Kebyar is the 20th century style of Balinese music known for its
fast and sudden contrapuntal passages. Leyak are the local
Balinese poltergeists that appear to mimic what is in people's
minds, be it fear or desire. The text is a heavily edited and
re-arranged "found" TV documentary on UFOs.
I had been thinking of writing this piece for years when my friend
Tjokorda Gde Arsa Artha told me a curious story. When television
first came to his village of Ubud, many people crowded into a house
to watch in amazement this new thing. When they came out,
the road was lined with Leyak TVs.
My composition is an attempt to bring together two mythologies:
disembodied spirits from one culture, and alien communcations
from another planet.
-from the liner notes of Gamelan Son of Lion 1995 CD New Gamelan/New York