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All Things Cage: Laura Kuhn on Gamelan Cage (Sanggar Ceraken of Bali, 2013) (Audio)

Jul 09, 2022
Hosted by Laura Kuhn, Executive Director of the John Cage Trust.

The parallels between Balinese gamelan and certain works by John Cage – especially the ones of the 'prepared piano' period – seem obvious to many, including John Noise Manis, who, together with Andrew McGraw, embarked on producing the recording we’ll listen to this evening, Gamelan Cage (Sanggar Ceraken of Bali), with a purposely put together gamelan orchestra led by I Madé Subandi.  These recordings were made on July 29-30, 2012, at the Purnati Center for the Arts, performed by Bali Gamelan Ceraken - I Madé Subandi, director, and were released in 2013 on the artist-led, UK-based Sargasso label, scd 28075, with a booklet of liner notes that describe the preparatory and recording processes.  The works by John Cage included on this beautiful recording are Bacchanale (1940), Primitive (1942), Tossed as it is Untroubled (1943), Prelude for Meditation (1944), The Unavailable Memory of (1944), Mysterious Adventure (1945), Daughters of the Lonesome Isle (1945), Music for Marcel Duchamp (1947), and Sonata V, from Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano (1946-48).