The Slug Parade in downtown Santa Cruz celebrated 50 years of UCSC. We wanted to acknowledge our strong ties with the University and be part of the celebration.

It was great to be able to play the Cabrillo Festival in downtown Santa Cruz again after a break of a few years. It's such an amazingly eclectic festival showcasing the astonishing variety of local music we have here in Santa Cruz.

We were invited to play opening music for UCSC's Brain, Mind and Consciousness Symposium, featuring world-renowned speakers, and held at UCSC's Porter College.

We were delighted to be invited to play for the Land of Medicine Buddha's Ksitigarbha Festival, a smaller, lower-key event than the main Festival Day. It was a beautiful setting, in front of the beautiful golden statue of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha.

We've been playing the Land of Medicine Buddha's Festival Day every year since 2006 - it's one of our favorite events of the whole year and we're so thankful that they invite us back every year. We seem to have become part of the tradition!

It is a joy and a privilege to be able to play for the Land of Medicine Buddha's Festival Day each year. Here are some pictures to give you a flavor of the event.

We were delighted to be invited back to play the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival's annual garden party, and to help support this amazing organization. The party was held in the beautiful tropical garden of the Baroque Festival's Artistic Director, Professor Linda Burman-Hall. Just a reminder that we are available to play parties and other events!

We were invited by the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia to represent Indonesia in the procession of the Asian Heritage Street Festival in San Francisco. We played beleganjur (processional gamelan), and were joined by our dancer Ron Ortman, as well as Kadek Carter, for the procession. We hadn't realized it was a judged competition, and found out that evening that we had won first place for best musical group!

Gede's wife Sarah organized this amazing event at the College of San Mateo. We invited all the dancers for this one, which included many dance pieces. Dancers included Ni Made Batelle (shown here), I Made Suryasa, I Gede Oka Negara, Sarah Artha Negara, Rhea Gowen and Ron Ortman.

The Balinese grunge band Navicula on their US tour invited us to open for them at their show at the legendary Gilman club in Berkeley. Many of us had seen shows at the Gilman over the years, but never expected to be playing there! This is probably the first gamelan performance ever at the Gilman.

As an offshoot project from Gamelan Anak Swarasanti, several of us performed a kecak or Monkey Chant performance at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. It was definitely an audience participation event, with everyone in the audience invited to join in the chant, which tells the story of the rescue of Sita, the wife of Rama, by Hanuman's army of monkeys.

Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day is always one of our favorite events of the year. There is such a variety of amazing music and dance, in addition to it being such an inspiring setting. Here are some photos from this year's event.

John Weaver at the Livermore Civic Center Public Library arranged for us to come and play this special free performance for the children enrolled in the Summer Reading Program, where the youngsters learn about culture and music from all over the world. We got some great questions from the children, and at the end of the performance we invited them to come up and try playing the instruments themselves.

We were very excited to play again at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco as part of their big special exhibition on Bali. This time we were given the whole afternoon to give a performance and discussion of several styles of Balinese gamelan: the shadow-puppet gender wayang, our usual angklung orchestra, including sitting pieces and dance pieces, and the processional gamelan beleganjur. We also invited audience members to try playing for themselves - it was a wonderful day.

We were very happy to play again for the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival Garden Party, which this year was also a benefit for another great Santa Cruz institution, the Arboretum. The theme of the event was "Flowers and Music of the World", and we played in the stunningly beautiful setting of the Eucalyptus Grove overlooking the Monterey Bay.

It's always a great honor and pleasure to play at Land of Medicine Buddha. Again this year we were joined by dancer Ron Ortman for a set in the lower area of the Land of Medicine Buddha, before leading the procession carrying the great Medicine Buddha thangka up the hill, where it is unfurled between two redwood trees.

We were delighted to be asked to be part of the special exhibition on Bali running at the beautiful Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, showcasing the music, art and culture of Bali. We provided the gamelan music for the "Gods, Goddesses and Gamelan" family festival for Mothers Day. Lots of families were in attendance, with great interaction and questions from audience members of all ages.

One of our very favourite events of the year is the Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, where each year we lead the procession carrying the great thankga. This year we added a short gamelan performance to the program before the procession, and we were honored to be joined by dancer Ron Ortman who performed two traditional Balinese topeng dances.

Dharmagates, an annual event held at the Santa Clara Convention center, showcases art, music and culture from throughout the Buddhist world. This year singers from Sri Lanka, dancers from Burma, a 16-string zither orchestra from Vietnam, and Kung Fu martial arts from the Shaolin Masters of China, were presented together with Gamelan Anak Swarasanti representing the Hindu-Buddhist culture of Indonesia.

International performance/sculptural artist, Sha Sha Higby is known for her evocative and haunting performances using the exquisite and ephemeral body sculpture she meticulously creates herself and moves within. Elaborate sculptural costume, dance, and puppetry explore magic and emotion, creating an atmospheric world within the borders between death and life.

