The other day, Steve asked me what it was that drew me to Indonesia lo those many years ago. I replied, as I usually do, by saying that it all began when I discovered traditional music from around the world as I listened religiously to the World Music program hosted (25 years ago) by Henry Kaiser on KPFA, in Berkeley. It was on that show that I first heard the heavy metal of a Javanese gamelan – Gending Bonang Babar Layar became my anthem, and Pak Tjokro my teacher. From there, I became the armchair ethnomusicologist that I am today, and the rest is history ;->
The inspiration for this post is a wonderful website I ran across after seeing a trailer on YouTube promoting a soon-to-be-released film on Sumatran Folk Cinema. My kind of stuff, and it led me to Sublime Frequencies, purveyors of “New and Unique Music and Videos.” Indeed, these cats are cool… they have an eclectic collection of raw, wicked cool field recordings of folk, pop, natural, traditional, ambient, and radio sounds, all delivered in hip contemporary vintage packaging (e.g. images above). From the selections and descriptions, I can tell we are kindred spirits. I’m inspired… Time to get out of my armchair…
Technorati Tags: sublime frequencies, ethnomusicology, folk music, world music, sumatra, pop, kpfa, henry kaiser, gamelan, babar layar
