Night Music of West Sumatra

Night Music of West Sumatra (Music of Indonesia Vol. 6)
Smithsonian Folkways
1994

Terry Winch gave me this great CD.  I'd listened to music from Bali and Java, but I was unfamiliar with the music of West Sumatra.  I still have not learned that much, aside from listenting to this recording.

Here is an excerpt from Philip Yampolsky's introduction to the acclaimed 20-CD series of Indonesian music issued by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Indonesia's music is as diverse as its people. Best known abroad are the Javanese and Balinese orchestras generally called gamelans, which consist of gongs and other struck metal instruments, but gamelans are only one aspect of a much larger musical universe. Solo and group singing and solo instrumental music (typically played on the flute, shawm, plucked lute, bowed lute, plucked zither, or xylophone) are found everywhere, as are ensembles of mixed instruments, and ensembles dominated by instruments of a single type--especially flutes, drums, xylophones, zithers, or gongs.

And here are two statements from the Amazon.com page for this CD.  First, a general overview:

This highly intimate chamber music is performed with only one or two singers and a single accompanying flute or bowed lute. These 1990–1992 recordings focus on one of the richest traditions of the performing arts found in Indonesia.

And this from an online reviewer, "Music Lover" --

I have all the CDs of this series and this is one of the best. As the title suggests, night music, it is very focused, even if it uses a very restricted range of elements. As you can hear in the sound selections, they have a refined sense of pitch in a microtonal domain.

I had played this recording a couple of times when I first got it.  I played it again in order to write about it, two weeks ago, and found myself playing it repeatedly.  The reviewer is correct.  This is very intimate music, intimate and not quite hypnotic, but compelling in a very low-key way.  You can hear traces of Indian music in it, but it has its own distinct musical ambience.   I don't find it at all "exotic"  -- it has an immediacy that  is very gratifying.