Rahwana's Cry [Import]

Sambasunda | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 8, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Network Germany
• ASIN: B000BGUUQM
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #397,376 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #41 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia > Indonesia > General

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Asian New Wave: The Modern Sound of Indonesia, July 4, 2009

By 

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel "World Music Explorer" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Rahwana's Cry (Audio CD)

The western region of the island of Java, Indonesia, is Sunda. Here, for the past decade the innovative group SambaSunda, consisting of some 16 members, has created a unique synthesis of musics and has issued six albums. This album is not your customary slow, traditional court or dance gamelan. Consider these musical sources: Balinese gamelan, reggae, samba, salsa, Arabic rhythms, jazz, Sundanese traditional gamelan, and Jaipong, a popular vocal and dance style in Java. Listening to these tracks (better, if you can find their anthology, The Sunda Music, on Rice Records, UK), you will hear an unusual assortment of rich melodies and rhythms. Ismet Ruchiat, the leader of this experimental ensemble, worked in Norway and Iceland in the 1990s where he played with jazz groups and expanded his musical vision. The Indonesian vocal style, the gongs and drums and equivalents of flute, oboe, xylophone (metal and bamboo), and violins firmly place SambaSunda in Indonesia, but many of the songs are strongly Western influenced. The album is great fun, a sort of Southeast Asian jazz. I dig it!