Gamelan of Central Java Vol.XV
Returning Minimalism: In Nem

FY8181

From Daniel Patrick Quinn CD linear notes:
«It was 25th October 2009 at ISI Surakarta and eight of Central Java’s finest gamelan players and composers were standing in the studio entrance hallway waiting for the torrential thunderstorm to abate and for electrical mains power to be restored. This was the start of the second of a two-day recording session of material the concept of which was dreamt up in emails between John Noise Manis and myself.
The first day has been a success – three ‘takes’ saved – the first of which (Nem One) had that magical exploratory quality to it which sometimes occurs at the very beginning of recording sessions, when musicians feel free to experiment, knowing that they still have much time to lay down other pieces. It featured rebab, suling, siter, and had the widest array of musical timbres of any of the pieces.
However, I was hoping that Day Two would be the time for the musicians to really shine, having by now become comfortable with the ideas behind the project. …Day Two did indeed turn out to be day for a bumper harvest of great gamelan minimalism. The first piece on Day Two (Nem Four) remains my favourite. It almost seemed as though the inconvenience of a thunderstorm and a power-cut gave the players an enhanced sense of urgency. Led by Pak Joko’s musical phrases and Pak Al’s incredibly precise ‘pulse’.
The final piece of the weekend (Nem Seven) had an irregular pulse and was the most ferociously rhythmic of the weekend. After all the others, somehow all eight players found a new level of energy for this wonderfully textural finale.
Interestingly, without the pulse these recordings could easily be mistaken for original gamelan works which have no links to Riley and his piece In C. That is one reason the recordings are titled ‘In Nem’, ‘nem’ being Javanese for note ‘six’, which is the note common to both slendro and pelog scales in many gamelan sets and in the set that was played.
These pieces should be understood more as Riley-inspired gamelan semi-improvisations over a drone-pulse than a genuine attempt at a faithful interpretation of In C. Each piece became its own composition.».

Track listing:

1. In Nem Seven (phrases Al Suwardi) (27.48)
2. In Nem Four (phrases Joko Purwanto) (21.24)
3. In Nem One (group improvisation) (18.59)

Published: 2011

Genre: Asia & Oceanic
Label: Felmay

Tags:

Gamelan, Indonesia, Java, World Music

Gamelan of Central Java Vol.XV - Returning Minimalism: In Nem

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Gamelan of Central Java Vol.XV
Returning Minimalism: In Nem