gunung sari history

gunung sari was conceived around november 2005, and we played our 1st ever wonderful noise gig last december 10 at the phi phenomena fest - at the lucky cat in williamsburg, brooklyn, new york.

the duo behind this seminal group is nick lesley and stanley ruiz, who are classmates at brooklyn college's performance and interactive media arts graduate program.

nick also plays thunder drums in necking and jazzhandzz, and is now becoming fond of computer music using Max/MSP, while stanley used to play guitars and scream in some ill-fated crust punk bands in manila. sometimes he also makes his own musique concrete on the side, and builds analog electronic musical instruments.

the common denominator here is the duo's love for gamelan music and rituals, hence the name: gunung sari means mountain's essence in bahasa indonesia.

as a band, we are interested in the similarities and differences regarding the physicality of manipulated circuits and more traditional instruments such as percussion. and using these opposing means in interplay of the intentional and interference.

gunung sari is interested in topics like collaborative performance, multimedia events, spatial treatment ofsound, and the physicality of raw noise.