Music For the Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition: Indonesia
Rykodisk RCD 10315
This is a few years old, but a recent discovery for me. Recorded
in 1941 direct to acetate masters (they had recording lathes on a ship,
connected by 2 miles of microphone cable!) by the Fahnestock brothers,
these are some of the earliest recordings of Indonesian Gamelan music.
There is quite a bit of surface noise, but the clarity of these recordings
are marvelous.
Is it IDM? Answer One: Who the fuck cares, it rocks! Answer Two: Listen
to track 9 "Gambang" and tell me it doesn't sound like Autechre or Richard
James unplugged. Compare and contrast with "Donkey Rhubarb". The
syncopation, ostinato backing sounds, and pentatonic melody are the
stuff IDM is made of, pure and simple.
Every track on this record is a remarkable piece of music, remarkably
performed, and the Gamelen aesthetic presages modern minimalism precisely;
in point of fact, many modern composers cite gamelan as a huge influence.
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"Psyche manifests as psychic through something we call 'winding',
because it twists, and puts things that were far apart next to
each other, complicatedly, taffywise." -- winona on channel 78
Kent Williams kent@inav.net --
http://soli.inav.net/~kent