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Pasar Klewer

MOONJUNE 081

This ambitious two- disc set from Indonesian pianist-composer Dwiki Dharmawan is an earful. Across 11 compositions, Pasar Klewer manages to incorporate wildy diverse styles of music, all of it filled with great improvising.

Eleven international musicians navigate these mostly dense charts, which blend the gamelan tonal system and traditional Indonesian melodies with the western diatonic system.
At times, the album can seem like a three-headed monster. For example,the 12-minute title track contains elements of swing, fusion and flat-out jazz; electric guitarist Mark Wingfield’s imaginative playing hearkens back to the 1970s, and later, there are voices heard as if from afar, suggesting a world –music spirit. Elsewhere, bassist Yaron Stavi recalibrates the mood to a softer, more subdued, jazzy sheen, and soon after we are stirred yet again by a new burst of energy from Dharmawa’s up tempo swinging, free-jazz piano frenzy-all of it backed by Asaf Sirkis’s forceful, spot-on drumming. It’s brilliant music that comes close to fraying at the edges,but, in the end, hold on together beautifully.
With a career that already span three decades, Pasar Klewer is Dharmawan’s follow up to last year’s So Far So Close ( also Moonjune Record ). With Pasar Klewer, the keyboardist has turned in a truly original work of art.

John Ephland

Pasar klewer :
Disc One : Pasar Klewer.Spirit Of Peace.Tjampuhan.Forest London in June (47:06)
Disc Two : lir ilir.Bubuy Bulan. Frog Dance. Life Itself. Purnama.Forest (53:00)

Personal : Dwiki Dharmawan – Piano. Yaron Stavi – Bass. Asaf Sirkis- Drum. Udu Clay Percussion,Konakol Singing – Mark Wingfield (1,4,9,11)-Guitar.Nicolas Meier(2,5,8,10)- Guitar. Gilad Atzmon- Clarinet (2,7 )Soprano Saxophone(3,8).Boris Savoldelli(4,5) Vocal. Peni Chandrarini(6)Vocal.Aris Daryono-vocal,gamelan percussion,kendang pescussion,rebab three-string violin(1,3,6).Gamelan Jess Jegog- I Nyoman Windha,Leader(3,6)