{"id":3092,"date":"2019-04-04T21:35:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T04:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2020-09-06T16:14:55","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T23:14:55","slug":"susheela-raman-ghost-gamelan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/2019\/04\/susheela-raman-ghost-gamelan\/","title":{"rendered":"Susheela Raman – Ghost Gamelan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a good time to mention that Susheela Raman has a new album that came out last year, called Ghost Gamelan.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In case you didn’t know, Gamelan is a form of traditional music from Indonesia, primarily the islands of Bali and Java<\/a>. The music is percussive, and its origins lie in Javanese mythology, from the story of a king who summoned the gods by playing on three gongs. So while gamelan incorporates a variety of musical instruments, the majority of the world identifies it via the distinctive sound of the metallic and bamboo gongs, xylophones, and cymbals that are used in the ensemble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Picture from here<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The first time I heard the sound of gamelan was, even though I did not know it then, the soundtrack of Akira<\/em>. The layered, propulsive beats that underscored the violent motorcycle chase sequence in the opening moments of the film was all bamboo and metal gongs. The sound captures the frantic energy onscreen with perfection, and still manages to pump me up every time the beats kick in. For a movie that released in 1988, the music does not sound the least bit dated. (Contrast this with another sci-fi anime epic that released in the same time period -\u2013 I adore Joe Hisaishi, but the Nausicaa <\/em>OST screams its time-period from the first synth-note)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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