Discover Indonesia in Bloomington, MN

This is a great sampler of
Smithsonian Folkways
'
Music of Indonesia
series, which is 20 volumes large. Adding the entire set to your music library will seem more reasonable -- and necessary -- after hearing this and realizing what an astonishing variety of music comes from Indonesia, which consists of over 13,000 islands. At the very least, this sampler will let you know which volumes to start with. This release offers a sampling of the country's diversity with music from the forests of Sumatra's mainland (
Volume 7
, here represented by the xylophone duet,
"Tetigo"
) to West Kalimantan (
Volume 17
, and here,
"Kalimantan,"
a ritual senggayung piece, played on seven bamboo) to Flores (
Volumes 8
&
9
, here represented by the a cappella choral festival piece,
"Teke Song"
) to Maluku (
Volume 19
, heard here on
"Mares,"
a surprisingly celtic-reminiscent string and drums dance number) to South Sulawesi (
Volumes 15
18
focus on music from Sulawesi, but the folk guitar and singing heard on
"Kemayoran"
comes from the Indonesian guitar compilation,
Volume 20
). And, of course, there are also selections of music by gong and gamelan ensembles (
Volumes 12
and
14
, among others). Two gong ensemble selections appear on the sampler,
"Tabuh Kenilu Sawik,"
an upbeat, wedding piece and
"Tabung,"
which is played only at funerals, and one gamelan track from West Java,
"Welasan."
Through Indonesia's own internal variety, as well as the unexpected similarities to (and influences of) other cultures' music, you begin to hear unguessed-at links between different cultures' music. There is a wealth of music and musical history to be heard in this series. ~ Joslyn Layne