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LP version. Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie returns to Black Truffle with Nist-Nah. Like his previous solo record on the label, the abrasive hip-hop concrète of People Pleaser (BT 027LP, 2017), Nist-Nah
finds Guthrie branching out in a new direction, this time in a suite of
six percussion pieces primarily using the metallaphones, hand drums,
and gongs of the Gamelan ensembles of Indonesia. The music presented
here is grounded in Guthrie's travels in Indonesia and study of various
forms of Gamelan music, from the stately suspended temporality of the
courtly Javanese Gamelan Sekatan, to the delirious, thuggish repetition
that accompanies the Javanese trance ritual Jathilan, to the shimmering
acoustic glitch of contemporary Balinese composer Dewa Alit and his Gamelan Salukat/ However, far from an exercise in exoticism, Nist-Nah
develops out of Guthrie's extensive work with metal percussion in
recent years (as heard, for example, on his 2015 LP for iDEAL, Sacrée Obsession),
where gongs, singing bowls and cymbals are used to build up walls of
hovering tones and sizzling details. Though Guthrie is broadening his
palette to explore Gamelan instrumentation and pay tribute to his love
of this sophisticated yet elemental percussion music, the pieces
presented here are equally informed by Guthrie's interests in free jazz,
electro-acoustic music, and diverse experimental music practices,
exploring long tones, extended techniques, and non-metered pulse. Nist-Nah
presents a variety of approaches across its six pieces, from the crisp,
precise rhythmic complexity of the opening title track to the droning
textures of "Catlike" and "Elders". On the epic closing "Kebogiro
Glendeng", Guthrie offers an extended, layered rendition of a Javanese
piece belonging to a repertoire primarily used for warmups, beginner's
groups and children first learning Gamelan, elegantly gesturing to his
own amateur status while using the piece's insistently repeated melody
as an extended exploration of the hypnotic effects of repetition,
falling in and out of time with himself to create woozy, narcotic
effects until the piece eventually dissolves into a wavering fog. Images
by Sylvie Meunier. Recorded in 2019 by Lucas Pizzini. Mixed and mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Tokyo. Cut by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.