The Jasmine Isle: Javanese Gamelan Music (side A)

David Lewiston's field recordings are generally well-executed, and The Jasmine Isle definitely follows this trend. It was amazing reading in Tape Op about his low budget setup—the results that he achieved, while never spectacular, were amazingly consistent for such basic tools. He also paid close attention, as on The Jasmine Isle, to capturing the actual indigenous music, and not simplifying it for an album. When some of the percussion here is obviously out of time with the perfectly interlocking melodic patterns, it just seems to belong. The gamelan pieces here are generally moderately high-energy, without vocals.