Indonesian-Norwegian Project at Music Festival in Oslo

Last year, Joachim ‘DiskJokke’ Dyrdahl travelled to the Indonesian city of Bandung, a cultural centre on West-Java, to join forces with musicians from the gamelan orchestra Samasunda, lead by Ismet Ruchimat.

The result of this visit was hours of recordings, both of traditional gamelan and more modern figures. Back in Oslo, DiskJokke has now worked these recordings into four long compositions. He tells us that the tunes have a softer and more meditative character than one might expect from him.

The piece will be completed and practiced during the summer, and will be a perfect match for the afternoon sun at the Øya Festival.

Joachim Dyrdahl released his debut album Stayin In on Smalltown Supersound in 2007, to great reviews both in Norway and abroad. The recognized music website Pitchfork described his release as “bright, playful, spacey and colorful, music for the nighttime that retains the warmth of an afternoon on the beach”.

The magazine URB followed up by stating that “the 28-year-old, classically-trained violinist stands out as one of the best new dance producers today”. The follow-up, En Fin Tid , was recently released to an even better reception:

“From titles, sounds and choice of themes this feels like an album in harmony with itself, he dips his tunes in the same type of essence as kraut/synth entrepreneurs like Tangerine Dream and has the ‘hookability’ of Jean Michel Jarre, adding a solid dose of melodic individuality and productionary feinschmeckery. From this encounter, magic is made” wrote Lydverket’s reviewer Jørgen Hegstad.

The Sambasunda Orchestra is comprised of 17 musicians from the environment round Ismet. With joy and vivaciousness they mix kronkong, japing, kebyar and brasilian samba rhythms into the traditional gamelan. The energy is palpable when this large group of musicians gets started. Saturday August 14th, DiskJokke, Ismet and other musicians from Norway and Indonesia will be playing in the medieval park. This is going to be a highly exclusive concert you won’t want to miss!

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