BOW GAMELAN ENSEMBLE - 'Great Noises That Fill The Air' 



CSR264CD (12 November 2018)
CD in digipak
Barcode: 0641871745258



Since 1983, Bow Gamelan Ensemble have inspired generations of artists with their radical practices and explosive performances. Charged with their individual virtuosity in performance art, avant-garde music and kinetic sculpture, their sound installations and performances are immersed in an orchestra of instruments made from scrap metal, electric motors, river barges and domestic objects including glass sheets, light bulbs and fireworks. A dissonance between 'noise' and 'meaningful utterance’ that will astonish the ears and ravish the imagination with unearthly magic.

Guests: Z'EV, Nicola Kate Heys, Thames Steam Launch Co., Eel Pie Marine.

30th anniversary reissue of the sought-after LP from 1988, on CD for the first time. Mastered by Denis Blackham (Skye Mastering). Digipak.

'Great Noises That Fill The Air', the first retrospective of Bow Gamelan Ensemble, runs 27th October - 15th December 2018 at Cooper Gallery Dundee, with two special performances on 26th October and 24th November.

Weirdest band in the world.

Track listing:

1. Two “Marimbas” (2:44)
2. Snappits/Hooter (4:28)
3. Horse/Bells/Hubcaps (3:47)
4. Take III (4:47)
5. Saws (Featuring Nicola Kate Heys) (1:02)
6. Whistles (Featuring Z’EV, Thames Steam Launch Co.) (5:32)
7. Thundersheets/Sirens/Baths (4:44)
8. Pyrophones (5:22)
9. Massed Percussion (3:50)
10. Glass Chimes (2:30) 1
1. Caps/Percussion Tubes (1:44)
12. Black Betty/Pyrotechnics (Featuring Z’EV, Thames Steam Launch Co., Eel Pie Marine) (5:05)

Reviews:

""We’re in the 80s and industrial music was something totally different from today. The music and ‘noises’ were created by percussions played on metal objects, electric motors that were placed on stage, power saws and all kinds of objects that could produce noise. "Great Noises That Fill The Air" brings this spirit back to life... This is 'the' real industrial sound from the 80s. It was something abstract and hard to figure, but still very artistic. Bands were more creative, creating their own ‘instruments’ and producing a kind of ‘anti-music’ against the established music styles. This album is a testimony from the early industrial years" (Side-Line)

"...their performances were always wild affairs, including lots of light and fireworks. Their instruments were made out of scrap metal, electric motors and glass... It holds out on CD pretty well; while some of the footage makes them look like an industrial act, the music as it is something that holds between musique concrete, industrial music and a documentary of sound events... I can easily hear a connection to the 'art of noise' manifesto of the Futurists.. Bow Gamelan Ensemble balances careful between something delicate, controlled to music that is largely not controlled but everything is kept within reach. For me a great surprise, to find this some thirty years later. One's never too old to learn I guess" (Vital Weekly)

"They aimed to adapt the music to the environment where they performed and they challenged, inspired perhaps by canonical avant-garde, the notion of musical instruments... they use wind instruments to achieve sonic nuances uncommon in a period where this kind of music was challenging the listener with physicality... For the quality of the music and the originality of the musical opus, this reissue is a way to remind that the music scene is filled by great project that never had the spotlight but their opus hasn't aged a bit instead of most groups which are on the magazines' cover in this times of retromania" (4.5/5 Chain D.L.K.)

"30 year anniversary reissue of this mad battery of percussion, including guess player Z’ev (R.I.P.). Fans of everything from early electronics and concrète to real deal Indonesian gamelan and 23 Skidoo should lend their ears…" (Boomkat)

"Dynamic, physical, and explosive, Bow Gamelan Ensemble have mixed art and noise since their inception in 1983. Using ordinary objects as well as specially made instruments to create their works, Bow Gamelan Ensemble have made their mark on the performance art world with vivid, compelling performances... Bow Gamelan Ensemble finds their most appealing sound in the more sparse, rudimentary industrial structures. Sweeping and distant, with booming percussion... Building a long career out of noisy, energetic performances, Bow Gamelan Ensemble has earned their retrospective along with a 30th anniversary re-issue of Great Noises That Fill the Air... it is sure to reach a great number of folk looking for that extra bit of noisy chaos" (Musique Machine)

"...todo es exquisitamente perfecto en esta joya discográfica.... Transgresión pura y sonoridad pionera... y el siempre genial Z’EV, poniendo esa personalidad musical transgresora de vanguardia donde las mentes brillantes abren nuevos espacios conceptuales dentro de este Arte: metálicas pinceladas sonoras cercanas a los límites musicales con el noise... “Great Noises That Fill The Air”, el arte musical de vanguardia llevado a su lado artístico más inconformista, no convencional, rupturista, antimelódico, y emocionalmente salvaje. ¡¡¡Disfrútenlo!!!" (Lux Atenea)