BY LEWIS INGHAM
The Sound of Shadows: Entrée
Making Connections
Aeso Studio, Fitzroy, 10 February
What’d you miss?
- The chance to get up close to a musician playing the bundengan
- An intimate audience size of just four listeners
- A rare presentation of Indonesian musical traditions
The Sound of Shadows: Entrée is a project presented by composer and gamelan performer Bianca Gannon and artist Jumaadi as part of Making Connections, a festival promoting exchanges of music and conservation between Australia and Indonesia. As well as being an entrée for future collaborations between Gannon and Jumaadi, The Sound of Shadows provides a chance for an intimate audience of four to experience unfamiliar traditions and culture through a unique concert.
In the courtyard of Aeso Studio, Gannon explains to me that she likes the performances of her compositions to be “immersive and tasty”. Remembering back to the last concert of Bianca’s I attended, which featured a site-specific cocktail as part of the performance, this statement rings true. Although I enter Bianca’s latest show without a cocktail, themes of food are clearly present throughout this performance that explores the traditions and dynamics of food trade whilst experimenting with traditional Indonesian instruments and shadow puppetry.
The Sound of Shadows is centred around the Indonesian bundengan, a rare instrument used by Central Javanese duck herders as both a rain shield and an instrument to pass the time. The audience has the chance to get quite personal with this instrument, each of us sitting underneath the bamboo shell of an individual bundengan. The two bundengan instrumentalists, Sa’id Abdulloh and Luqmanul Chakim, begin the performance standing with their instruments strapped to their backs as capes, giving the audience an insight into the many uses of the bundengan.
Following a gamelan and vocal duet from Bianca and Bu Malyani, the bundengan performers remove the instruments from their backs, reaching inside the cavity of the bamboo shell to play the instrument. The sound of the bundengan is hypnotising – I understand how it could help duck herders pass the time during long rain storms. The instrument’s percussive nature combined with its plucked strings evokes the sound of a gamelan, forming an intriguing combination with the bowed and struck sounds of Bianca’s traditional gamelan.
Driving the narrative of this performance are shadow puppets created by Jumaadi. Jumaadi’s distinct artistic style leads us through several sequences featuring shadow puppets of various animals, plants, and patterns. Ducks feature prominently in the continual overlapping of shadows, sometimes without heads, an indication of the field-to-table narrative in the performance.
The interplay between the musicians and the shadow puppets is captivating, striking a fine balance between direct imitation and soundscape. The often-independent rhythms of the two bundengans and gamelan provide a flowing underscore to the shadow puppetry, with wooden recorders or duck whistles allowing Abdulloh and Chakim to imitate the duck shadow puppets, further immersing the audience in Jumaadi’s display.
The immersive elements of the performance are taken to another level when a beautiful representation of rain is brought to life, with the sharp metallic tinkling of Gannon’s gamelan pairing with Malyani drumming her fingers on the individual bundengans under which the audience sits. This creative realisation of rain takes the audience deeper into the traditional roots of the bundengan.
At the conclusion of the performance, the last shadow puppet slide features the text, “Eat mie [sic] if you dare,” against a red background. With The Sound of Shadows referring to itself as an entrée, this statement with its clear warning stands out. Though, it’s unclear whether these words refer to animal cruelty, against ducks in particular, or to a wider issue on food trade between Australia and Indonesia. For me, this statement reflects a sentiment that I believe transcends the entire concert: that traditions, like the bundengan and duck farming, still exist in Indonesia and should be conserved. However, by placing them in a modern context, each tradition can be sensitively questioned, with warnings conveyed, to allow greater sustainability and preservation in the future.
After the performers take their final bows, the audience take the opportunity to examine the bundengan and shadow puppets, speak with the performers, as well as hear from conservator Rosie Cook about the bundengan.
The Sound of Shadows: Entrée deserves credit for educating on the traditions associated with the bundengan both verbally and through the narrative of the performance. By learning about different musical traditions, it is easier for an audience to appreciate the experimentation undertaken by performers and composers. When it comes to experimentation, it’s Bianca’s composing that really stands out. Bianca’s composition doesn’t just tap into Indonesian musical traditions in order to experiment; it transports tradition into a modern context, allowing the audience to hear and learn of the past whilst experiencing thoughtful new music. I personally look forward to The Sound of Shadows’ main course and dessert.
Co-artistic director, composer and gamelan: Bianca Gannon
Co-artistic director and shadow-puppets: Jumaadi
Bundengan musicians: Sa’id Abdulloh and Luqmanul Chakim
Performer: Bu Mulyani
Additional shadow-puppet technical support: Rosie Cook
Images supplied.
