CD – 5 tracks – 48:37
Release date: Friday 24th February 2023
Track listing:
1. Kecak! (Sanghyang)
2. Rahajeng Semeng
3. Sekala Niskala
4. Gong Ageng
5. Ramayana Melukat
Available to order on Bandcamp
Mastered by Denis Blackham
Photography by Jon Wozencroft + Travelogue
Design: Jon Wozencroft
Recorded 6-16 February 2020 in Uluwatu, Ubud, Badung, Mount Batur and other locations in Bali, Indonesia.
Composed and mixed at the Castle in Stockholm, Sweden and at Dissimulata in Asheville, NC USA, 2022.
Travelogue [Bali] is the second in an ongoing series of collected international audio diaries (Travelogue [Nepal] was released by Touch in 2020). The premise is quite simple: the two meet at a mutually agreed upon destination along with the facilitation of something to record audio of these experiences on. The intent is to capture and augment these sonic documentaries of their travels which then are sculpted into soundtracks. This is done by sourcing the culture, environment, persons or events that make their voices available.
In February 2020, CM von Hausswolff and Chandra Shukla met in Bali, Indonesia, over the course of 9 days. Recordings were made at Pandawa Beach, Green Bowl Beach, Melasti Beach Ungasan, Uluwatu Temple, Pasar Senggol Gianyar, Pengosekan Kaja Ubud, Badung Market, Kintamani and Mt. Batur, Puri Saren Agung Ubud, Mandala Suci Wenara Wana (Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary) Ubud, Pura Tirta Empul Tampaksiring, Pandan Beach and Kelingking Beach Nusa Penida.
Special thanks to Dewa Alit and Salukat Gamelan, Dewa Sakura, Elisa Faires, Ivan Seng, Shannon Batten, Kecak Uluwatu, Made Surya and Dewa Aji Mangku. Also thanks to Ulrich Hillebrand and Gregor Krause.
Reviews:
Igloo Magazine (USA):
This album of many bits of recordings, Travelogue [Bali], in many ways, seeks to honour the original artists and these fascinating spiritual communities, as well as create an interesting world house listen… read the full review here [Robin James]
Ambientblog (Netherlands):
Travelogue (Bali) is the second release in a series of ‘collected international audio diaries’ presented by Carl Michael Von Hauswolff and Chandra Shukla, the follow-up to 2020’s Travelogue (Nepal).
‘The premise is quite simple: the two meet at a mutually agreed upon destination along with the facilitation of something to record audio of these experiences on.’
This time, all sound sources are recorded in various locations in Bali: beaches, temples, markets, forests, mountains, etc. etc.
But beware: this is not exactly the kind of archival recording to preserve a specific cultural environment. The recordings are used as source material to create sonic sculptures rather detached from the original culture. In fact, they are actively morphed into quite an otherworldly trip.
The album kicks in rather relentlessly with a sonic modification of the Sanghyang – a traditional sacred Balinese dance, based on the premise that an unseen force enters the body of an entranced performer. You can almost literally feel that in the Kecak chanting, and even more so with the ghostly modifications of von Hauswolff and Shukla.
The following tracks are somewhat more ‘environmental ambient’, but the atmosphere remains mysterious and brooding. After three instrumental tracks, a mysterious vocal chant is reintroduced. It’s unclear what this chant is about (except for Bali residents, I assume). When the album finally concludes, it may leave you wondering what exactly you were listening to.
Bali’s nature feels like paradise, I know. But if I hadn’t seen that with my own eyes, I would hesitate to visit the island based on these soundscapes. And this is definitely meant as a compliment to these soundscapes by von Hauswolff and Shukla. [Peter Van Cooten]
Anxious (Poland):
Travelogue [Bali] jest drugim z serii zebranych międzynarodowych audiopamiętników (Travelogue [Nepal] został wydany przez Touch w 2020 roku). Założenie jest dość proste: obie strony spotykają się w miejscu, które zostało uzgodnione przez obydwie osoby, wraz z ułatwieniem w postaci czegoś, na czym można nagrać dźwięk z tych wydarzeń. Intencją jest uchwycenie i wzbogacenie tych dźwiękowych dokumentów z ich podróży, które następnie są kształtowane w ścieżkach dźwiękowych. Odbywa się to poprzez pozyskiwanie źródeł kultury, środowiska, osób lub wydarzeń, które udostępniają ich głosy.
