ENTERING the hall in the building showing the Salihara performance, the Javanese gamelan sounded somewhat strange. The soundproof wall texture indicates today’s modernity which is different from the Javanese image, full of subdued multicolored complex ornaments. Each of the gamelan instruments is clearly heard, untainted by other sounds such as laughter and the hawking of vendors, the sounds of vehicles, the sound of the ice cream truck...

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