Yesterday, I went to see a performance by the gamelan group Lambangsari at Nippori Sunny Hall.
The main attraction was the performance of "Gamelan + Etenraku" in collaboration with Hitomi Nakamura, a hichiriki player of gagaku.
In the first half, classical gamelan pieces were performed, while the second half featured new compositions. The classical pieces and dances were both wonderful.
The "Gamelan Etenraku," which was my main interest, was also superb.
I had previously seen a post by Hitomi Nakamura on social media saying that gamelan and Etenraku were similar, but I couldn't quite picture it.
However, when I actually heard it, I was amazed by how well it all fit together, perhaps due to various common points like the way the sounds of the instruments are not perfectly aligned.
It was so harmonious that it felt like a piece of music that could have genuinely been created through the fusion of the hichiriki and gamelan if history had taken a different path.
It was a surreal experience, as if I was listening to the music of a parallel world.
I learned a lot from this approach to music.
