Initiated for the 2004 Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival, the Gamelan Plesetan project joined Parker, ethnomusicologist/UCR Gamelan Director Rene T.A. Lysloff, and composer/gamelan maestro Sapto Raharjo together in live, non-idiomatic electro-acoustic gamelan multimedia performance.
Gamelan Plesetan events are rooted in members’ desire to expand the genre of contemporary gamelan to include elements of free improvisation and new media performance. Here, the musicians join together in a non-linear cross-cultural musical dialogue that ventures into uncharted territory.
Member Bios
Sapto Raharjo, Founder, Director, Gayam 16 Gamelan Community
was an active composer of contemporary gamelan music, working in his home city of Yogyakarta, Java, and internationally. He acted as visiting director of the UC Riverside Gamelan Ensemble from 2005-07.
Sapto was organizer/project director of the annual Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival, an international contemporary gamelan festival sponsored by Gayam 16, of which he was coordinator. For 19 years Raharjo was also program director and announcer of Geronimo FM’s Apresiasi Musik (Music Appreciation); Yogyakarta’s only new music radio show.
Rene Lysloff Director, UCR Gamelan Ensemble
is an Associate Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology) at UC Riverside. He is co-editor of the book, Music and Technoculture (2003 Wesleyan Press), a collection of articles exploring issues related to changing technologies and their impact on cultural practices and epistemologies involving music. He has conducted research on traditional and contemporary arts in Central Java for about twenty years. Lysloff is an active composer and performer of digital music.
J no.e Parker, MFA, PhD
is an electronic musician/composer with over 20 years of experience in organizing and playing live improvised electronic music at muti-media dance/art/music events across the globe as part of the SF Bay Area Semi-Permanent Autonomous Zone collective (SPAZ) and also as a solo artist. Parker first met her collaborators while living in Java on a Darmasiswa grant from the Indonesian Government to study gamelan and batik. When Parker left Java to pursue her MFA in Digital Art/New Media, the group continued and their work formed the basis of her thesis on new media improvisation.
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PAST EVENTS
University of California Institute for Research in the Arts Conference
UC Riverside, November 2008
Pictured from left: Aaron Singer on Saron, Professor Rene Lysloff on kendhang, Julian Lozos on Kenong and Ketuk, Genie Yoo on kendhang, and no.e Parker on Drum Machine and electronics. Not pictured is Professor Renee Coloumbe on Prepared Piano. Photo by Josh Brown.
Gamelan Pleseatan performance featured directors of the UC Riverside Improvisation and Gamelan Ensembles and members of the UCR Gamelan Club.
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epicenter 2007: UC Digital Arts Network Conference
UC Riverside January 2007
Lysloff and members of the UC Riverside Gamelan Ensemble Tristan Faulk-Webster (gong and kempul), Aaron Singer (saron).
This performance featured Parker, Lysloff, Renee Coloumbe on extended vocal technique, prepared piano, and members of the UC Riverside Gamelan Ensemble.
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Meeting across the Network: A Multi-Site Musical Performance
October 7, 2006
The concert celebrated the 250th anniversary of Yogyakarta City via an online, multi-site improvised performance that streatched across the world–with Parker in Santa Cruz, CA/ Lysloff in Riverside, CA/ Leda Atomoca Musique and Raharjo in Marseilles, France / Gayam16 Gamelan in Yogyakarta, Java.
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GAMELAN ACROSS NATIONS Yogyakarta Java, September 9, 2006
Parker and Joko perform her work,”Gaya M16 Softly” at the Gamelan Across Nations Festival.
A collaboration between Parker and members of Gayam 16 Gamelan featuring Butoh by South Africa’s AngelNOVA.
Parker: live mixing on sampler and kendhang; Sapto Raharjo: gongs; Joko: gambang; Adzied Dewa: zither gender.
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11th Annual Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival Java, RI July 8, 2006
Featuring Sapto Raharjo: kendhang, gongs; Rene T.A. Lysloff electronics, keyboard, dueling kendhang, robotic monkey; no.e Parker: animation, motion capture video, electronics; and Venzha of Yogyakarta’s House of Natural Fiber: bent circuitry
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UC Riverside SPRING GAMELAN CONCERT June 9, 2006
Rene T.A. Lysloff: electronics, keyboard, dueling kendhang; Sapto Raharjo: Javanese kendhang, gongs; no.e Parker: electronics,
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BLINK : : UCSC DIGITAL ART AND NEW MEDIA FESTIVAL
University of California at Santa Cruz, May 16, 2006
Gamelan Plesetan (Sapto Raharjo seated on forest floor) play inside a ring of redwood trees at the first Digiral Art/New Media festival at UC Santa Cruz.
The show was a 2 hour improvised performance in a 360˚ring of redwood trees at the UCSC Benjamin Porter College that was netcast to listeners sitting in the comfort of their homes.
no.e Parker: installation design, interactive digital media programming and design, live electronics
Rene T.A. Lysloff: live electronics and keyboards
Sapto Raharjo: kendhang, gender keys, audio-controlled visual effects
J no.e Parker 