Rediscovered during my recent dive into my ancient vinyl collection in storage, the 1969 Nonesuch Explorer recording by David Lewiston of Balinese performers doing "Ketjak: The Ramayana Monkey Chant" is as stunning and riveting as the first time I heard it. One of the more apt descriptions I've heard is that it "... exists as a Hindu liturgical drama backed by a beatbox orchestra ready for war". As you might guess, I immediately ripped this to 320 kbps MP3 for the iPod and FLAC for the online networked household library. Here is the cover art from the album, along with a photo of the performers.
Thanks to YouTube, here is a tiny snippet of a Monkey Chant performance. Now imagine the mesmerizing effect of the original Nonesuch high-fidelity twenty-plus minutes audio-only version. Better yet, go to Amazon.com for a preview and an MP3 download (three-minute excerpt) for only 99 cents.
They may roll their eyes now, but I am hoping that someday my kids will come to wonder what interests their dad and whether some of his notions might be worth exploring after all.
I sure as heck don't know much about music or art or culture, but I do increasingly find that music, especially, is almost as important as eating and sleeping in how I get through each day. I just want to share this with Nik and Ivi, and if anyone else wants to listen in, welcome! (And one of these days, I might get my photo blog and sites reworked for more of this kind of thing.)
So there you have it -- a highly-biased (mostly) music appreciation course for my kids.
(btw ... most of the snippets of music presented herein are lo-fi, found wherever, often recorded under very unfavorable circumstances and may be almost unlistenable. However, we hope that your interest will be sharpened just enough to seek out proper recordings or performances for the Real Deal ...)
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