Bali 1928 I: Gamelan Gong Kebyar

Claude Debussy–one of the first Western composers to hear and be influenced by gamelan — titled one of his piano preludes ‘The Sunken Cathedral.’ This, I imagine, is what the bells of a submerged church would really sound like, a strange and distant clamour echoing around the world and down the decades. These are the earliest commercial recordings of Balinese gamelan, made in 1928 by the Odeon and Beka labels and pieced together for reissue from archives in several countries. They mark the early days of the style called gong kebyar, in which bronze percussion instruments play interlocking patterns at giddying speed, with handbrake turns in volume and tempo. Kebyar became the most popular style of Balinese gamelan – many villages melted down their old instruments – and these recordings capture the transition, with mixtures of old and new instruments and styles of playing. The music is more sedate than contemporary kebyar, but the comparison is strictly relative – Balinese gamelan is the original heavy metal.

World Arbiter, who plan four more volumes compiled from these recordings, have put together a fantastic package, with silent movie clips of dancing and playing – showing that flashy stick-twirling wasn’t invented by rock drummers – and excellent notes on the music and recordings. The lo¬fi sound quality may put casual listeners off, but anyone serious about Balinese music should check this out.