The gamelan, the traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra, includes all kinds of colorful metal percussion with wonderful onomatopoeic names like the kethuk, a drier, crisper, hollow-sounding instrument, and of course the gong; it produces a delicately chiming music with a floating rhythmic impetus somehow both stirring and meditative. Tonight Gamelan Pacifica is presenting music both traditional and innovative in the airy, lofty performance room at the Good Shepherd Center—which, says a statement on their Web site, is uniquely appropriate for what they do: “In central Java the music is often performed in a pendopo, a large pavilion-like structure built on columns, providing a steep-sloped roof but open on the sides. The new Chapel Performance Space is the closest thing to a pendopo in Seattle.”

Sat., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., 2007