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