From Muslim devotions to global niveau: the art of body percussion music as expression of cultural memory in Aceh and the diasporas

The little-known art of body percussion with movement and song across the Muslim world reaches its height of expressiveness and virtuosity in Aceh, where upstream Gayo and downstream Acehnese and Aneuk Jam e groups have developed different genres over centuries. The sonic and visual structures of music and movement are linked in the minds of artists and audiences to extra-artistic associations that derive from elements of each group s cultural memory and ideologies. Some genres have been appropriated and aestheticised for national/international markets in post-colonial Aceh and growing diaspora communities. An innovative multi-faceted theory of the nature of body percussion is developed.