Kumala Budaya - Balaganjur of Pande and Angklung of Sidan, Bali
Though it was originally a ceremonial music, Balaganjur has become one of the biggest attractions in the world of gamelan. This album presents both old and new pieces, Balaganjur in contrast to the tranquility of Angklung, used as funeral music played mostly on bronze metallophones. Recorded in 1990.
That was all of the information I could find on this release. I found a used copy sometime ago, but there is no cover, no booklet, just the CD.
Tracklisting:
1. Jaya Sakti {21:24}
2. Balafanjar Kuno {9:08}
3. Merak Angelo {20:25}
I LOVE your blog and am building on a 3+ gig collection of gamelan. It's so wierd; for the first time in a while I was just listening to "Bedaya Dances at Kraton Surakarta" (one of my top 2 favorite pieces of Javanese gamelan, and one of the few songs that just makes me wanna do heroin...just kidding, heh, heh) from the "Gamelan from Central Java" collection when this post popped up in the feedreader. It's been the only example of this type of funeral music that I've had in my collection. Exciting!
ReplyDelete(BTW my other favorite piece of Javanese gamelan is "Gending Tejanata - Ladrang Sembawa - Ladrang Playon" from "Javanese Court Gamelan - Volume I".
Cheers!
Whoops! It looks like I was mistaken about the Bedaya dances being funeral music. It actually accompanies a long dance. And my expectations about what this record would sound like were way off. Yet it's an excellent performance and very well "mixed".
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great posts. This has become my favorite music blog of all.
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