Debut album by Vancouver's contemporary Javanese gamelan ensemble extends the tradition in ways of fascinating beauty.

Gamelan Madu Sari has been active in Vancouver since 1986, but this is the ensemble's debut recording. Five Vancouver composer-performers (Paul Plimley, Michael O'Neill, Kenneth Newby, Mark Parlett and Chris Miller) draw on their experience with Javanese gamelan and other forms of music (including Western classical, new music, jazz, Vietnamese and Balinese musics, electroacoustic composition, and improvisation), extending the gamelan tradition in ways of fascinating beauty.

Each piece in its own way furthers the dialogue between East and West, developing the expressive potential of the gamelan, not just as a source of sensuous, intriguing timbres but also as a deep tradition with its own informing ethos and set of musical values (for example, freedom of individual expression within a complex and highly controlled social organization of sound). New Nectar is a major contribution to this ongoing cross-cultural experiment, forging a new music of substance and delight beyond categories.

Track Listing

• Dreams He is a Ball of Fire... Or a Hummingbird (I)
• Dreams He is a Ball of Fire... Or a Hummingbird (II)
• Dreams He is a Ball of Fire... Or a Hummingbird (III)
• thinly, roundly
• Lessons of the Garden: Gate
• Lessons of the Garden: Path
• Lessons of the Garden: Waterway
• Intimate Distance
• whining horses eat more HEY doncha no
• Born Again Needle Dancers

Additional Details

Label: Songlines

Genre: World

Run Time: 64 mins

Release Date: 07/06/04

UPC: 774355240427