Gamelan slower, more meditative quality than the gamelan music of Bali. Javanese gamelan can be made from iron or brass; instruments made of cast bronze are considered the best quality. Outside the main core on Java and Bali, gamelan has spread through migration and cultural interest, new styles sometimes resulting as well. Malay Gamelan comes from the Javanese tradition through Riau-Lingga which later formed its own distinct identity, using fewer instruments tuned in a near-equidistant "slendro", and often using a western B or C as a tuning basis. Javanese emigrants to Suriname play gamelan in a style close to that found
Gamelan outside Indonesia Java and brought to Vancouver in 1990 and resides at the Western Front Artist Center. Both Vancouver-based ensembles are regularly used in performances by the Vancouver Community Gamelan. There are over eighty gamelans (as of 2002) of various kinds in the United Kingdom, many of them based at colleges or community centres. University of York was the first British university to purchase a gamelan, named Kyai Sekar Patak; it is still played by students there. The oldest community Gamelan group in the UK is the Oxford Gamelan Society, which plays Kyai Madu Laras, donated to the University of Oxford's Bate