Great Noises That Fill the Air. Bow Gamelan Ensemble (formed East London, 1983) - ACE194.3

Instruments out of doors. Sounds continue. VO quotes "This is not music, believe me. I have always flattered myself I know something about music, but this is chaos. This is demagogy, blasphemy, insanity, madness. It is a perfumed fog shot through with lightning." [Herr Pfühl, from Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks]. Paul Burwell talking about their musical structures being acoustic extremes. Creating "an almost tangible aural environment". Performance including use of musical saws and welding noises. Ensemble members bringing in oil drums and other metal objects that they’ve found. Anne Bean’s VO saying that they’ve had very positive response for their music from many different quarters. Anne Bean. Richard Wilson saying he’d never really thought of himself as a performance artist, more as a technician keeping the thing going. Ensemble performing. Musician’s VO saying that they engage with the instruments they’ve made in ways that different to what other people might do because they know what the instruments were created to do. Black and white photographs of experimental "musicians" and instruments from earlier times, including Luigi Russolo’s noise machines. Bean’s VO says they’re didn’t approach their work from any academic standpoint, though they have researched the past.