Ensemble Nist-Nah was formed in 2019 as a hybrid ensemble combining percussion and gamelan instrumentation, led by Nantes-based Australian percussionist Will Guthrie. The group’s work is inspired by various musical traditions of Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, but it is far from dry academic discourse or exoticization, and instead focuses on the sonoristic aspect and sound-rhythmic interactions. The ensemble’s music is the result of Guthrie’s experiences from his travels in Indonesia and his fascination with various forms of gamelan music – from the grandiose and suspended in timelessness Javanese court gamelan Sekaten, to the trance-like Jathilan, to the experimental work of contemporary Balinese composer Dewa Alit and his gamelan Salukat. At the same time, he also references the percussion works of Roscoe Mitchell, the multi-directional improvisations of Henry Threadgill and the cross-cultural explorations of artists such as Trevor Watts, Michael Ranta and Mike Cooper.

For more information:
www.ensemble-nist-nah.com
https://www.instagram.com/ensemble_nist_nah/

Listen:
ELDERS track
BITS’N’BOBS track

Watch:
recording from the concert in Berlin
recording from the concert in Nantes
interview and recording from the concert in Bratislava

Ticket: 50 PLN.

Tickets available online (in Polish) and at the museum shop.