Four Indonesian traditional musicians from the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) Surakarta in Central Java have collaborated with British renowned musicians Susheela Raman and guitarist Sam Millis in the United Kingdom's capital.
For around a week, the musicians, namely Gondrong Gunarto, Agus Prasetyo, Angger Widhi Asmara and Rano Prasetyo, explored a part of London and combined Indonesian traditional music elements with British modern music, said Indonesian Embassy in London spokesperson Thomas Siregar on Tuesday.
In addition to the two countries, musicians from India also joined in the collaboration.
Raman, who is into various music genres, including jazz, blues, folk and trance, and has conducted tours all around the globe, said he was fascinated with gamelan ever since he visited the country some time ago. It was his acquaintance with gamelan mastero Gondrong Gunarto at the time that initiated the idea to collaborate gamelan with contemporary music.
Thomas told Antara news agency that gamelan was not foreign to UK people since it had no less than 150 gamelan groups spread in many education institutions and art communities. The collaboration of gamelan with guitar, cello and Indian tabla is expected to present attractive performance for music lovers in the country.
"Hopefully this activity can boost cooperation in the development of art and culture between UK and Indonesia in the future," Thomas added.
Source : Jakarta Post
