At the center of the performance Gaung – Unpredictable Resonance by Bilawa Respati and Ariel Orah is the gamelan. It is an instrument of power. The tradition is royal and religious. The Indonesian government uses the gamelan as a messenger on festive, national occasions. Numerous musicians in strict costumes create the powerful vibration of a hierarchical society and a national identity. Bilawa Respati and Ariel Orah have grown up with this tradition. They know about the powerful expectations of this style of play: spiritual, political and exoticizing from the other side. But their own experiences call for a different play. Can sound sequences be found that elude the hegemonic setting? Can one use the complexity of the gamelan, which breaks all musical grids in European music, to have self-determined effects? Can the community-creating function of the instrument be utilized for a self-chosen gathering?

Bilawa Respati is trained in playing the gamelan. Ariel Orah’s focus is on electronic music. On October 17, you, dear audience, can witness how the two sound artists‘ own experiences of crossing borders and traversing cultural structures allow them to search for a new way of playing, a new approach to their instruments, as part of the Decolonial Frequencies festival.

Click here for tickets.