8. November 2009 by chuck.

  Last night I filmed a fantastic “Ramayana” music and dance performance… ritual music of Bali.  The costumes were just excellent.  It reminds me of another stellar performance I recorded called the Kecak (pronounced:  kay - chuck ) Monkey Dance. This is a part of the Ramayana story and tells of the kidnap and eventual rescue of Princess Sita by the monkey general Hanuman.  It is so much fun to watch this kind of performance in Indonesia.  Here is a video clip I found on You Tube: http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&source=hp&fkt=2759&fsdt=4456&q=kecak&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#hl=en&source=hp&fkt=2759&fsdt=4456&q=kecak&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv&start=50  If you want to bring this into your own home,  Check out my Cd  Kecak: http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/kecak/

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2. November 2009 by chuck.

 In my travels around the world I’ve been able to take some fascinating and fun train rides.  I just recently returned from Peru having taken a great train through the Sacred Valley of the Incas along the Urubamba river.  I also have taken trains in India, Mexico, China and other places. Since I usually have my recording gear with me, I enjoy recording the train sounds.  I’m doing a series of soundscape recordings.  One that takes you to Russia is the “Russian Underground” CD (http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/russianunderground/).  In this CD I recorded things like the underground metro in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  I recorded street musicians and other crazy things like trolly cars, electric trains and even Peter the Greats lathe! Getting back to trains, I put all of those recordings on my CD  “World Trains”.  Put that one and sit back to take a train ride in some exotic location.  Here is the link to hear some of the sounds:  http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/worldtrains/

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14. October 2009 by chuck.

  Bamboo is used all over Asia for so many uses:  construction, furniture, flooring, buildings, and of course some great musical applications.  The amazing thing is that bamboo grows so fast and is very strong and resonant.  Bamboo in Indonesia comes in many forms and colors.  Some of the bamboo is very straight and has few nodes.  One such bamboo is used for the wonderful long 1.5 meter flutes called Gambuh.  I had two made for me on my last trip there.A very powerful sound comes from striking huge, long tubes of bamboo in Jegog music.  The first time I heard a recording of Jegog…I was hooked.  I have recorded several stellar Jegog groups.  Usually there are 20 or more members of the group playing sets of tunes bamboo tubes of varying length…from shorter to the gigantic 12 foot long bass tubes.  The musicians actually use two hands to wield the mallet to strike the tube hard enough to get a great sound.You can hear samples of this music here: http://www.sonicsafarimusic.com/music/jegogsaurasakti/

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25. September 2009 by chuck.

I have been lucky enough to have visited a number of rainforests around the world.  I have been to parts of the Amazon in Peru, Colombia and Brazil and to many forests in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia and other places I can’t think of at the moment.  I am fascinated by the myriad sounds coming out of the jungle at different times of the day and night….and in different seasons.Some of the most striking sounds are from the amazing howler monkeys.  These animals sound like wild cats or jaguars.  I once was walking along the beach in Costa Rica just outside the rainforest when a girl came running out thinking a jaguar was after her.  She described the sound and I quickly reassured her that is was a harmless monkey up in the trees.You can hear some of these on my recording  ”Costa Rica Rainforest”. Here’s the link to the Cd:  http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/costaricanrainforest/

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8. September 2009 by chuck.

I’ve always loved the sound of wind chimes.  I started collecting them quite a while ago.  They provide such soothing sounds.   I was at a local hardware store a few months ago and passed some chimes for sale.  One particular set caught my eye…they were made by a company called Grace Note Chimes (there is a link to them at my sonicsafarimusic web site).  The chimes seemed to ring forever.I decided to create a Cd using only wind chimes.  I contacted the good people at Grace Note Chimes and Mike, the owner, said he’d be happy to help out with the project.  Next thing I knew I had quite a number of these fantastic chimes….of all sizes…tiny and up to 6 feet long.  I spent weeks creating “Wind Chime Music”…it really was quite a challenge but I’m really happy with the way it turned out.Here’s the link where you can hear some samples: http://sonicsafarimusic.com/music/windchime/

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