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