
Concert Lecture by Bilawa Respati and Ariel William Orah
Before the first note sounds, the room is already filled. Even the gods expect a special sound. We see an instrument and imagine its sound, we desire the first note, the beginning of the concert. We fill the room with our expectations. Expectations of what? The gamelan is at the centre of Bilawa Respati und Ariel William Orah’s performance.
It is an instrument of power. The tradition is royal and religious. The Indonesian government uses the gamelan as a messenger on festive, national occasions. Numerous musicians in strict costumes create the powerful vibrations of a hierarchical society and a national identity.
Bilawa Respati and Ariel William Orah have grown up with this tradition. They know about the powerful expectations of the style of play, the spiritual dimension, the political appropriation and the exoticizing projection. Their own experiences call for a different play.
Can sound sequences be found that elude the hegemonic setting? Can one use the complexity of the gamelan, which disperse the European categories of music, to have self-determined effects? Can the community-creating function of the instrument be utilized for a self-chosen gathering?
Bilawa Respati is trained in playing the gamelan. Ariel William Orah’s focus is on electronic music and performance art. Their own experience of crossing borders and crossing cultural structures allow them to look for a new way of playing, a new approach to their instruments. Th
ey experiment with decolonial vibrations, sample the unheard of, produce self-created loops and work on a self-determined GAUNG.
(In English)
Additional information
Produced by Kultursprünge im Ballhaus Naunynstraße gemeinnützige GmbH. First production as part of the Festival Decolonial Frequencies. Funded by the State of Berlin, Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
Participating artists
Camila de Abreu (Produktonsleitung)
Respat Bilawa
Ariel Orah
Dates
February 2025
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