CSO with gamelan in rehearsal Photo: RNZ/David McCaw
This work is dedicated to the victims of the October 2002 Bali bombing. American composer Evan Ziporyn (b 1959) combines his interest in post-minimalist Western music and Balinese gamelan to create a hushed soundscape punctuated by a section of restlessness and then a rhythmic tolling of drums. He explains the title, “A ngaben is a cremation, the last and most important ritual in Bali Hinduism, in which the survivors assist the departed soul in finding release and freedom.”