Trancing Out
Will Guthrie and Ensemble Nist-Nah, Syliphone Records, Vasco Trilla
Will Guthrie’s Widening Ears
It’s impossible to miss the fact that Nantes-based Australian drummer Will Guthrie is a huge music fan. He tends to be aligned with experimental music, and, indeed, the first time I ever saw him back in 2008 was in a trio with saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and sound artist Jérôme Noettinger, which played an unforgettable Chicago concert. I recall staggering away, mind-blown. Peering through Guthrie’s collaboration-heavy discography only clouds the process of figuring him out. He’s not chameleonic, changing his aesthetic according to the project, but he doesn’t baldly impose his will in such situations either. He’s simply terrific at modulating his abundant skills in whatever way makes sense to elevate any given project. Whenever I’ve run into him there’s no missing his various enthusiasms. He doesn’t just like making music, he loves listening to it, too, and over time that’s led him to expand his palette.
Earlier this year he released Tidawt, a searing, bone-dry duo album with Tuareg singer and guitarist Ahmed Ag Kaedy (leader of Amanar de Kidal). The album was cut in Umea, Sweden during a single session—quick and dirty, with an instinctual thrust that allowed the drummer to situate his shuffling, stuttery, and swinging grooves behind his partner’s incantatory songs. The two musicians were brought together by Finnish presenter Juuso Paaso for some shows in Finland and Sweden in 2023. As Guthrie said in a recent interview for the Austrian website Skug, “I definitely want to play in a way that makes sense for Ahmed and the music. I have no interest in pushing my own agenda in this context, I am trying to make the music sound good and Ahmed feel comfortable.” You can check out the track “Mani Mani” below.
Perhaps no single tradition has taken up space in his brain like Indonesian gamelan music, the subtext behind his terrific Ensemble Nist-Nah, which formed in 2019. The ensemble includes a small gamelan, but the instrumentation is rounded out with more standard western percussion, including the leader’s own drum kit. I enjoyed the group’s 2022 debut Elders, and I caught an impressive performance by them soon after here in Berlin. But the recently released follow-up Spilla (issued, like its predecessor, on Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle) marks a huge forward leap for Nist-Nah. On the debut it seemed as if the ensemble was not only figuring itself out as an entity, questioning its aesthetic balance and how it would engage with traditional gamelan music, but also just getting comfortable with the instrument itself. If anything there was an air of tentativeness, as if the musicians had so much respect for the tradition that they were hesitant to mess around with it too much. I don’t know if any of this is true, but Nist-Nah sounds like a much different ensemble on Spilla.
Guthrie wrote most of the material, but he also invited ensemble members Sven Michel and Arno Tukiman to contribute pieces and the album concludes with a radically reduced account of Roscoe Mitchell’s “Uncle,” a tune from the classic Art Ensemble of Chicago album Urban Bushmen. From piece to piece the approach is different, but I hear a less reverential use of the gamelan. To be sure, elements of its sprawling traditional vocabulary are included, but they’re either pushed against hard by countervailing concepts or they are exposed in new ways to match foreign currents in experimental music. On the terse opener “Gerak Maju” a stuttering drum ‘n’ bass-style snare attack is circled by elements of the gamelan all produced at different tempos, whether the incredibly slow low-end tones—which almost imperceptibly float sustained chord patterns beneath the whole thing—the mid-tempo melody, and high velocity flat metallic clatter. Guthrie’s next piece decreases the speed and intensity, tapping into the meditative potential of the gamelan within a hooky if molasses-paced processional. I’m especially keen on “Bleed,” a three-part cycle of rapid-fire arpeggios exploding into a full ensemble climax that ebbs just as rapidly as it began, with each additional cycle changing the feel and melodic shape. You can hear it below.
