bali to new york

With its infinite rhythmic patterning and metal percussion orchestration, Indonesian gamelan music has had a strong influence on many composers.

The American Colin McPhee spent several years in Bali during the 1930s transcribing this luminous and fiery music including Balinese Ceremonial Music. In the following decade, under the spell of this magical sound world, John Cage and Lou Harrison collaborated on Double Music for an assortment of Chinese gongs, water buffalo bells and thunder sheet.

Charlie Barber's Kantilan Karangan, a re-invention of traditional arabesques of Balinese music, is heard alongside the motoric rhythms of Steve Reich’s seminal minimalist classic Piano Phase and the eastward-looking Fifth Simfony by West Coast composer Lou Harrison.

The programme is performed by two pianists and four percussionists