Gamelon Son of Lion – “Sonogram” – [Innova/American Composers]

humana   2/7/2009   A Library, CD

As the name suggests, herein lie 2 CDs containing nearly 2 hours of gamelan music–not one minute of which is boring! How a collective of composers (including Denman Maroney, Barbara Benary, Laura Liben, and Daniel Goode, among many others) based in New York City manage to create innovative, fresh sounds for the traditional Indonesian gamelan percussion instruments is nothing less than miraculous and beautiful. The liner notes are fascinating and crucial to a full appreciation of each song. Disc I, Track 2 has a musicbox version of the Beatles??? ???Yesterday.??? Disc I, Track 5 features tin cans, while Disc I, Track 7 uses glass. Disc II, Tracks 1-7 contain a tribute to 9-11, and the last track gives you a happy klezmer ending with clarinet and gamelan. You have to sample it for yourself to believe it. I???ve circled my favorites on the back.
PGM: Early endings marked on CD back.