Ensemble Nist-Nah: Spilla (Black Truffle)
Second full-length from the amazing Ensemble Nist-Nah, Will Guthrie’s percussion ensemble.
Where Ensemble Nist-Nah’s first album, Elders (2022), explored Indonesian and Gamelan traditions, Spilla broadens the conversation considerably, “spilling over” into other percussion-based experiments, adding drum kits, wood and metal percussion instruments, and plucked strings to the ensemble’s dominant SE Asian voice.
From the one-sheet: “The two sides of this record document two different iterations of the group, and the members’ compositional input has increased: each side contains one piece by a member other than Guthrie.
It has become clearer than ever that Ensemble Nist-Nah is not an attempt at a European Gamelan ensemble but rather a hybrid percussion ensemble that uses instruments from a Javanese Gamelan alongside other percussion to perform original music informed by a variety of South East Asian music but also by everything from free jazz to contemporary hip-hop: while Nist-Nah and Elders both featured traditional Javanese pieces, on Spilla the only tune not generated by a member of the group is by Guthrie’s long-time musical hero and occasional collaborator Roscoe Mitchell. [And] This epic closing track presents a take on Roscoe Mitchell’s ‘Uncle,’ performed by the Art Ensemble of Chicago on their classic Urban Bushmen live album. Where the Art Ensemble used Mitchell’s dirge-like melody as a jumping off point for virtuosic improvisational flights, Ensemble Nist-Nah rethink the piece as a near-static dialogue between the monumental, slow-moving sequence of unison tuned percussion notes and a textural cloud that grows in richness and intensity from whispering cymbal rolls into a mass of gong overtones and bowed metal.”
We are bedwetting fans of Black Truffle and this release embodies elements that make the imprint so unique: bringing the traditional in conversation with the contemporary, electronic music in dialogue with acoustic based sounds, the human hand alongside the digital …
Second full-length from the amazing Ensemble Nist-Nah, Will Guthrie’s percussion ensemble.
Where Ensemble Nist-Nah’s first album, Elders (2022), explored Indonesian and Gamelan traditions, Spilla broadens the conversation considerably, “spilling over” into other percussion-based experiments, adding drum kits, wood and metal percussion instruments, and plucked strings to the ensemble’s dominant SE Asian voice.
From the one-sheet: “The two sides of this record document two different iterations of the group, and the members’ compositional input has increased: each side contains one piece by a member other than Guthrie.
It has become clearer than ever that Ensemble Nist-Nah is not an attempt at a European Gamelan ensemble but rather a hybrid percussion ensemble that uses instruments from a Javanese Gamelan alongside other percussion to perform original music informed by a variety of South East Asian music but also by everything from free jazz to contemporary hip-hop: while Nist-Nah and Elders both featured traditional Javanese pieces, on Spilla the only tune not generated by a member of the group is by Guthrie’s long-time musical hero and occasional collaborator Roscoe Mitchell. [And] This epic closing track presents a take on Roscoe Mitchell’s ‘Uncle,’ performed by the Art Ensemble of Chicago on their classic Urban Bushmen live album. Where the Art Ensemble used Mitchell’s dirge-like melody as a jumping off point for virtuosic improvisational flights, Ensemble Nist-Nah rethink the piece as a near-static dialogue between the monumental, slow-moving sequence of unison tuned percussion notes and a textural cloud that grows in richness and intensity from whispering cymbal rolls into a mass of gong overtones and bowed metal.”
We are bedwetting fans of Black Truffle and this release embodies elements that make the imprint so unique: bringing the traditional in conversation with the contemporary, electronic music in dialogue with acoustic based sounds, the human hand alongside the digital …
Second full-length from the amazing Ensemble Nist-Nah, Will Guthrie’s percussion ensemble.
Where Ensemble Nist-Nah’s first album, Elders (2022), explored Indonesian and Gamelan traditions, Spilla broadens the conversation considerably, “spilling over” into other percussion-based experiments, adding drum kits, wood and metal percussion instruments, and plucked strings to the ensemble’s dominant SE Asian voice.
From the one-sheet: “The two sides of this record document two different iterations of the group, and the members’ compositional input has increased: each side contains one piece by a member other than Guthrie.
It has become clearer than ever that Ensemble Nist-Nah is not an attempt at a European Gamelan ensemble but rather a hybrid percussion ensemble that uses instruments from a Javanese Gamelan alongside other percussion to perform original music informed by a variety of South East Asian music but also by everything from free jazz to contemporary hip-hop: while Nist-Nah and Elders both featured traditional Javanese pieces, on Spilla the only tune not generated by a member of the group is by Guthrie’s long-time musical hero and occasional collaborator Roscoe Mitchell. [And] This epic closing track presents a take on Roscoe Mitchell’s ‘Uncle,’ performed by the Art Ensemble of Chicago on their classic Urban Bushmen live album. Where the Art Ensemble used Mitchell’s dirge-like melody as a jumping off point for virtuosic improvisational flights, Ensemble Nist-Nah rethink the piece as a near-static dialogue between the monumental, slow-moving sequence of unison tuned percussion notes and a textural cloud that grows in richness and intensity from whispering cymbal rolls into a mass of gong overtones and bowed metal.”
We are bedwetting fans of Black Truffle and this release embodies elements that make the imprint so unique: bringing the traditional in conversation with the contemporary, electronic music in dialogue with acoustic based sounds, the human hand alongside the digital …