This CD, which is a co-production with the Berlin Ethnological Museum, is a sample of the larger Mantle Hood collection of 164 reel-to-reel tapes representing more than 80 hours of music and improvisations of principal Javanese gamelan musicians in Yogya, Solo and Bandung in the 1950s. The recordings capture improvisation rooted in a truly Javanese traditional rote system of learning during a pivotal era before the widespread influence of western-modelled conservatory pedagogy. All pieces of this CD - recorded in 1957 and 1958 - are first releases.