The Gamelan Heron

In 2001 I trained as a Gamelan workshop facilitator with Manchester’s Halle Orchestra Gamelan and played with the Hull Sea Dragon Gamelan Orchestra.

I wrote and recorded The Gamelan Heron as the soundtrack to Linda Martin’s art film.

I took some instruments home – the saron, slentem and gender – and recorded them there.

The original Night Heron song is influenced by John Fox’s Welfare State International lantern installation on a boat on Lake Windermere…

“Ok, imagine a lake; very still, clear as glass, no ripples. Little fires burn all around the lake and as night falls the full harvest moon rises into the September sky. On the lake, a boat; and on the boat, a huge paper heron, all lit up with electric light. And from the boat the sound of the saron fades into the distance as the boat rows towards the far shore.

We watch this, looking down through the trees… and we see… the Night Heron…

You are the night heron I am…
Over the silver moonbeam plated lake our eyes swam
southwest to find the full moon
And I still believe we can
moor our boat to the farthest shore
Listen to our hearts and the gamelan
Pure and right
inside us…

You are the night heron I am…
And even if there is a stone’s throw between us
south and north still
still together alone
Entwined and like and being
Our sweetest dna
flowing between us around and through…
You’re coming with me
I’m coming with you…”