Customer Reviews

Music For The Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition, Indonesia

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This CD is my most prized possession. I have listened to it so much that my brain can play it back - yet it is still listen-to-able. It contains a variety of types of music collected by the Fahnestocks during their South Pacific explorations during WWII. Every track is worth the price of the album, but the gamelan sounds stand out... one goal of the Fahnestocks was to document the music of the peoples of Indonesia before Western culture made it what it is today. If I knew of any other recordings from this era, I would buy them too.

The liner notes give a brief telling of the expedition. The Fahnestocks risked life and limb to make this music available. Take advantage.

This recording from almost 60 years ago presents mostly Balinese music. No doubt a different generation of Balinese musicians, it has a different feel than what you find in the contemporary recordings. You will keep listening over and over to its haunting sound.

Yet another magnificent CD from Mickey Hart's "The World" series, this time focusing in upon historical recordings of Indonesian music. The most noticable music on here is, naturally, the Gamelan music. I love it. I bought this CD hoping to learn more about Southeast Asian classical music and I was not at all disappointed. In fact, this CD helped kindle my interest in Gamelan music. If you've never herd the beautiful sounds of Balinese Gamelan orchestras, this CD will really get you hooked. If your already a fan, then why haven't you bought this CD yet? I love it and you will too. Not that the only music on here is Gamelan. There are other styles as well, just not as well represented. One of the must unique of which is the Kecak or "monkey chant". I should also point out that the music here is all raditional, and in some cases vastly different from the modern music you'd here in Bali today. Also, a wide range of regions within Indonesia are represented (a great feat considering that Indonesia is such a large region).

gamelan music remastered with the help of the percussion artist of the Greatful Dead. Haunting and simple melodies contrasting sharply with the harsh reality of tribal lifestyle. As a returned peace corps volunteer I find this cd authentic and true to the spirit of the people.

I first got this disk from the library, just out of curiosity, and fell in love. The sound quality isn't so great, because the medium they were recorded on is falling to pieces, but that's fine with me. I grew up in the age of cheap record players. I don't mind a few pops and hisses. It's all part of the experience. This was recorded in '41, I think, so it's a precious artifact.
There's a variety here, mostly gamelin, but some vocal as well, and something that sounds like jew's harp or barimbau or some weird buzzy thing. The monkey god chant is amazing. My favorite track of all is #10. I could play it a thousand times and never tire of it. It makes me feel like I belong, like it's a story of life and I am included in the story.
I have also found that this recording has magical powers. Whenever one of my neighbors is playing something irritating, I put this on really loud and drown them out. They're so fascinated, I guess, by the weirdness of the music, that they shut up and don't complain. (This also works with Getz and Gilberto.)