My favorite thing about the Performing Indonesia festival was that it brought together people I’ve seen perform, met and played gamelan with from Davis, Los Angeles, Seattle and D.C. The two directors of the UC Davis gamelan played with Pusaka Sunda, Jessika Kenney performed as her duo, and a singer from the L.A. consulate group sang with the embassy group.
But the biggest gamelan-world overlap was Pandan Arum, consisting of many members of CalArts’ Burat Wangi, the focus of my master’s thesis. Tyler Yamin established the group after studying in a remote Balinese village, learning a distinct style of court music from the 17th century that is nearly extinct. His mentor unexpectedly passed away last summer, leaving Tyler to help organize the group in Bali and teach the repertoire to his colleagues in Los Angeles.
If you’re familiar with Balinese gamelan, you’ll notice that this group has a very different sound. The metallophones play in unison instead of interlocking, and while the popular gong kebyar is frenetically fast-paced, this samara pegulingan style is comparatively much slower.
Adventures in Audio 