Putu Septa’s “Piwal” on Other Minds Records
Putu Septa: Piwal
September 26, 2025 as a CD and digital download
RIYL: Brian Baumbusch, Eli Keszler, Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s Akirasoundtrack, Tortoise, Lou Harrison
SAN FRANCISCO—September 26, 2025—Other Minds is pleased to present Piwal by the Balinese composer and gamelan musician Putu Septa. Septa represents a new generation of maverick Indonesian composers, “evident,” as ethnomusicologist Oscar Murakami-Smith writes in his liner notes, “from the title of the multi-movement piece presented on this album—Piwal, a Balinese word which may be defined as ‘rebellion,’ ‘resistance,’ ‘disobedience,’ ‘denial,’ or ‘deviation.’”
Piwal is Septa’s attempt to square the traditional lineage of gamelan musicianship and composition with his interest in more experimental forms. The music swerves and changes codes with alacrity: traditional gamelan sounds suddenly give way to enveloping bass tones borrowed from avant-garde electronics. Other Minds is proud to present Putu Septa’s music on record, and to release it in conjunction with his appearance as part of the 29th Other Minds Festival, October 16th–19th at the Brava Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Putu Septa was brought into gamelan by his grandfather, who was a founder of the gamelan group that currently performs in the forecourt of the Ubud palace in Bali. More recent mentors have been Wayan Gde Yudane and Dewa Alit, both of whom rebelled against state-sponsored control over gamelan composition by explicitly—and sometimes antagonistically—breaking long-established compositional and instrumental rules. Septa learned directly from Alit as a founding member of Alit’s experimental gamelan group Gamelan Salukat and continues these maverick tendencies but couples them with his internalized mastery and respect for traditional gamelan forms; the subtitle of Piwal is Garapan Tungguhan Konvensional Untuk Ekspresi Inkonvensional, or “the arrangement of conventional instruments/ensembles for unconventional expressions.”
Piwal is an ecstatic sonic journey that, similar to ‘60s and ‘70s American experiments with Indonesian music, redirects questions around gamelan composition from “what is traditional” to “what comes next?” Discover Putu Septa’s voice for a new generation of Indonesian composers.
Piwal will be released TODAY September 26, 2025 as a CD and digital download and is available for order now on Bandcamp. The album is available directly from Other Minds, our Bandcamp page, all major digital music outlets, and through our distributors The Business (USA) and SoundOhm (EU).
I Putu Adi Septa Suweca Putra (Putu Septa) (b. 1992) is a composer and musician from the village of Padangtegal, Ubud, Bali. His natural talent as a gamelan musician descends from his grandfather, a great gamelan musician, and his ability with the instrument has been recognized since childhood. Septa has worked with Dafra Kura Band (Africa), Filastine (Barcelona), Bloco (Singapore), Akim Funk Buddha (US), Jonas Stampe (Denmark), Rima (US), and others. In 2022, he first collaborated with composer Brian Baumbusch. To contribute to new music on Balinese gamelan, Septa initiated a new gamelan ensemble—Nata Swara—which performs with, among others, Gamelan Sada Sancaya, an orchestra of extended range bronze instruments designed by Septa, and Kendang Briuk, an instrument set consisting of a varied collection of Balinese kendang drums.
Nata Swara is a multi-instrumentalist group that focuses on playing traditional Balinese gamelan music, playing new music for gamelan, and playing experimental and contemporary music that is rooted in gamelan and in some cases electronic instruments. Nata Swara also produces new works and is actively producing a new generation of Balinese gamelan players. Nata Swara was founded in 2011 in Padangtegal, Ubud, Bali. In addition to producing new works and exploring classical gamelan music, Nata Swara instills, mobilizes, and increases international cooperation, including recent collaborations with American composer Brian Baumbusch.
