With the sun setting over the East River behind him, Taylor Kuffner sat cross-legged, surrounded by an orchestra of gamelan instruments. But rather than orchestrating dozens of people, he directed a robot called the GamelaTron to play his composition. The dozens of gongs, metallophones, and symbols were all at the whim of his laptop and drum machine.

Gamelan music is a traditional Indonesian genre dating back centuries. Kuffner has researched the music thoroughly, which included living there for over three years. “I studied under old guys in villages mostly,” he recalls. But he also went to the top art school there, the Indonesia Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta. And he had a grant from the Indonesian government to study the tones of the music. “It was an attempt to understand the music through the tuning rather than the composition.” A lot of his time was spent collecting samples of the instruments for learning and research, which he would eventually use to perform live.

But when he came back the the U.S. and got a residency in 2008 at LEMUR, an organization that creates musical robots, the GamelaTron was born and he could move beyond samples. The version that Kuffner played in Williamsburg during sunset on Monday was a Belaganjur — a style of gamelan originally associated with warfare. It also featured LED lights that blinked when the individual instrument it was attached to was struck, helping listeners follow his live performance. All of the instruments were brought back with him from his last trip to Bali.

The unique combination of rhythm and melody particular to the style lends itself easily to beat-driven electronic dance music. And Kuffner, who produces and DJs under the alias Zemi17, has certainly explored the possibilities. His most recent album, a minimal techno effort called Wisma Langit, uses a number of instruments from the gamelan orchestra. He also used the instruments in a set at The Bunker, where he played samples of them using a Midi controller, and mixed that with material from the Wisma album.

Kuffner’s musical activities don’t stop there, however. He also designs sound systems, most recent of which was for a warehouse party called Campfire, where he put together an 8.4 channel surround sound system. That means that a performer can pump specific music into eight separate sections. The .4 stands for the four separate subwoofer channels.

“Electronic music isn’t that interesting to watch,” says Kuffner. “So by using systems like this, it’s becoming more of a sound art installation. It gives people a reason to actually be there rather than listening at home. It brings it back to the performance side of things.” Unfortunately, none of the performers that night, other than Kuffner himself, had any music that could take advantage of the surround sound.

On August 7th, at a location yet to be determined, Kuffner — along with Doc and Balktick — will throw a new event called Auditorium. Given his background, and the events he is frequently involved in, you can be sure to expect more than a DJ and a dancefloor.