Wahyu and Swara Naga

Wahyu and Kym

Paul : I'm here with Kym and Louise. Kym is from Swara Narga and Louise is from a local gamelan orchestra Langen Sari. Swara Naga is an Armidale based gamelan shortly to become an internationally renowned gamelan orchestra. Kym, you have been playing gamelan for nine years?

Kym: Yes I started in 1993 when I started Uni down there.

Paul: OK and before that you played bagpipes as part of your musical trainng?

Kym: No, I learnt saxaphone at school and I played in the school band. It was actually suling and Indonesian music that led me to bagpipes.

Paul: Wow!

Kym: I've only been playing the pipes for the last four or five years.

Paul: It's pretty interesting and to have a combination of gamelan and bagpipes on that one track "Tartan Bartik" on the Swara Naga CD It's a lot of fun.

Kym: Yeah.

Paul: And Louise, you have been with Langen Sari for almost a year?

Louise: Oh probably ten months now.

Paul: And you have played a couple of live gigs?

Louise: Yeah, One with Waragus at the start of the year up at the Bangalow hall and one at Ewingsdale Hall. We have also played at the Steiner School Shearwater festival and a wedding. Getting out there.

Paul: Great, and you are about to play at Indonesian Independence Day on the Gold Coast.

Louise: Yes we were invited up there to play by Ibu Vera for the Independence Day Celebration and that's pretty exciting because we will get to mingle a lot with the Indonesian community up on the Gold Coast.

Paul: And there's a large Balinese community up there I understand?

Louise: Yes and because there are so many Balinese orchestras up there they really wanted a West Javanese style of gamelan to play on the night so we're shipping ourselves up there for the evening.

Paul: Saturday evening is it?

Louise: Yes ... at the Sharks's venue in Southport.

Paul: Great!

Louise: Yes it will be a great night and a great experience for us just networking .. getting amongst it all.

Paul: Absolutely, good luck with that, I'm sure it will be a wonderful night.

Louise: Yes and it's especially exciting because we have our own Indonesian superstar Wahyu Roche playing with us. He's coming out three days before it so we've been practising practising and he's going to jump in there and run along side us on the night.

Paul : That's a real bonus and Kym you'll be working pretty closely with Wahyu this time around, as you did last time he was out here?

Kym: Yeah he's arriving on Wednesday morning and we'll rehearse with Langen Sari and perform with them on Saturday night and then we'll be in Byron for another week after that. We are also looking at doing another workshop with the Langen Sari and we'd like to get the old Kandung class together if we can.

Louise: Kandung being Indonesian drums.

Kym: Yes, and then also hoping to do another percussion workshop while Wahyu's here similar to a workshop that we did when we were in Newcastle where we taught the rhythms of the Rampak Kandung using many different drums. Around the Byron area there's many many djembes and just about everyone I know has a drum that they can hit. Yeah so we'll get dates and everything organised.

Paul: Yes there's a large drumming fraternity in Byron with all sorts of percussion instruments. Hopefully that'll go well for you. And also you are going to Armidale?

Kym: Yes the gamelan Swara Narga in Armidale have been Wahyu's sponsor for this trip out because we are going to be in Singapore in early November this year for the opening of an arts centre on the waterfront somewhere in Singapore.

Paul : Great sounds really exciting stuff and the few weeks that you will be spending with Wahyu in Armidale will be preparing for this gig?

Kym: Yes he is going to be our musical director and help us rehearse. We're learning a few of his compositions in Swara Narga and he'll come across and play with us in Singapore.

Paul: That sounds wonderful, any plans for a new CD afterwards?

Kym: Well, there's a possibility at the moment, all depending on funding of course, we've got a plan to go to Bandung after the Singapore trip and record a CD in collaboration with Wahyu's degung group from Bandung.

Paul: That sounds great, sounds like a nice little pit stop on the way back to Australia.

Kym: It does yeah, so we're all working really hard down in Armidale rehearsing and getting all the funding sorted out. We're getting through the work but it's a big job.

Paul: Well good luck both you ladies with those events. Thankyou.

Kym & Louise: Thankyou.

For more info/feedback you can
contact Kym on (02) 66804599

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