Sputtering Back to Action
Etienne Nillesen, best archival releases and honorable mentions of new albums from 2024
Etienne Nillesen’s World of Extended Friction
We encounter minimalist music all of the time, but it’s rare that the means used to produce such sounds are as austere as the end result. Such is not the case with the extraordinary Dutch percussionist Etienne Nillesen, long based in Cologne. I remember chuckling to myself at how steadfastly he’s referred to his practice as “extended snare drum,” but over time I’ve come around to that nomenclature, as he only uses a snare and a variety of small tools— usually the stick-end of thin wooden rods that hold rubber mallets—to generate sonic friction. In other contexts he will use other tools, even something exotic as a wooden drumstick. That’s the long and the short of it, until you actually hear him at work. It’s kind of remarkable that Nillesen has found ways to bring such a singular, bespoke approach to so many different ensembles, whether Artblau, the abstract large ensemble led by tuba player Carl Ludwig Hübsch, or more compact formations like T.ON, a long-running trio with trombonist Matthias Muche and double bassist Constantin Herzog, which toggles between playing its own material and working with a revolving cast of guest collaborators and composers that has included folks as diverse as Sarah Davachi, Nate Wooley, Madison Greenstone, and Anne LaBerge. Nillesen has also been a core member of Enso, a project led by double bassist Stefan Schönegg.
I’ve had the pleasure of contributing liner notes to several larger projects by Enso, which also include guests, but more recently the ensemble has coalesced as a trio rounded out by pianist Marlies Debacker. Enso’s 2023 album A Simplified Space—one of the recordings I wrote notes for—was ultra-minimal, as extended stretches of silence found the musicians basking in the stunning resonance of the Chamber Music Hall at Deutschlandfunk’s Cologne studio. More recently the group settled on another strain of minimalism, maintaining an unbroken churn of extended tones for nearly 45 minutes with On the withered tree a flower blooms (released, like everything I’ve mentioned so far, by Impakt Records). The piece was actually recorded at the same session at Deutschlandfunk that its predecessor was made, but the approach is markedly different, opening with a steady arco tone played by Schönegg that carries on uninterrupted for the first 35 minutes. The sound is gorgeous, but it’s the elusive entrance of Debacker and Nillesen that brings exponential depth and mystery. There’s no explanation of what anyone does on the CD sleeve—apart from listing their instruments—but the format is perfect for the latter's extended snare practice. I assume Debacker is using an e-bow or a conventional bow, because the sound thickens slightly over time, with viscous harmonies radiating outward. Beneath those heavy bass drones are sine wave-like modulations that I recognize as a distinguishing trait of Nillesen’s music, a kind of undulating, phasing presence that creates rhythmic counterpoint through pure tones. Those patterns, as well as other types of sonic motion, come and go, along the way. While I can’t really be sure who’s doing what, it hardly matters. This may feel like sonic research—and I suppose it is—but it sure works for me. Still, don’t bother listening to the piece below unless you’re willing to settle in and commit
Last year Nillesen released en (Sofa), his first solo recording. It’s a context in which there’s no missing what he’s doing. The 32-minute piece is severe, of course; technically he’s not doing much more than rubbing those mallets across the head of his snare drum in shifting patterns. But the “extended” refers more to the sound than the tools. As with the Enso recording mentioned above, it’s impossibly stripped-down, but once we let Nillesen cast his spell an entire world opens up. The motion, timbre, and pitch change in varying degrees across the piece, forever unfolding in the most natural fashion. In his liner note essay Wooley imagines the possibility “that a human and an object can become partners in a search for something perfect and indestructible, something ancient.” In some ways that question explains every musician achieving a deep genuine bond with their instrument, but it’s also a beautiful notion in light of Nillesen’s music.
Nillesen is in town this weekend for a couple of performances. On Saturday, January 18, he’ll perform at Richten25 as part of the Hollows, the sporadically-emerging trio he has with Nick Dunston and Weston Olecki—who both use a tabletop banjo as a sound generator—while the evening before, Friday, January 17, he’ll share a bill at KM28 with the duo of Clara de Asis and Rebecca Lane. His solo set is actually for two snare drums—yes, you read that right, two snare drums!! As silly as it sounds, the “extended” snare set up does expand the possibilities for him, because even though big chunks of en can feel contrapuntal and/or polyrhythmic, having two discrete surfaces where two kinds of movement won’t interfere with each sonically would seem to offer even more latitude.
