Gamelan

You gotta love the Robotic GamelaTron of Zemi17 – and not just because its name makes you think of every cheesy sci fi movie ever made:

Zemi17 has augmented Gamelan instruments that he brought back for his time in Indonesia while the LEMUR team has built customized interfaces and robotic mechanisms to enable the playing of the Gamelan by computerized midi controlled robot arms.

Sonic Self, Chelsea Art Museum July 18, 2008, NYC.

zemi17 via thesonicself

The spate of iPhone instrument development continues. Check out this virtual Gangsa, one Bali’s Gamelan instruments.

Soniccouture have released Balinese Gamelan, a new sampled instrument for Native Instruments Kontakt.

A Gamelan is an ensemble of instruments originating from Indonesia. The majority of Gamelan instruments are percussive, and most of these are bronze. They include xylophone-like metallophones of different sizes and pitch, tuned gong chimes, very large pitched gongs, and an assortment of drums and percussion. There are many types of Gamelan ensembles, but the two dominant types are Javanese and Balinese. Balinese Gamelan has a characteristic ’shimmering’ sound which is due to the detuning of paired instruments playing the same musical part.

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