Game on for Gamelan by Keith Bruce

The Herald, 1 April 2002

IS IT theatre, or is it music? In what has already been a very diverse programme, the Arches Festival of New Scottish Theatre embraces Indonesian gamelan and shadow puppetry at the end of this week.

Review of Wayang Scotlandia (Edinburgh Guide)

Wayang Skotlandia: Bima meets Cuchulain

Puppeteers - Joko Susilo and Matthew Isaac Cohen
Musical accompaniment by - Gamelan Naga Mas
Dates - 5th and 6th April
Venue - Arches Argylle St Glasgow
Run Time - 2 hours
Reviewer - Nicholas Whyte

Gamelan Naga Mas / Joko Susilo / I Nyoman Wenten 2002-2003
by Jon Keliehor, Seleh Notes, March 2003.

During 2001-2002, Gamelan Naga Mas (Glasgow) experienced a period of reformation and revitalisation under the direction of dhalang / master musician Joko Susilo.

Quotation from the Glasgow Herald, 5 February 1999

Although it looks to Western eyes like a percussion orchestra, the gamelan is essentially conceived of as a single multifaceted instrument in Indonesia. It has captured the imagination of many contemporary composers, seduced by its gentle but insistent rhythmic cycles, its delicate chiming instrumental timbres, and subtle shadings of dynamics and colour. Naga Mas were able to demonstrate these qualities in enjoyable fashion.

Kenny Mathieson

Quotation from The Scotsman, 19 August 1993

Gay Melons    Feast at the Fringe    1993 Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Nine musicians play the gamelan, the tuned metallophones of the traditional music of Java; and women sing amid an intricate interweave of tinkles, booms and bongs, songs not unlike the modal melodies of certain Irish street ballads. There is mounting joy as this Javanese group warms up and lets go.

The setting is informal, with players and audience both sitting yoga-style, on the polished wood floor of the art college's great white arcaded sculpture court. It echoes mightily. One of the Gay Melons explains the uses of the numbers played: 'Some of these belong to puppet show, and the last is a 'leaving piece', during which all who hear it are supposed to get up and go!"  It was just as well she told us, or we certainly would have stayed.

Bonnie Lee