David Demnitz – Gamelan as a Second Language
December 16th, 2016
Released in 1996, the appropriately titled Gamelan as a Second Language CD features six pieces written for Javanese gamelan by American composer David Demnitz. All of the pieces are played by Gamelan Son of Lion, a new music repertory ensemble formed in 1976 and based in downtown New York City. We’re talking some serious cross-cultural pollination here, folks, via minimalist process pieces combined with Afro-Cuban rhythms. In the first track, “Pick Your Notes,” GSOL tick-tocks out layers of austere, pinging, clanking Western rhythms that sound nothing like their Balinese or Javanese counterparts, augmented with truncated filigrees of a distorted electric guitar which veers sharply from melody to freely improvised noise clouds.
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David Demnitz, Gamelan Son of Lion | 
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Posted by Arcane Candy