Drum Codes
Electric Kulintang

We say: Gong-based world music with Cuban and Filipino connections.

Electric Kulintang is based around a duo of percussionist-composers — Filipino-American, Susie Ibarra and Cuban-American, Roberto Rodriguez — who came together though playing with John Zorn. Following Ibarra's influence, the compositions on this recording are inspired by traditional Filipino kulintang gong music of the Maguindanaon, a matriarchal Muslim Minority from the island of Mindanao.

While the Filipino source is firmly at this music's rhythmic root, Drum Codes is far more than just a faithful exposition of a traditional style and two well-chosen guest collaborators each bring their own influences: Greek-American clarinetist Elefterios Bournias who adds a distinctive Middle-Eastern woodwind sound, and Israeli-American guitarist Oz Noy who imposes structure and additional flavor by means of acoustic and electric guitar. Chiming beneath this spacey jazz-rock veneer are gong rhythms that sound a little like Indonesian Gamelan music. The result is a pleasing amalgam that at times can seem reminiscent of early 1970s electric Miles Davis or krautrock bands like Can from around the same period. The minimalist compositions of Terry Riley ("In C" for example) also spring to mind.

The opening track "Drum Code 1 — Of the Invisible," a long piece that is melodically meandering but rhythmically insistent, sets the scene for the rest of the recording. "Drum Code 3 — The Dream," as its title suggests, is a more dreamy flight of fantasy, while the following track, "Drum Code 4 — Indigo Banded Kingfisher" is almost trance-like. Overall this is soothing, gently driving music of understated complexity.