The leader’s affinity for gamelan is clear and it remains respectful, but Nist-Nah has never tried to be a traditional gamelan project. Yet the ensemble’s confidence has allowed them to try new things. In fact, Guthrie experiments with Mitchell’s composition, too, basically reducing it to a single melody line which becomes a cycling motif for textural exploration. While there are strong composers like Brian Baumbauch and Jan Kadereit whose study of gamelan has allowed them to write rigorous hybrid works with musicians connected Gamelan Sulukat, the ensemble of the remarkable composer Dewa Alit, Guthrie doesn’t fret over strict fidelity. The way the gamelan becomes an integral tool on the title piece, where the ensemble focuses on the sort of slowly decaying overtones we increasingly encounter in contemporary music, performing a role few others have tried, at least to the best of my knowledge. At the very end of the piece you can hear Guthrie say, “Cool,” reflecting the air of experimentation at work. Check it out below. Ultimately what makes this project and this new album so irresistible is the palpable joy for playing. I could sense the collective pleasure when they played in Berlin, but on this recording there’s simultaneously an internal breeziness and rigorous devotion to the performances, and it’s that human connection of people constructing something big from small parts that makes this one of the most exciting things I’ve heard all year.
Rediscovering the Riches of Vintage Guinean Music, Again
Few things make a music journalist feel older than the way reissues are marketed. Of course, I feel rusty when labels reissue the work of a band active when I was in my 20s, celebrating the “overlooked” genius and influence of mediocre indie rock outfits that couldn’t get arrested during their time, but there’s also the sensation of observing several discreet reissue campaigns of the same material over time. Last month I noticed that the excellent Belgian reissue label Radio Martiko—which achieved eternal worth by making available sessions cut by Mauritanian greats Si Daty Ould Abba and his Mounina Mine Eide at Boussiphone Studios in Casablanca in 1971—announced the first of two collections of material originally released by the Guinean label Syliphone Records. As soon as I listened to Music For a Revolution Vol. 1: Guinea’s Syliphone Recording Label (1967-1973) I was riveted, entranced anew by the collision of Afro-Cuban forms and Mande tradition. I had heard all of this music before—in fact, I already have most of it through previous reissues—but it’s clear to me that a lot of listeners haven’t encountered this stuff before.
The new double album is available only on vinyl and digitally, aiming the release at a demographic that either missed or detests the CD era; most of the reissue efforts I lived through before focused on compact discs. The French label Syllart, launched in 1978 by producer Ibrahima Sylla, undertook a huge reissue campaign in the late 1990s and around a decade later the British company Sterns started its own endeavor with more focused, annotated releases, drawing upon the participation of numerous scholars including Graham Counsel, who provided the liner notes to the new Radio Martiko collection. All of the music was a result of the post-colonial Authenticité project of Guinean president Sékou Touré, launched several years after he took power in 1958 as the country declared its independence from France. The government started an endeavor meant to focus on the nation’s indigenous culture, and nearly all of the music created in Guinea over the 15 years or so was made through state sponsorship, part of an effort to eradicate European hegemony. The work appeared on the state-run Syliphone label (not to be confused with Syllart). Some of the greatest bands in modern Africa arose through this project including Bembeya Jazz National, Balla et ses Balladins, and Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, all of whom were treated to excellent double CD releases from Sterns, outfitted with extensive liner notes by Counsel and packed with photos and ephemera.
This music is unfuckwithable, so even if nothing is technically new about the release, it remains worth celebrating for those encountering it for the first time. And honestly, hearing this stuff again after many years only reinforces its power. While I immediately recognized the driving groove and screaming guitar on Balla’s version of “Samba” or Bembeya’s quaint adaptation of “Guantanamera,” it felt like I was engaging with most of the material for the first time even if the slinking rhythms and deeply soulful singing couldn’t feel more familiar. It remains ironic that despite the focus on local sounds Cuban music weighs so heavily on this body of work, thanks to the importation of those records during a period of cold war alliances. On the other hand we shouldn’t forget that modern Cuban music was forged through the imagination and talent of African slaves, so its subsequent embrace seems only natural. You can hear that influence manifested repeatedly; below Bembeya Jazz National tackles “Sabor de Guajira,” with a typically wonderful guitar solo by Sékou “Diamond Fingers” Diabaté.
