The album title translates to “Gamelan Fifth Dimension”.
Gamelan was introduced to New Zealand in the 1970s. It has an active scene in Wellington (my birthplace, where I first encountered it in 2010 – thanks to www.gamelan.org.nz ).
From 2012-2014 I lived in Perth, Western Australia, and played in the ensemble Gamelan Sekar Puri. From there I was able to visit Indonesia (and Malaysia) relatively affordably.
On returning home to New Zealand at the end of 2014, I spent the next few years as a member of theWellington gamelanensembles: Gamelan Taniwha Jaya (Balinese) and Gamelan Padhang Moncar (Javanese). In 2017 I moved to the Wairarapa, so travelling for regular rehearsals became impractical.
The field recordings were made in 2014 in Indonesia -in central Java, then Baliand Nusa Penida islands;
As well as very different scenery, cultures, cuisines and religion – the islands have strikingly different subgenres of gamelan. Stereotypically, the Javanese style is more hypnotic and meditative, while the Balinese style is faster and complex.
Yogyakarta and Surakarta, Central Java
Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia, 2014
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia, 2014
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Javanese gamelan, Indonesia
Javanese gamelan, Indonesia
Javanese gamelan, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Javanese shadow puppets, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Bali and Nusa Penida
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Central Java, Indonesia
Nusa Penida, Indonesia
An endangered Bali Starling, Nusa Penisa, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Bali, Indonesia
Nusa Penida, Indonesia
Credits
Dave Edwards – saron, jublag, jegogan, field recordings, bass, electric guitar, tenor saxophone
The field recordings are mixed alongside gamelan ensembles, recorded between 2010-2018;:
“The 20 song album covers traditional Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Asian folk music, to free jazz, and free noise. It’s not for anyone with narrow preconceived ideas about what music is, but it is for everyone else.
“If you have an open inquiring mind and love hearing a variety of sound, this is excellent.” – Darryl Baser, muzic.net.nz
by Dave Black (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, laptop, bass, tenor saxophone, field recordings, piano, ukulele, sanshin, saron, jublag, demung, vocal), with
My first visit to a Pacific island country, apart from my own (though the term is ambiguous – I’m not counting Australia, Indonesia or Japan). I’d always wanted to visit Fiji, due to family connections… I may have even been conceived there. A week’s visit to Viti Levu, the largest and most populated island, in September was all too short but still a great introductory taster.
l’ll play a live soundtrack myself as a solo performance, to evoke each country… it’ll be a culmination of the travelling and field recording /world music direction I’ve taken over the past decade.
Here’s video from my two visits to Indonesia in 2014 – a fascinating new country that I’m only just beginning to explore, and can continue to do so through gamelan (like Indonesia itself it gets more complex & interesting the more you look).
Partly because I’ve visited several countries in East Asia now, and lived in two (Japan and South Korea), Indonesia seems like something else entirely. It’s less Chinese-influenced and has a style of its own.
[Diary from September] This trip was just enough for an introductory sampler. I decided to focus on the arts this time rather than the mountains, ocean and jungle which would require more time, money and preparation.
There’s my first video from Bali, from footage taken on my earlier visit in August. Note the gamelan (bronze percussion) and rindik (bamboo percussion) soundtrack.
I left my job in Perth and am on my way home to New Zealand, so I’m nervous about jobhunting & starting all over again (again). On the way home I’m spending a week on a smaller island, Nusa Penida, doing conservation volunteer work with www.fnpf.org If you’d like to help me afford to stay longer and make more of a contribution ($20 = 1 day’s expenses) please – or even better, buy some of our music.
Bali is (once you get away from the main city and the tacky resorts in the south) an almost absurdly beautiful place… frangipani and Indonesian flags (preparing for the August 17th independence day celebrations) everywhere, majestic hillsides lined with centuries-old rice terraces, and too many Hindu temples to count (each family has t…heir own). That plus the many international flights, and entertainment options from adventure sports to nightclubbing to traditional arts make it easy to see why it’s such a popular destination (I read somewhere that 80% of visitors to Indonesia go to Bali and nowhere else, which makes me glad I saw Java first).
Nusa Penida is a smaller island between Bali and Lombok, about an hour by boat from Sanur in Bali.
View from Nusa Penida towards Bali and Mt Agung
I spent a week as a volunteer with Friends of the National Parks Foundation. I helped with feeding the Bali starlings (critically endangered due to poachers – the population was down to 10 at one point but is now over 100 thanks to the translocation project), along with plant nursery maintenance, a beach cleanup of plastic waste, and construction of the new FNPF premises (thatched huts on a terraced hillside, and gardens that will be beautiful once established).
An endangered Bali Starling, Nusa Penisa, Indonesia
Nusa Penida is much less developed than Bali, and resembles Bali as it might have been 40 years ago before the tourism boom. Accomodation is simple, with basic facilities (eg cold showers – actually very pleasant in the tropical climate – bucket-flush toilets, and limited food variety).
For tourists it offers great snorkelling & diving,
and enough Hindu temples & local colour to make it interesting culturally. It’s nice to not be hassled to buy things as much as in Bali. Mostly people just say ‘hello’ (in some cases it’s the only English word they know).
I also need to mention The Gallery, run by an English expat Mike Appleton – it’s THE place to go for local information, language interpretation, western food, and to support local artists.
The main amenity I missed was reliable internet connections – there was no access at all for five of the nine days I was there, and when it was available it was patchy & unreliable even at the one internet cafe in town. Lesson from this for me was to finish all travel bookings before going somewhere remote like this. Even back here in Bali the connection is too slow for me to upload any sounds or other photos, so I’ll add more later.
If you’ve never been to Asia before, don’t speak any Asian languages, and have only a day or two available, Singapore would be a great introduction.
You can find tropical rainforest and the sea, traditional and modern architecture, and the cultures of China, India, the Middle East and the West all in one city.Most people speak English, buses are frequent and on time, and it even has a nice airport complete with indoor gardens.
Just try not to think what it would cost to live here… and with Malaysia and Indonesia still to go on this trip I imagine things will get more chaotic as I go! I made some sound recordings, which will find their way into some new music pieces eventually. In the meantime here are a few photos.
fiffdimension 