Rindik: Omnipresent Sound of Bali

When you arrive in Bali (mostly through Ngurah Rai International Airport), you will likely be welcomed by the soft and soothing sound of rindik. For most of the visitors, the sound of this musical instrument is the first Balinese music they encounter. If you miss it at the airport, you will likely to hear it at your hotel lobbies, restaurants or other tourists haunts.

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The moment of initial contact of the visitors with lovely sound of rindik takes place something like this visitor are sitting in a restaurant or entering a hotel lobby designed in neoBalinese style. While they savor the succulent food or admire the elaborate architecture some sort of background music can be heard. The sound of Balinese traditional bamboo instruments they hear is not a recording but instead is being played live by two or three musicians in one corner of the room or staged on an open bale at the edge of the locale. Were you to look in that corner you would see two musicians, which are gently beating out notes on the rindik sometimes accompanied by the third one plays the bamboo flute suling. The soft and gentle bamboo sound is quite lovely, yet can easily be ignored; you can hear it virtually everywhere in Bali, it is perfect Balinese background music.

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