Uwalmassa is an Indoneasian trio consisting of Harsya Wahono, Randy Pradipta and Pujangga Rahseta. Part of the Jakarta based DIVISI62 label and arts collective, they make deconstructed gamelan music using a blend of Indonesian and Western tools. Under their watch, gamelan’s rich tonalities are transformed into a minimalist palette with reverberating synth arpeggios. The end result is an experimental yet dancefloor-friendly sound that repositions jungle and tribal-laced ambient techno within gamelan’s dense scales and rhythms.

Uwalmassa’s compositional approach is rooted in the principles of free jazz. Improvisation, unsteady tempos and emotional intensity are crucial to the trio’s work, just as they were to Ornette Coleman or Pharaoh Sanders.

When the trio begin a new track, they often start by recording themselves playing a variety of gamelan instruments. These include, but aren’t limited to, a kacapi (box zither), slompret (double-reed wind instrument), kempul (vertically-hung metal gongs), bonang (horizontally-placed kettle-shaped gongs), suling (bamboo flute), saron peking (a type of metallophone) and different types of kendang (two-headed drum). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.