Published:
April 18, 2016
Osing Trance, recorded in Temenggungan Village, Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia, in December 2015. Musik Patrol is a style of bamboo gamelan ensemble. As you can hear, the rhythms are played at a breakneck speed with fascinating shifts in phasing.
The region around Banyuwangi is particularly fascinating from a cultural perspective. The people of this region are Osing, a different ethnic identity than either Javanese or Balinese, with their own language and cultural traditions. The group Banyuwangi Putra is considered a regional favorite. They have won many contests in Java and are often in demand to perform at many different kinds of cultural festivals and other events.
On Unheard Indonesia vol 8, Banyuwangi Putra performs on bamboo "patrol" instruments, Arrington de Dionyso on bass clarinet and Redy Eko Prastyo performs on his modified flying fish sape.