Sekar DMN

 

“Reimagining new purposes for Indonesian gamelan, this fusion of black metal with musique concrète transcends the culture’s traditions and myths…By the end, we, too, are transformed from struck metal to running water, evaporating into air.”  
- Todd B. Gruel, A Closer Listen’s Top 10 Drone Albums of 2018

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Sekar DMN is a hybrid work exploring relationships between several genres of metal (including post-metal, black metal, and progressive metal) and several genres of Balinese gamelan (selonding, gong kebyar, and kontemporer), along with influences from noise, drone, musique concrète, and field recording practice. The work builds on eight months of intensive self-funded practice research in Bali and Java, including deeper investigation of Balinese gamelan composition strategies and interaction with experimental music communities in Yogyakarta and Denpasar. 

The Gilded Vulture was recorded in collaboration with gamelan #NAGi (Naradha Gita) of Kerobokan, Bali, using live performances and samples of their gamelan selonding instruments. This composition explores the microtonality available from the paired tuning of the bass instruments, along with extended techniques using the iron keys and wooden mallets, to construct a post-metal and black-metal inspired hybrid. Kebyar Death Cult uses sound collage techniques to reflect on the competition culture of gamelan gong kebyar. Itu Protozoa, Mas smears gamelan samples into a meditative wall of dark noise and drone. Finally, Kosong harnesses field recordings to explore environmental patterns and textures that surround the work. The entire album moves from highly-structured to nearly-unstructured over the course of 45 minutes.

Beneath its surface, this work is addressing the dramatic cultural upheavals caused by globalization and gentrification in the 2010s. Genres are sliced up, interwoven, and rearranged to evoke the uncertain and ungrounded sense of identity experienced by many in both Indonesia and the United States during this period. However, the work aims for a somatic or aesthetic impact over a theoretical one. The original release was presented with minimal description, in order to gauge what the compositions could communicate on their own. Ultimately, this work has more to do with providing care and empathy than reflecting challenge and disruption. The concluding piece seems to evaporate into thin air at first (and is named “kosong”, meaning “empty” or “zero”), but as it gathers density it is hinting that musical forms and cultural identities can regrow from the raw materials of lived experience in a given time or place. We may witness the destruction of things that we care for deeply, but the inner ingredients of that care live in the fabric of our surroundings, and at the deepest level may not actually be destructible. This doesn’t mean we do not need to fight. It just means our identities are stronger than we think, if we dive in deep enough…