Music from the Morning of the World: The Balinese Gamelan & Ketjak, The Ramayana Monkey Chant

I always assumed, in that lazy unreflective way, that Balinese gamelan music was a centuries-old cultural tradition, so I was intrigued by the suggestion in the sleevenotes that the style most of us recognise as classic gamelan playing is "relatively new" and arose following the shift from feudal rule when the Dutch colonised parts of the area in the early part of the 20th century. The notes are by David Lewiston, the man who made these recordings in 1966.

Amazon (click below for link) claims "Music for the Morning of the World is a landmark among world music recordings". I understood that the real landmark recordings in Bali were those made by Colin McPhee, but let's accept that there can be lots of landmarks…

I have to admit that a lot of gamelan music blends into one experience for me. I haven't trained my ear to discern the different styles and arrangements. That said, Gender Wayang: Ansarun is what I think of as the classical sound, that moves between periods of calm and frenzy as the polyrhythms multiply and collide with each other.

The Monkey Chant pieces don't really do it for me, but, hell, it was three quid in Fopp: can't go wrong at that price.

MusicBrainz entry for this album