Gamelan - gamelan CDs - The Loop Reorchestrated

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Mark Lockett
The Loop Reorchestrated

Wriggly Pig WPIG004 2003
Review by Andy Channing

Listening to these discs is like tuning in to the music of the spheres and then drifting away.

In 'FURL' for example, you can lose yourself in the meandering, slowly unfurling melodies and kaleidoscopic ornamentation that is slowly enveloped by ghostly images and brooding atmospheres.

The music has a tranquil, sometimes disturbing beauty that occasionally overflows; as on 'AMOK' when wildy oscillating patterns are ambushed by a riot of percussion.

On 'PION', a gangsaran rush dissolves into a delicate spacey exploration of resonance before reasserting itself. At times, it is like being inside a giant musical box, peering in close-up at the mechanism; an impression confirmed on 'WADI', when a real musical box makes a brief appearance.

The last piece 'AVIK' is a reworking of 'Kiva' from 'Hollowed Ground', Mark's previous CD, with heavy electronic treatment; a piece that looks to the future as well as the past.

You can listen to 'The Loop' in various ways - on headphones the spatial detail is truly stunning, but it is also recommended for passive listening, the pieces become quite insidious.

After a while my antique clock was chiming along in sympathy, feeling quite at home. As Colin McPhee says 'Salunding creates music of surprisingly sweet and mellow resonance.

The larger instruments produce sounds rich in overtones, resembling those of deep bells, whilst the timbre of the smaller instruments is clear and chiming'.

Experimental without being alienating, this is a record that will reward the patient open-minded listener.