The Belgian musician Dijf Sanders takes us to Java on his fifth album. He visited the famous Indonesian island for two weeks on behalf of the Europalia art festival. Since 1969, Europalia has organized all kinds of exhibitions and concerts around a host country and in 2017 it was Indonesia's turn. Sanders said he left with a backpack full of equipment and three underpants. Traveling around for two
… weeks is of course not enough to really fathom the essence of Javanese music. It did provide enough material for a nice world fusion album. The Belgian recorded samples of rain, frogs and crickets and incorporated various folk songs into his compositions. Special is the inclusion of kunclungan; rhythms created by hitting water. Of course, the diverse percussion instruments that we know from the traditional gamelan orchestra are also included. Western sounds are at least as decisive. Sanders often plays on all kinds of old-fashioned keyboards, which now also sound quite traditional. “Our” Philicorda - built by Philips in the 1960s - immediately creates a nostalgic atmosphere. Java is therefore a nice meeting between East and West. (JE)more
