"Music of Indonesia, Vol. 3: Music from the Outskirts of Jakarta: Gambang Kr" - Various Artists

Various Artists
CD cover

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Gambang Kromong comes from a virtually invisible part of the capital of Indonesia that most people have forgotten. Both performers and audience for this music today live at the edges of Jakarta and in the towns and semi-rural areas beyond. The music is wonderfully disorienting. It combines Indonesian, Chinese, and sometimes European-derived instruments in musical styles, at times reminiscent of gamelan music and at other times recalls small-group jazz of the 1920s and 1930s.