UKGN Podcast

Good Vibrations

Gamelan in prisons

In this month's podcast I spoke to Cathy Eastburn, the Founder and Director of Good Vibrations and John Pawson a tutor on the project.

In early April 2008 I was able to visit a playthrough at Peterborough prison following a week long programme there, for a group of women. I spoke to three of the participants and the music in the podcast is also taken from this playthrough.

Click on the link below to play or download the podcast.

Play podcast
Size 18.8mb
playing time 20 minutes 33 seconds

The Good Vibrations Project was set up in 2003 to pilot gamelan workshops in UK prisons. The focus of the project was on assessing gamelan's effectiveness in helping prisoners develop key skills such as team-working, communication and concentration.

Five prisons participated in the original pilot encompassing a range of regimes and categories of prisoner (a maximum security prison, two closed prisons, a semi-closed prison and a young offenders' institution).

Since that time Good Vibrations has held workshops in prisons and Young Offender Insitutions throughout the UK, including three secure hospitals. One prison, Peterborough, has bought its own gamelan and holds regular sessions there.

The results of all these programmes are always extremely positive. By working together in a group situation participants develop key skills of co-operation and communication and boost their self-confidence and self-esteem. The programmes consistently attract people who have not participated before in prison education, and many of them are encouraged to go on and join other activities.

Good Vibrations is part of the Firebird Trust and funded by Arts Council England, the Linbury Trust, the Lankelly Chase Foundation, the Northmoor Trust, the Tudor Trust, the Worshipful Company of Musicians and Youth Music as well as by the host prisons themselves.

For further information see The Firebird Trust Website

Read 'Good Vibrations - four years on' an article written by Cathy Eastburn for Seleh Notes (Vol 15 No 1 Dec 2007)

Download in pdf format

My gamelan experience

An extract from an article written by a group participant at the Wolds

‘We learnt two traditional Indonesian pieces, the first was an instrumental called ‘Light Rain’, and the second was a song, called ‘Subakastawa’ translated meaning ‘Magical Gift’. This seemed so convenient at the time as the atmosphere in the church where we rehearsed felt truly magical.

I observed the determination in the eyes of all my fellow inmates, to respect the language and do justice to the pronunciation. The results were truly breathtaking and from that moment on, we knew that the HMP Wolds Gamelan Band was born. With our new-found unity, we composed our very own piece of music.

Everything seemed to fall into place, so we called the track ‘Rising above the Walls’. To complete the feeling, we created a freestyle composition called ‘Freedom’. Many of us have served, and are still to serve, lengthy sentences. This was a chance to elevate ourselves beyond the prison walls through expression, and it was a fantastic feeling felt by all.’

Podcasts

See also

Good Vibrations

Gamelan in prisons

My gamelan experience