W lutym 2020 roku CM von Hausswolff i Chandra Shukla spotkali się na Bali w Indonezji w ciągu 9 dni. Nagrania zostały wykonane w Pandawa Beach, Green Bowl Beach, Melasti Beach Ungasan, Uluwatu Temple, Pasar Senggol Gianyar, Pengosekan Kaja Ubud, Badung Market, Kintamani i Mt. Batur, Puri Saren Agung Ubud, Mandala Suci Wenara Wana (Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary) Ubud, Pura Tirta Empul Tampaksiring, Pandan Beach i Kelingking Beach Nusa Penida. [Artur Mieczkowski]
Salt Peanuts (SE):
Travelogue [Bali] is the second in an ongoing series of collected international audio diaries of Swedish composer and conceptual audio-visual artist CM von Hausswolff (known by our younger readers as the father of Anna von Hausswolff) and American electronic musician Chandra Shukla, following Travelogue [Nepal] (Touch, 2020). The premise was and still is quite simple: von Hausswolff and Shukla would meet at a mutually agreed-upon destination with the necessary means to record these experiences. The aim is to capture and later augment and sculpt these sonic documentaries into soundtracks. This is done by sourcing the culture, environment, persons, or events that make their voices available.
The making of Travelogue [Bali] began in February 2020 when von Hausswolff and Shukla met in Bali, Indonesia, and over the course of nine days captured recordings of traditional and contemporary gamelan ensembles in 13 locations, assisted among others by Dewa Alit (check his recent album with Gamelan Salukat, Chasing the Phantom, Black Truffle, 2022) among others. In 2022, far away from Bali. von Hausswolff at the Castle in Stockholm and Shukla at Dissimulata in Asheville, North Carolina, composed and mixed the five pieces of Travelogue [Bali].
The album takes Bali’s refined and centuries-old, ritualist musical traditions and transforms them into psychedelic, fantastic soundscapes that investigate and play with our notions of sonic perception. There are only subtle echoes of gamelan music’s highly resonating and hypnotic pulses. But Travelogue [Bali]suggests a highly personal and imaginative perspective on an ancient and sacred tradition distilled through modern Western schools of minimalism, electronic and noise music. Von Hausswolff and Shukla came with a most immersive listening experience from this arresting journey. [Eyal Hareuveni]
Bandcamp:
Travelogue [Bali] is the second instalment in Carl Michael von Hausswolffand Chandra Shukla’s series of audio diaries, following their previous entry from Nepal. In February 2020, the duo met in Indonesia to record their trip through the temples, beaches, mountains, and parks of Bali. Over nine days, von Hausswolff and Shukla visited landmarks around the island including the Kelingking Beach, Puri Saren Agung (Ubud Palace), and Mandala Suci Wenara Wana (Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary). They recorded a gamelan orchestra, a Melukat purification ritual at Pura Tirta Empul Tampaksiring, and a Kecak dance – a ceremony consisting of upwards of fifty men chanting in polyrhythm to reenact a tale from the Ramayana Saga – at Uluwatu Temple. But be warned: this is not a documentary representation, as Hausswolff and Shukla edit the pieces and add reverb and delay to unreal effect for a result that’s akin to the soundtrack to a fever dream. [Matthew Blackwell]
Bandcamp: Best Field Recordings of 2023
For the second installment of CM von Hausswolff and Chandra Shukla’s travelogue series, they met in Bali, Indonesia to record for nine days. During this time, they documented key features of Balinese culture, including a gamelan orchestra, a Melukat purification ritual, and a Kecak dance. They then blended, layered, and digitally manipulated their recordings, wrapping them in a dreamlike haze. The result better represents the memory of their travels than the events themselves, with the album’s soft tones and blurred edges inviting the listener to travel through a half-real, half-imagined Bali. You’ll want to take the trip again and again. [Matthew Blackwell]
Neural (IT):
One of the subgenres of field recording that is probably most appreciated by audiences not accustomed to the practice, is audio diaries, sound works where the artist’s experiences in specific places are documented. Audio diaries are a return to the original function of phonography, ethnographic work for documentation that, thanks to technological development, has become an independent art form.
For this travelogue, the focus is on the island of Bali. CM von Hausswolff and Chandra Shukla dive into the spiritual traditions of the island, documenting a variety of sounds to produce an immersive and engaging listening experience.
This travel diary is the second for the two accomplished field recordists, following on from one recorded in Nepal’s Kathmandu valley. The Bali recordings were captured over nine days, and include temples, beaches, markets, lakes, volcanoes, palaces, shrines and natural parks, each site resonating with its own unique identity, all situated within a wider complex environmental ecosystem.
Carl Michael von Hausswolff has been using the recorder as the main instrument for his compositions since the seventies, while Chandra Shukla, an intermedia sound artist with a background in classical Indian music, has previously collaborated with Genesis P-Orridge, Psychic TV and The Master Musicians of Jajouka (an Arabian orchestra who became famous thanks to the attention of Brion Gysin, Paul Bowles, and William Burroughs).
Travelogue [Bali] is a delightful, exotic and introspective hymn to animism and the laws of nomadic existence. The profound relationship between nature and its many rhythms clearly inspires the two artists who wonderfully capture and express all of its inspiring, natural complexities.