MUSICA CONIUNCTA  2  –  Young Bali Gamelan

This album follows a previous one – ‘Musica Coniuncta – Bach to Cage through Gamelan’ – published by Yantra in 2014.  It follows the same concept and actualization.  While the first one mainly targeted Western classical pieces and had them in turn joined-up with gamelan and other world musics, the present album focuses on very recent creations by young Balinese musicians and has their original gamelan pieces invaded and ‘contaminated’ by Western and diverse musical expressions.

In the concise notes attached to the first album, we read that the idea about ‘musica coniuncta’ originated a few decades ago, suggested by a serendipitous happening. I had recorded two pieces from the radio at different times and, in order to save tape space, the pieces were recorded in mono on the adjacent tracks at start of a two-track tape. Only at some later time I realized two things. First, the pieces had the same duration. Second, and more important, they sounded incredibly well fused when played together, which would naturally happen listening to the tape in stereo mode. The latter discovery was so startling that I refrained from doing anything about it, as if I had been given a mysterious gift or sign that was not to be investigated. Many years later I timidly began to try intentional operations of the kind, saw that they could work in certain circumstances, so I decided to consider it a permanent concept-project, at any time open to register hints that appeared worthy of elaboration. The Musica Coniuncta album of 2014 includes the serendipitous combination (of Ligeti and Stockhausen).

‘Active’ or ‘creative’ listening is at the roots of the inclination to intervene to change in various possible ways an existing piece of music. Arrangements and re-creations have been widely analyzed by the philosopher/musicologist Peter Szendy (b. 1966) in his book “Listen: A History of Our Ears”.

John Noise Manis
2019

The  Tracks

01   ‘A DEBATE OF FOUR’                        5:50
‘Lapas Anarki’ – I Putu Arya Deva Suryanegara (Arya)
‘Manggurin’ – I Wayan Arik Wirawan (Arik)
‘Tak Sependek Pikiranmu’ – Yan Priya Kumara Janardhana (Janu)
‘X’ – I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot)

02   ‘CONSTELLATIONS’                        5:35
‘Konstelasi’ – I Putu Suwarsa (Bayem)
plus excerpts from:    ‘Cry’ – Giles Swayne
‘Makrokosmos III’ – George Crumb

03   ‘GLASS SHOOTS’                            5:32
‘Bangsing’ – I Kadek Tunas Sanjaya (Emon)
plus excerpts from:    ‘Glasmusik’ – Glasmusik-Ensemble

04   ‘GREGORIAN 4 M’                            2:40
‘4 M’ – I Putu Purwwangsa Nagara (Wawan)
plus excerpts from:    ‘Dies Irae’ – Chant Gregorien Deller Consort

05   ‘HILDEGARD SUSU’                        7:30
‘Susu Kembang’ – Putu Eman Sabudi Subandi (Emon)
plus excerpts from:    Spiritual Songs – Hildegard von Bingen

06   ‘KE DIK AFRICA CENTRAL’                    3:50
‘Ke “Dik”’ – I Putu Rudy Arthana
plus excerpts from:    Baka Pygmy Music
Banda Linda Music

07   ‘MIRAKUS CHEZ SUBANDI’                     8:45
‘Babuang’, ‘Bibit’ – I Made Subandi
plus excerpts from:    ‘Mirakus’ – John Cage
‘Effractions’, ‘Too Much Sky’ – Michel Redolfi

08   ‘A VOICE FROM JAVA’                        3:15
‘Isih Tresno’ – Endah Laras
plus overdub by:    Simone Mor, Guitar

09   ‘RAKET WITH FRIENDS’                    5:25
‘Raket’ – I Gede Putu Gita Kumara Putra
plus excerpts from:    ‘Before Sunrise’ – Stephan Micus
‘Clouds’ – Michael Vetter
‘Fantasie’ – Alistair Riddel
‘Musst Musst’ – Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

10   ‘SELENDRO MONK’                         8:37
‘Selendro (Anomali)’ – I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot)
plus excerpts from:    Pieces by Meredith Monk

NOTE –
Concerning the excerpts added to the original Balinese pieces, attempts have been made to get permission to use them as taken from publicly available recordings. Such attempts have not produced results. The production of the present release is ready to receive possible requests from the legitimately interested parties.

YANTRA PRODUCTION
john.noise.manis@gmail.com