One Final Look Back
I’m sharing my final thoughts on recordings from 2024 here. I feel bad that what follows are just two lists (with links), sans commentary. I abhor listicles, but I’d like to think that what I wrote in last week’s posts transcends that. Anyone can share a list, and as much as I’ve discovered things from those non-annotated lists, it all feels a bit lazy. I want to know what someone likes about a record they’re recommending. But now that live music is resuming after the holidays here in Berlin, I’m devoting my energies to what’s coming up rather than what’s past—not that good music is ever “past.” Anyway, below are my favorite archival releases from 2024 followed by some additional new albums that didn’t turn up on my lists from last week—but depending on which side of the bed I got out on, any of them could’ve been there. I did write about many of them in other places last year,
Favorite Archival Releases
King Oliver, Centennial (Archeophone)
Gastr del Sol, We Have Dozens of Titles (Drag City)
Don Byas, Classic Don Byas Sessions (Mosaic)
Nisse Sandstöm Group, Øppet Ett (Caprice)
Dagar Brothers, Berlin 1964—Live (Black Truffle)
Rolf Gehlhaar, Wege/Ways (Metaphon)
Maj & Gunnar Sønstevold, The Kitchen Counter Experiments and Other Electronic Works 1959-1984 (O. Gudmundsen Minde)
Cergio Prudencio, Antología 1 (Buh)
Sun Ra, At the Showcase—Live in Chicago (Jazz Detective/Elemental)
Dagar Brothers, Berlin 1964—The Lost Studio Recording (Black Truffle)
Masayuki Takayanagi’s New Direction for the Arts, Projection: the Complete Inspiration and Power Live (Jinya)
Charles Gayle/Milford Graves/William Parker, Webo (Black Editions)
Alice Coltrane, The Carnegie Hall Concert ( Impulse)
Lars-Göran Ulander, Öppet Två (Caprice)
McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson, Forces of Nature (Blue Note)
Honorable Mentions of New Recordings From 2024
Water Damage, In E (12XU)
Carme López, Quintela (Warm Winters LTD)
Caroline Davis and Wendy Eiseneberg, Accept When (Astral Spirits)
Kim Gordon, The Collective (Matador)
Whitney Johnson, Hav (Drag City)/Matchess, Stena (Drag City)
Naima Bock, Below A Massive Dark Land (Sub Pop)
Tashi Wada, What is Not Strange (RVNG Intl.)
Joel and the Neverending Sextet, Marbled (Motvind)
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr, Breezy (Sonic Transmissions)
Sulida, Utos (Clean Feed)
Jessica Pratt, Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)
The Necks, Bleed (Northern Spy)
Clara Levy, Outre Nuit (Sub Rosa)
Linda Catlin Smith, Flowers of Emptiness (Another Timbre)
Leilehua Lanzilott, the sky in our hands- our hands in the sky (Innova)
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin, Ghosted II (Drag City)
Lasse Marhaug, Provoke (Smalltown Supersound)
Julia Holter, Something in the Room She Moves (Domino)
Recommended Shows in Berlin This Week
January 14: Anaïs Tuerlinckx, string box, and Simon Rose, baritone saxophone; Don Malfon, saxophone, Axel Dörner, trumpet, Emilio Gordoa, percussion, and Burkhard Beins, percussion, 8 PM, Richten25, Gerichtstraße 25, 13347 Berlin
January 15: Oùat (Michael Griener, drums, Simon Sieger, piano, and Joel Grip, double bass); Norbert Stammberger, saxophone, Kriton Beyer, daxophone, and Michiyasu Furutani, movements, 8 PM, Richten25, Gerichtstraße 25, 13347 Berlin
January 16: Kaja Draksler, piano, and Susana Santos Silva, trumpet, 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
January 17: LUX:NM (Sara Glojnarić, Leopold Hurt, Bethany Younge, Séverine Ballon, and Oxana Omelchuk), 5 PM, Ultraschall Berlin, Heimathafen Neukölln, Karl-Marx-Straße 141, 12043 Berlin
January 17: Clara de Asis, synthesizer, and Rebecca Lane, quarter-tone flute; Etienne Nielessen, extended snare drums, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
January 17: Aleksandra Słyż; Marta Forsberg; Luka Aron, 8 PM, Kuppelhalle, Silent Green, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin
Janaury 18: Sifters (Marc Ducret, electric guitar, Jeremy Viner, saxophone, clarinet, and Kate Gentile, drums), KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
January 18: Hollows (Weston Olencki, banjos, Etienne Nillesen, extended snare drum, and Nick Dunston, banjos); Miriam Leo, piano, 8 PM, Richten25, Gerichtstraße 25, 13347 Berlin
January 19: Memorials, 8 PM, Kantine am Berghain, Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Berlin