Amok!

A sampled gamelan orchestra is what comes from the hands of Evan Ziporyn, an American composer born in 1959, who says he is strongly influenced by Balinese culture.

The piece, in six movements, is titled Amok! (to be out of control and act in a wild or dangerous manner) and dates back to 1997. The author writes:

[Amok!] uses sample technology and the incredible virtuosity and dedication of the musicians to create an impossible musical landscape, a virtual gamelan and then some. Our voracious sampler eats up the whole gamelan and spits it out again, with chromatic gong scales, gigantic gangsa chord-clusters, six reong sections in different keys. Robert Black’s effect boxes and triggering devices allow his bass to match the 25-piece gamelan blow for blow. Melodies begin in the gamelan and find themselves someplace else; simple bass melodies, transformed by delay and harmonization, find their way to Bali and end up sounding almost traditional. The technology makes anything possible with enough megabytes of memory, and the exhiliration this creates is matched only by the terror of figuring out what to do with it. As soon as one abandons the safety of traditional form, western or Balinese, what is to be done? Nothing but to run amok and see what’s left standing when the smoke clears

Evan Ziporyn – Amok! in a playlist including all 6 movements + Trial Fire in 5 movements.

Robert Black, double bass
Gamelan Galak Tika
Evan Ziporyn, director, kendang (barrel drum)
with
Dan Schmidt, sampler
Alex Rigopulos, gamelan sampling

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