World Music News

Interesting Gigs: Gamelan Dharma Swara @ Drom NYC The Music and Dance of Bali First Performance of 2009 : Saturday, May 2 2009 : Rare Club Appearance

Metalophones, drums, gongs, bamboo flutes & dance! Join New York's one and only Gamelan Dharma Swara in a rare club performance in downtown NYC for gamelan semara dana, a new genre of Balinese music that takes this living Indonesian tradition one step ahead.

Gamelan semara dana is a cross-fertilization of the five-tone gong kebyar style with older seven-tone modal techniques and is the vehicle for almost all new experimental composition in Bali today.

Semara dana traverses modalities and expands what you know to be the sound of gamelan. Gamelan Dharma Swara performs on their own set of specially handmade semara dana instruments.

Based at the Consulate of the Republic of Indonesia, Gamelan Dharma Swara is dedicated to the study, performance and teaching of traditional and new works of Bali's virtuosic music and dance traditions with open doors to the community.

Dharma Swara has previously presented at venues such as Symphony Space, Japan Society, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Brooklyn Museum First Saturdays.

Brightly tingling and hypnotically psychedelic."
- Lucid Culture Blog

Drom 85 Ave A (between 5th & 6th St), New York City 212-777-1157 Doors 7pm / Show 8pm / Curfew 10pm $10 adv, $12 at the door. 18+

> Find out more about Gamelan Dharma Swara at their website

Video : Gamelan Dharma Swara - Legong Kuntul - court dance depicting white herons in the ricefields.