Seemingly serving as Zankel Hall's surrogate programmer, composer John Adams was given the run of Carnegie Hall's underground venue again for his alternative "In Your Ear" festival.

Adams curated Zankel's opening festivities in 2003 to some acclaim. His longtime record company -- the eclectic Nonesuch -- has also become a key supplier of cross-cultural artistry to Carnegie, as the hallowed hall strives to lend its offerings a new-century slant.

"In Your Ear" eschewed the Western classicism that dominates Carnegie's upstairs space in favor of world music and jazz. Saxophonist Joshua Redman and Iranian composer/spiked-fiddle virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor were among the attractions, along with composer-instrumentalist Evan Ziporyn and Gamelan Galak Tika.

Ever since Debussy was entranced by the visiting gamelan at the 1889 world expo in Paris, a series of Western composers has been influenced by the exotic, hypnotic tintinnabulations of these ceremonial Indonesian percussion orchestras. A resident of Bali for decades, Canadian composer Colin McPhee not only hipped Benjamin Britten to the gamelan but helped bequeath the influence to such Americans as Lou Harrison.

A composer and clarinetist with veteran new-music collective Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chicago-born Ziporyn also directs the music and theater arts program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He co-founded Gamelan Galak Tika at MIT in 1993. At Zankel, the ensemble -- comprising MIT students, staff and friends -- performed a traditional work and a piece by contemporary Balinese composer Dewa Ketut Alit, as well as two Ziporyn compositions.

Gamelan events are visual as well as aural experiences, even those by academic groups visiting from Massachusetts. Gamelan Galak Tika -- old Javanese for "intense togetherness" -- performed in full Indonesian regalia on a stage dotted by tall pink umbrellas, in addition to the 20 or so ornate metallophones and several large gongs. Barefoot in plum-colored robes, the players cut across the spectrum of age, gender and ethnicity, with women sporting flowers in their hair and the men bandana-type head wraps.

Part of the standard Balinese repertoire, Hujan Mas ("golden rain") is credited to multiple composers, its authorship typically uncertain in a musical culture that places a premium on performance ritual. The piece served as a brief opening fanfare, setting the intoxicating tone of wave-like rhythms and ringing sonorities.

Unlike Debussy or Britten, Ziporyn doesn't incorporate gamelan sounds into his music but rather brings his personal invention to the form. He goes to Bali, rather than bringing a bit of Bali back home. His Amok! is a sort of triple concerto juxtaposing electronically treated cello and digitally sampled percussion and keyboard with the gamelan. Rhythmically complex, the six-movement piece is also lyrical, not only thanks to the cello but to sundry percussionists doubling on wood flutes.

The cellist, Ha-Yang Kim, and digital percussionist, Nathan Davis, make up the duo Odd Appetite. They performed the complicated parts of Amok! with seemingly effortless élan. Playing a hand drum within the ensemble, Ziporyn led the group subtly through his polyrhythmic maze. Underlining the communal nature of the gamelan, Ziporyn, Kim and Davis next joined the ranks of metallophone players for Alit's Semara Wisaya ("aspects of love"), a brightly, melodiously clangorous piece.

Ziporyn's Tire Fire capped the afternoon with a cross-cultural, color-rich mix of mesmeric gamelan resonance and rock drama. Two electric guitarists, an electric bassist and keyboardist joined the ensemble, adding buzzing chords and tolling lines to the contrapuntal web. The composer hammered away at a metallophone, obviously, and infectiously, enjoying himself.

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