Sonogram

Gamelan Son of Lion is a New York City based composers' collective and repertory ensemble exploring and expanding the variety of musical styles that may be performed using Javanese and Balinese percussion orchestra. The ensemble has performed around the greater New York area and on tours abroad since 1976. 

This newest collection of compositions for gamelan features premiers from recent concert seasons as well as a scattering of old favorites from the past. Works by ten composer-performers of the ensemble are represented: Barbara Benary, David Demnitz, Miguel Frasconi, Daniel Goode, Lisa Karrer, Jody Kruskal, Laura Liben, Denman Maroney, John Morton and David Simons. 

The Indonesian Gamelan is based on a core group of metallophones (gongs and keyboards) in the traditional Javanese/Balinese tunings slendro and pelog, supplemented by gongs and drums. To the beautiful sound of the metallophones many other sounds can be added according to the composer's inspiration. On this CD, in addition to the core gamelan sound, are electronically processed music boxes in Morton's "She (really) Had To Go" and glass instruments in Frasconi's "Telling Time," Scottish fiddle and Gaelic song in Benary's "Jigalullaby," and a hypnotic kaleidoscope of world music strings, winds and vocal styles in Karrer's "Kacapi." 

Special among the works is "Nine-Eleven: A Memorial Suite," a collective tribute to those who lived through that disaster, and those who did not. Co-composed by five gamelan members shortly after the event, the suite builds on a song by Benary with variations and settings as well as contrasting digressions by Goode, Liben, Simons and Demnitz.