Kudu bisa kudu

The 13-member group Balungan consists of seven virtuoso Javanese gamelan musicians and six adventurous musicians from the South of France. Their joint album Kudu Bisa Kudu was recorded live, and one of its many interesting aspects is that all the musicians provided compositions. The band then worked out the arrangements together. This led to an extraordinary feat of fusion. The polyrhythms of the… gamelan have already influenced generations of composers from the West: from Ravel and Debussy to prog rock groups like King Crimson. Kudu Bisa Kudu also has a heavy rock sound in many songs, which combines very well with the hypnotic gamelan rhythms. But there is plenty of variation, both in dynamics, texture and melody. The record sounds like the recording of a jam session between two cultures and continents, reaching the highest attainable of fusion: fusion. (JV)more