Publications

In 2014, in Ubud/Bali, I came across a book that immediately fascinated me as an ethnologist: «A House in Bali» by Colin McPhee. It is an inspiring novel written in a lively style by the Canadian-American composer, musician and author who lived on the island from 1931 to 1938. He explored and wrote down the Balinese Gamelan music of distinct regions and eras and hence preserved it for future generations. Especially impressive is McPhee's participatory way to approach Balinese orchestras and musicians with whom he cooperated respectfully on a basis of equality, a behaviour far from being self-evident back in those colonial times.

Further investigations revealed that the book was not yet translated into German. So far I have translated movie subtitles and some journalistic articles from Spanish and English into German but never a whole book. I succeeded in discovering the archive which preserves the estate of Colin McPhee who died in 1964. The Ethnomusicology Archive of the University of California in Los Angeles brought me a significant step forward by providing the address of the actual copyright owner. He approved of the idea to translate the book into German. And finally a test translation led to an appropriate publisher. The book «Ein Haus in Bali» was released by the Unionsverlag Zurich in 2015.

Furthermore I created a Trailer using original photographs of the author and a Balinese composition by Colin McPhee in order to promote the book.