This is the first of a three volume series featuring Balinese music and is part of a larger body of music from the largest Islamic country in the world, Indonesia.

Jegog is played most frequently for entertainment although it occasionally accompanies religious ceremonies. The orchestra has a total range of five octaves, requiring up to twenty musicians make up of two main instrument groups, the core melody instruments and the elaborating instruments. The core melody is played on several lower octave instruments. In a dramatic presentation, an evening's performance involving jegog will include several dance pieces, in which case several rhythmic instruments are added to the ensemble. Some of the dance forms utilize movements taken directly from the Indonesian martial arts called pencak.

Recorded in a Balinese temple, Pura Penataran, at Laplapan, a village near Ubud, Bali, producer David Parsons introduces Western listeners to the unique—and virtually unknown—styles of music from the isles of paradise, Bali. In this first recording, he captures the traditional Jegog music—four-tone gamelan—named after the most characteristic and unusual instrument of the ensemble, the enormous bass marimbas called jegogan.

As music is traditionally learned communally in village music clubs, the majority of the musicians who participate also hold other occupations. The club organizes rehearsals and the instruments are usually the property of the village. Specific regions, villages and groups have become famous for specializing in certain types of music, dance, or theater. Swara Cipta Priyanti is associated with west Bali where the bamboo grows to enormous size. The principal musicians of the ensemble are I Gusti Wiarta, I Nyoman Urip, I Made Japa, and I Wayan Tirta.

Celestial Harmonies' catalogue of Indonesian recordings include: