the island's many dance and theatrical performances based on the Hindu Ramayana epic are some of the most important. The gamelan batel specializes in accompanying the shadow [wayang] theater shows based on various parts of the Ramayana text [a tradition dating back over 1,000 years]. This stellar CMP recording from 1989 features the batel group Kusuma Sari in a live Ramayana performance, taped at an open temple pavilion in Sading, a town just north of the Balinese capital of Denpasar. The program includes musical backdrops for everything from sorrowful scenes to the monkey dance of Meganada -- there's even some music to accompany patrons while they exit the theater. Even if you already have a few gamelan titles, this wayang Ramayana recording will certainly make a nice addition to your world music collection.' ~ stephen cook, amg

i believe stevie's review sums up the proceedings here eloquently enuff, so i'm not gonna get too deep er nuffin. merely one of several under-represented indonesian joints i intend to drop soonish, this particular document hailing from the fine cmp imprint outta deutschland. i endeavour to hear every recording of this variety i can lay my ears on & while these sounds aint nuttin new per se [centuries olde in fact], eat's a belly noice sloice indeed. encoded at a resonant 192, specifically to piss off bit-racists, puritanical audio-pedophiles & other undesirables. more jive from this label lives just hither. please enjoy

Trance Bali 2006 ~ Field Recordings By Dave Sez

cross-stitched from --> know yer conjurer <-- go say thanks if you dig it

TRANCE BALI 2006

An unreleased stereo field recording of sacred and funereal music from Bali, 2006.
A guest post dedicated to edo, holywarbles, luckypsychichut, braingoreng and madrotter.

SACRED SLONDING

Slonding 1 15.48 and Slonding 2 05.30 : five ancient and hallowed iron-bar metallophones
[1 bass, 2 baritone, 2 tenor] whose removal from their temple home for this rare performance in Ubud required a special ceremony. Performers: unidentified

By the most amazing of coincidences [well, this is Bali ...], you can also hear the same instruments playing the same two melodies, but recorded nearly fifty years ago in 1962-63, here thanks to holywarbles and again recorded in 1988 accompanied by female vocals, thanks to braingoreng. These are the only three known recordings of the Tenganan gamelan selunding/slonding.

*****
CREMATION AT DADIA

Prayers 04.06 : inside the deceased's home temple, the pedanda (high priest) chants prayers over the body, accompanied by three bamboo xylophones and a three iron-bar metallophone. Performers: unidentified.

Waiting to leave 07.31 : outside the deceased's home, the body is placed into the bull, accompanied by a full orchestra of hanging brass gongs, brass-bar and nipple gong metallophones, cremation cymbals and a drum. Performers: Gong Taruna Mekar Tunjuk

Tossing the bull Part 1 18.55 and Part 2 10.48 : an orchestra of a drum, several cremation cymbals, a cymbal-box, half a dozen hand-held nipple gongs and one hanging gong rush alongside the mourners carrying the bull to the cremation field, tossing it violently to confuse the spirit and prevent it from returning to haunt its former home. Performers: Angklung Sinar Jaya.

BONUS

Slonding meditation remaster – listen loud! Total: 11.29: Slonding 1 06.04 Slonding 2 05.25.

Recorded with a bamboo-boom stereo mic in December 2006 and later remixed by David Sez with thanks to the families and musicians who shared their days with us. Om Swasyastu, Suksma.

TRANCE BALI 2006 here --> http://sharebee.com/ca35f758 Size: 145.89 MB mp3s @ 320

VA ~ Golden Rain - Balinese Gamelan Music, Ketjak: The Ramayana Monkey Chant [Nonesuch, 1969] 320 kbps

Gamelan Gong Kebjar

A1. Gde Purana - Golden Rain [Hudjan Mas] 5:50
A2. I Mario - Bumblebee [Tumililingan] 9:50

Ketjak

B1. Unknown Artists - The Ramayana Monkey Chant 22:08

Orchestra - Gong Kebjar [tracks: A1, A2]
Recorded By - David Lewiston

'Hujan Mas' [Golden Rain] is credited to Gde Purana but was composed in the 1950s or 1960s by either Gde Merdana [?-1965] or I Wayan Gandera [1933-2002]'



recently had a request for some kecak & although i have a few other recordings, this seemed like an obvious front-runner as side B was sampled for Fellini's 'Satyricon' in 71 & again in 1980 by The Pop Group on 'For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?', et al. anyhu, i haven't seen this around at 320 so here ya go. oh & there's some really fast gamelan kebjar schtuff on the flip. video clip is from baraka circa 92

Inedit - Gambuh. Balinese Musical Drama

Gambuh. Balinese Musical Drama by the Kedisan Ensemble
(Gambuh. Drame musical balinais par l'ensemble de Kedisan)
Inedit W 260094, recorded 1999, CD released 2000

Gambuh came into being in the 16th century, and it is the ancestor and the basis of all artistic forms which developed in Bali in the following centuries, both in terms of dance and musical accompaniment by gamelan ensembles.