The annual Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival held each year in downtown Santa Cruz hosts an eclectic array of music, art and food that showcases Santa Cruz's cultural diversity. We are deeply indebted to local photographer r.r.jones for this beautiful set of photos.

We had played in the annual downtown Santa Cruz New Year 'First Night' processions for several years until the city discontinued the event for lack of funds. A couple of years later the tradition was restarted as 'Last Night', put on entirely by the Santa Cruz community. Now that Last Night has become established and recognized as a fun and safe family event for New Year's, we decided it was time for us to play again.

New Brighton is becoming a summer tradition for us. We were invited back to play another summer evening performance at New Brighton Beach State Park overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean and Monterey Bay. It's a very informal evening with lots of discussion and interaction with the audience, and great questions from the many kids there.

We were invited to play a return performance at Land of Medicine Buddha for their annual Festival Day. This year we played processional gamelan beleganjur to accompany the procession carrying the thangka up to the Memorial Shrine, and also played a set of sitting pieces during the afternoon. What a beautiful and spiritual setting.

We returned to Land of Medicine Buddha to play a benefit concert for them in their beautiful gompa. We had played at Land of Medicine Buddha in the summer of 2006 for their Festival Day, which was a wonderful experience, so we were very happy to play for them again this year. This set of photos by Cayce Howe are probably some of the best ever taken of the gamelan.

After our collaboration at Yerba Buena in May 2006 we were excited to work together again with Carmen Carnes, this time on the world premiere of her new choreography Myth and Machine, which we performed together with the incredible performance artist Shasha Higby in two nights at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center.

This was a very informal performance and talk on gamelan for visitors to New Brighton Beach State Park. It was a beautiful setting overlooking the sandy beach and the Monterey Bay.

We returned to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts this year for two performances with renowned dancer Ayu Bulantrisna Djelantik along with the Jangger Dancers. Ayu Bulantrisna encored the ground-breaking Sitarasmi dance she had premiered with us the previous year and also premiered a new dance - Legong Sanggyang - the dream or trance legong.

We were honored to be asked to play beleganjur for the Land of Medicine Buddha Festival, for the procession carrying their sacred thangka through the beautiful redwood forests to the memorial shrine. The event combined the excitement and bustle of a festival with the stillness and contemplation of a meditation, and the beleganjur seemed perfect for the occasion.

After our intense rehearsal schedule for the UCSC Gamelan Spring Concert and the San Francisco performance it was nice to relax and play this informal benefit for the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival.

Only a week after the Spring Concert we were up in San Francisco again, this time performing with the Carmen Carnes Dance Ensemble and Shasha Higby - remarkably creative contemporary dancers - as part of ChoreoFest 2006 at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Gamelan Anak Swarasanti returned to its roots for a combined performance with the UCSC student gamelan Gamelan Swarasanti from which Anak Swarasanti ('Child of Swarasanti') had sprung nearly ten years earlier.

It was very exciting to return to San Francisco to play in Union Square to perhaps our largest audience ever as part of Indonesian Day 2005 - a showcase of Indonesian music, dance, art and culture. We performed traditional gamelan as well as a new piece from Bulantrisna - Jangger Hip-Hop - that fuses traditional dance with kecak, martial arts, and modern Indonesian pop.

It was a very special privilege to perform with the distinguished dancers Ayu Bulantrisna Djelantik and I Made Suryasa for an overflow crowd at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in Carmel. The performance was a historic occasion for Balinese dance - the world premiere of the first ever solo topeng dance ever specifically created for a female dancer.

After the horrifying images of the devastation caused by the South Asia tsunami in late December 2004 we were delighted to be able to work together with Mark Shaull and the very talented Los Altos High School Choir and the Main Street Singers to put on a benefit concert to raise money to support the disaster relief efforts.

We played the Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival again this year in downtown Santa Cruz. This was a transitional period for the group as most of our players moved away from Santa Cruz this year. This is the only performance of 2004 as we took much of the year off to teach our repertoire to our new players.

What more beautiful place to play than at the UCSC Arboretum where we gave an informal performance for their members and volunteers in a setting of rare and exotic plants from all over the world. We played for the annual members barbeque of the Arboretum Associates, held this year in the Australian Garden.

As part of the internationally acclaimed Cabrillo Music Festival, the Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival is held each summer in downtown Santa Cruz. Dubbed 'the quintessential Santa Cruz festival', the open-air Cabrillo Festival lasts all weekend, showcasing a wide variety of artists and musicians.

It was a wonderful change from major performances to play as part of the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival Garden Tour. What better way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon than playing an informal gamelan performance in a gorgeous garden setting, complete with delicious food and wine?!

We were invited to play at the beautiful Yerba Buena Theater in San Francisco as part of the Loud Music Symposium, organized by the San Francisco Renegades - a drum and bugle corps. We took the beleganjur to show them what loud Balinese music sounds like!

