Another odd couple

The next pairing of paintings (random again, save for the dates of execution) are those of Roberto Carlos Lange and K.R.T. Wasitodipuro, also known as K.P.H. Notoprojo, Tjokrowasito, Wasidoiningrat, among other names. Wasitodipuro was the director of the Pura Paku Alaman, court gamelan orchestra as well as the gamelan for the Radio Republik Indonesia Yogyakarta. He died in 2007 at the age of 98. The many honorary names, so reads his biography, he earned throughout a distinguished career representing gamelan all over the world. The Wasitodipuro painting represents a recording from the court gamelan made in in 1971 on the Indonesian island of Java. The track is called Ketawang: Puspawarna. Even when the Top 100 in the past featured a lot of music from Indonesia, it had never before listed its most emblematic: the gamelan orchestra. One of the singers heard in the orchestra is that of Niken Larasati, who made it into the Top 100 2002 as a solo performer. My enchantment by the music of Indonesia has little to do with my liking of Indonesian food beside maybe a general favoritism towards that country. In Holland I grew up with Indonesian food (in the US I really miss Indonesian food, especially the loempia) but not with Indonesian music (apart from the very few, very commercial, very westernized 'kronjong' records around).
 As the musical tourist that I have become, I keep hopping back and forth, between South East Asia and the east coast of the Americas, the East Indies and the West Indies, between the popular and the traditional, the old and the new, and the painting of Roberto Carlos Lange brings us right back to the here and now again: Brooklyn, New York, 2010. The portrait of Roberto Carlos Lange represents the song Dahum performed by him and his band Helado Negro. Lange was born in 1980 in South Florida of Ecuadorian parents. Back in May I posted on this blog how I met him in Cincinnati. My introduction to his music was this song Dahum that I viewed on YouTube prior to seeing him perform.

Roberto Carlos Lange                                 K.R.T. Wasitodipuro
8" x 5.5"                                                                12.75" x 8"
oil on wood, 2010                                             oil on wood, 2010