with comparisons being made to psykick warriors of gaia, cyclobe and insanlars kime ne this ones definitely making waves amongst fans of.....well....whatever sort of music this is. komodo kolektif is a loose collective of veteran multi-instrumentalists based not in indonesia as one might expect with such a name, but glasgow, scotland, their name being a reference to the indonesian gamelan instruments featured in their compositions. the instruments used (saron, gender, kempul) belong to local gamelan ensemble gamelan naga mas of which two of the musicians have been full-time members for around a decade while the other members are also loosely affiliated and have appeared as guest musicians on various one-off performances and who are themselves well-known musicians in their own rights.

last years (2017) edition of convenanza festival featured swedish band fontan, who have released material on hoga nord rekords, and that set the ground for a collaboration between the record label and one of the most interesting festivals around. the joint forces has resulted in the compilation album convenanza 2018 containing this years (2018) acts.

that summer i developed somewhat of an obsession with tonto’s expanding head band after having seen them perform at the big chill festival that year. the music blew my mind. later upon my return to civilisation and the ensuing research which then began in earnest i became as much blown away by the enormous t.o.n.t.o. (the original new timbral orchestra) modular synthesizer that had created the music as i was by the music itself. built in the early 70s, it s still the largest synthesizer around today. with the live show still resonating in my head i tracked down everything tonto had ever recorded. one of these tracks was an obscure outtake from the time t.o.n.t.o.’s creators, malcolm cecil and robert margouleff, were producing and engineering for stevie wonder in the ‘70s(https://youtu.be/wuaszff7yq0). the track, bittersweet, only ever appeared on a highly limited self-released cd put together to coincide with their appearance at the big chill. consequently i featured it on a few mixes i did over the years and invariably i’d be asked “what’s that track?” by those with an ear for something unique. and invariably these same people, many of them djs, would turn away disgruntled when i informed them it was cd only. although i didn t know it at the time, the seed was definitely sown for this vinyl compilation that you now hold in your hands.