Kendhang Kalih is a Javanese gamelan term, literally meaning "two drums". It refers to one of the slower, sparser drumming styles that accompanies many gamelan forms, using a small high pitched drum and a large drum with a resonant bass tone. In this piece however, the term refers to the two drummers and the two drum setups, which – as in the Javanese style – function as one unit. The performers each play on an independent arrangement of drums, but their rhythms lock into one another and hocket to produce the effect of a single large drum set-up.

The work is in two halves; the first contrasts the two performers – over a series of phasing repeats, one part becomes denser and quieter, the other gets sparse and loud – and the second half fuses them together in a minimalistic note-by-note build-up of a "drum melody".