When the Dutch finally managed to colonise Bali at the beginning of the 20th century – they had already dominated the rest of the archipelago for three hundred years – the princely courts began to decline. The 8 Balinese kings were one by one forced to submit to the colonial power and gambuh, due to a lack of patrons, was almost forgotten.

Very fortunately, village communities (banjar) decided to act so that this noble and ancient art form would not be completely lost. Thanks to them, there was a gambuh revival after World War II. Although it had become less accessible to the general public due to the language barrier, the stilted nature of the plot and the dialogue, gambuh, the root form of all of the arts of Bali, was nonetheless revived in some villages.

Little by little, as the village communities took over from the royal courts, gambuh changed its function: it is now performed for temple feasts (odalan) which occur every 210 days according to the Balinese ritual calendar.

Dancers of Bali ~ Gamelan of Peliatan, 1952

1. Overture - Kapi Radja (Melody from North Bali)
2. Angklungan
3. Tumulilingan (Bumblebees sip honey)
4. Baris
5. Gambangan (Ancient Melody)
6. Kebyar
7. Gender Wayang: Angkat-Ankatan (Music for Shadow play)
8. Legong (New York studio recording)
9. Legong [London live]

Recorded originally on September 25, 1952.
Under the direction of Anak Agung Gde Mandara



This is a recording of the music played during the first tour of Balinese musique & dance in the USA in 1952. The show caused a sensation. The group, who had never been out of their remote village of Peliatan, near Ubud, left Indonesia on 21 August 1952. First they went to London, where they were a great success.

In September, they flew on to New York. The Fulton Theatre, Broadway, was sold out for seven straight nights. Everyone courted them. Richard Rodgers, who put on South Pacific with its famous Bali Hai song, came to the show. Ed Sullivan televised parts of the Bumblebee Dance and the Monkey Dance to an audience of 30 million. The American comic actor Joe E. Lewis commented to Ed Sullivan, `I think they were on something.' Then they were off to Boston, Philadelphia, Newark, Washington, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St Louis, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

World Arbiter has reissued the original Columbia Records LP Dancers and Musicians of Bali. The performances were the first modern recordings made of a gamelan orchestra. It is lively, loud and frenetic; 66 minutes 16 seconds digitally restored, originally recorded in September 1952. The 6 minutes' Kebyar composition, which accompanied the Kebyar Duduk dance, is very different from the version used today and therefore historically interesting. dig deeper

Gamelans de Bali - Collection du Musée de l'Homme LP [BAM] 1964

Gamelans de Bali - Collection du Musée de l'Homme LP
Gamelans of Bali - Collection of the Museum of Man
disques BAM LD 096 M
Recorded by Louis Berthe & Bernard Yzerdraat in 1962-1963, published 1964.

Face A

01 Danse rituelle de cour d'amour
02 Ouverture Rituelle
03 Air de Procession
04 Air de Danse
05 Air
06 Musique funéraire pour le lavement du corps

Face B

07 Danse de l'éventail
08 Air sur le 3 mode #1
09 Air sur le 3 mode #2
10 Ouverture et danse
11 Théatre chantéé



i haven't the foggiest notion what the relationship betwixt disques Bam & disques Vogue might be [both labels call their collections the Museum of Man], but Bam at least seem to have either licensed a few releases from ocora or operated incahoots with them to some degree baque in the early 60's. this info should surely be in an encyclopedia or on the interwebs somewhere for easy reference, but until that day comes & we might glean more about the activities of these fine cultural institutions, at the very least we have some wonderful musique to listen to. anyone have the real skinny? in the interim, yet another impossibly rare diamond from op's treasure chest. 320 vinyl rip. ancient sounds like a fever dream & such a cutie pie princess on the cover. tanx & praise to the almighty op.