While on a trip to Bandung, Indonesia, supported by Europalia and leading to a residency with local musicians, Rabih Beaini was introduced to Tarawangsawelas by Palmer Keen and he started a week long musical practice hosted by Joseph Lamont on the hills of Dago Giri. The result was a collaboration that is still running, between the Bandung based duo and the producer from Morphine Records.
Equipped with two instruments—the tarawangsa, a two-stringed fiddle and the jentreng, a seven-stringed zither—and a series of effects units, Tarawangsawelas conjures more contemplative, slow burning moods than the festive gamelan, Indonesia’s more famously exported musical genre.
“Manages to incorporate the essence of a traditional style of music and bring it into the 21st century, to a whole new audience, which knows (or used to know) close to nothing about the actual music and its place of origin.” The Attic Magazine
Related records