We decided to end this busy year as we had begun it - leading the Santa Cruz First Night Procession on New Year's Eve. It's become quite a tradition for us to play in this great Santa Cruz event each year.

We were stunned to hear of the terrorist bombings that took place in Kuta, Bali on October 12, where nearly 200 people lost their lives and many more were injured. Compelled to do something positive to help the situation, we quickly set to work with others in the community to organize a benefit concert and cultural event to raise money to help the Balinese affected by this terrible tragedy.

Chillits is a festival of ambient "chill" music held each year at a gorgeous location near Willits in northern California. The setting amidst oak trees and surrounded by beautiful organic gardens, together with the spectacularly good music and the collaborative vibe makes Chillits a very special event.

We were invited to perform at Woodstockhausen - an annual festival of eclectic and experimental music and visuals - this year held at the UCSC Quarry amphitheater. It was quite an evening of interesting and unusual music, and incredible visuals, projected on a huge screen above the stage.

The City of San Mateo invited us to be part of their summer concert series in the beautiful Central Park of San Mateo. It was a scorchingly hot day, but we had a great time with a fabulous audience. Another opportunity to play with our new fuller ensemble, which sounded really good.

World-renowned DJ Lorin invited us to play with him as part of his Bassnectar live set at the Santa Rosa Health and Harmony Festival. It was one of the most exciting and energetic performances we've ever played.

In March we were invited to inaugurate a series of concerts of Music of the World's Peoples at the Center for Conscious Living in Santa Cruz. With a beautiful setting, a fascinated and appreciative audience, and - with our new members - a fuller ensemble than we've ever had before, this was one of our most memorable performances.

After a long break from performing, we debuted our new, larger group at the Santa Cruz First Night Procession with the marching gamelan beleganjur. We were surprised and honored when the First Night Committee asked us to lead the parade!

The Dance for Tibetans 2000 was a benefit for a number of Tibetan health programs, held at Cabrillo College in Aptos, near Santa Cruz. We felt very honored to play for this great cause.

We were invited to be the featured artists at the closing night of the San Benito County Arts Council Summer Music Program in Hollister. For this performance we were delighted to have with us our friend Pak Made Surya, an amazing dancer from Bali.

Camp Harmony 2000 was held at a ranch near Chico. This was our longest set ever - 3 hours. We started with a marching gamelan procession which was a real highlight. AndyW joined us once again on electronics.

Warmth's "Transitions" was a very special evening for us. The Warmth organizers had planned the event making the gamelan an integral part of the evening's proceedings. We played for a very special meditation ceremony at midnight, which was a key part of the evening and set the tone for the rest of the event. The artwork and visuals were breathtaking, like this projection which hung above our heads as we played, as a huge backdrop to the gamelan.

Camp Harmony was held in the same breathtaking location as the Harmony 4x4 event two years earlier, in the high Sierra mountains. We took eight people this time, playing partly a set of traditional pieces as well as extended versions with electronics. We got a great reception and some lovely reviews. This time we played with our friend AndyW, who accompanied us on Moog, electronic treatments, and tabla.

The Food Bin/Herb Room - a popular Santa Cruz store - asked us to do a free concert on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the little garden adjoining the store. This gig was a really informal, fun afternoon and a nice opportunity to play with Pak Wenten and his wife Ibu Nanik in an informal setting - it all felt very Balinese.

The Harmony 5-Year Anniversary was another beautiful open-air event held in typical Harmony style, with amazing props (imagine a 16-foot high Stonehenge circle, and a 12-foot high flower garden!), and the wonderful Harmony vibe amongst the rolling hills of golden grass east of San Francisco.

Unity was a huge benefit party in Oakland - we played with Rob Rayle again - a similar set to the one we played at Expansion2.0 in the ambient room amidst a background of beautiful psychedelic art. It was a smaller group this time due to summer vacations, but it turned out beautifully.

Charles Uzzell-Edwards was really excited about the gamelan after playing with us at Expansion, and talked about recording a CD together. We recorded our set at UCSC in May 1998, but Charles eventually felt that the gamelan stood on its own and suggested that we put it out as it was. This became our first CD - Gamelan Anak Swarasanti.

Anak Swarasanti's second performance was at the Expansion2.0 party in San Francisco. This time we brought a bigger group of about twelve players, so the sound was very different. Playing with us was noted Bay Area ambient musician Charles Uzzell-Edwards (fax records), who added some nice minimal electronics.

Gamelan Anak Swarasanti's first performance ever was at the Harmony 4x4 weekend in the Sierra Mountains. The setting was magical - an open-air site amidst beautiful mountains and forests. We played a two hour set, accompanied in part by Rob Rayle and Randy Cone on electronics. It was one of our favourite performances ever in an unforgettable setting, and gave us a glimpse of what we could do in an extended experimental format.