Customer Reviews

Java: Court Gamelan

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up this recording in 1984, and it's never been far from my ears. I joined the UCLA gamelan ensemble because of it.
At first, this music is hard to listen to, especially for ears accustomed to Western music-but keep listening to it. It grows on you, and grows, and grows.
The music is deep, timeless, complex and transcendent. Listening to it transports you to the highest realms of musical experience. You're also transported to the court where it was recorded-you can hear birds chirping in the rafters.
There's a reason this was included on the Voyager disc.
Some of it is slow, stately, majestic-other parts fast and abrupt (though not even close to the fiery exuberance of Balinese kebyar). Some of it sounds like rain, or thunder, or the ocean.

I love this album! It was maybe the first gamelan record I heard. I recommend it highly for those interested in Javanese Gamelan traditions. It is a good introduction containing long and short pieces, accelerating and decelerating tempos, group and solo vocals, and variety of atmosphere (although it's mostly a slower paced recording and very relaxing).

There are two short pieces, one with male and female choral vocals that are intoxicatingly beautiful, and one compact yet graceful instrumental. And there are two longer pieces, one reprising the male and female chorus...so delicious, and another amazingly dreamy one with solo female vocals that makes me feel like I am floating slowly and ecstatically on a heavenly river!

This recording has a wonderful feeling of place and reality. One can almost sense the weather. Now and then the sound of birds can be heard. I felt that I was listening to music that was being played for a true spiritual practice and not "performance." I owned a vinyl recording of it for years and was pleased to find it in a CD format.

I like this album quite a bit , though I don't adore it. It features mostly bronze and bamboo percussion -- no flute, voice or stringed instruments that you'll hear in other gamelan music. It is also fairly short, about 33 minutes. I find it relaxing enough to give massages to, though there is some spirited drumming in parts. For a gamelan afficianado I recommend it, but for someone getting to know the music I would suggest something longer that includes voice and other instruments, like "Shadow Music of Java" by the Hardo Budoyo Ensemble

Hello. Personally, I am finding it very, very difficult to find a GOOD Gamelan CD. In my opinion - this was not one! I don't want a Gamelan CD with anything on it but the ambient soft purcussive tiny gongs! I don't want nasal singing. I don't want see-saw violin-like string instruments. I don't want shrilly flutes. I bought this album and played it once. I ended up giving it away. I hope the person I gave it to doesn't resent me. If you are into that "raw, underproduced, barely engineered sound" then you might dig it. Next time, bring your microcassette recorder to a bonfire shindig in Bali. Same sound quality.