This collection of pieces firmly situates composer and ethnomusicologist Michael Tenzer (b.1957) in the forefront of a group of contemporary composers, creating cross-cultural musical and social fusions while dealing openly with issues of cultural power and hegemony, and simply luxuriating in the sheer sounds of musics that are neither here nor there, but are from an altogether different place.

The three large-scale works using gamelan instruments were conceived as a triptych. They are related structurally by their adaptation of the three-sectional form often found in large-scale Balinese compositions, collectively called lelambatan ("slow music") that is generally performed at temples during religious festivals.