But it’s not all wrapped up in son. Touré had invited South African singer Mariam Makeba to attend a Guinean arts festival in 1967, and it developed into a fruitful partnership, as the singer began working with musicians from the region, developing as her working band for the next eight years. That band, named Myryam’s Quintette, are featured playing “Solo Quintette,” an instrumental with an irresistible strutting groove and a sublime kora solo wending its way through the jam. Another outlier is the closing track “N’Fa,” billed to Les Frères Diabaté— Kerfala “Grand Papa” Diabaté and Sékou “le docteur” Diabaté, along with their lesser known sibling Siré Diabaté, who played rhythm guitar in Horoya Band National. The acoustic trio produced something otherworldly, a delicate meditation that sounds as close to Portuguese fado as it does to a griot anthem. Below you can check out “Miri Magnin,” a heavy jam from Keletigui et ses Tambourinis. It’s a model of Touré’s thinking that ripples with infectious rhythms, potent solos from alto saxophone great Momo “Wandel” Soumah, guitarist Linké Condé, and electric organist Keletigui and wild singing by percussionist Papa Kouyaté. It’s hard to believe so much heat could be captured on a record. If all of this is new to you, well, I’m jealous.
Vasco Trilla’s World of Sustained Sound
I’ve been aware of Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla for years, primarily through his prolific work in improvised music. He spreads his playing across different aesthetic principles, even within improvised music, whether the frictive explorations of the trio Phicus with Ferran Fages and Alex Riviriego or in a free-blowing duo with the late Mars Williams. But over the last year I have been pulled in by his sound-oriented solo work through a pair of excellent solo albums released by the Swedish label Thanatosis.
Last year the label released the bell slept long in its tower, a collection of pieces that blurs the pesky line between composition and improvisation through meditative long tones, slow-moving texture, and resonant overtones. On the aptly titled “enveloping dome” Trilla organically but deliberately builds a blossoming fabric of sound from bowed metals, layer upon layer, without ever becoming so dense that each individual element can’t be detected both on its own and interacting with the others. The clarity in no way undercuts its hypnotic power. You can hear it below
Early on in his career Trilla was immersed in Spain’s progressive rock scene, but over the last fifteen years or so his practice has opened up dramatically. While he can certainly keep time, his focus tends to be on pure sound, which is why his involvement in the free improv scene makes sense. This week’s he’s in Berlin and on Tuesday, July 15 he’ll play in a duo at Richten25 with Berlin trombonist Matthias Müller, sharing the bill with the trio of Philadelphia percussionist Ben Bennett, singer Ute Wasserman, and guitarist Beat Keller. Back in 2021 they released an album called Implositions (Orbit577) with Spanish reedist Ricardo Tejero which definitely leans into the lowercase realm, as the horns slide in out of sustained tone territory. As you can hear on the opening track “Implosition #1” Trilla still manages to conjure texture-rooted sounds, his slowly ringing cymbals providing a rising-falling foundation for patiently developing horn gestures as they morph from barely audible unpitched breaths into a mesh of harmonics and sibilant blubber that form dazzling alliances with the percussionist’s playing, which later adds some bracing metallic squeaks and patter. I often think of Müller for his excellent jazz work, but this recording reminds me of how strong he can be in more abstract terrain, whether in Superimpose, his duo with drummer Christian Marien, or as part of Splitter Orchestra.
Recommended Shows in Berlin This Week
July 15: Ben Bennett, percussion, Ute Wassermann, voice, and Beat Keller, guitar; Matthias Müller, trombone, and Vasco Trilla, drums, percussion, 8 PM, Richten25, Gerichtstraße 25, 13347 Berlin
July 15: Berlin Improvisers Orchestra: Berio (Ricardo Tejero, Henrik Walsdorff, Anna Kaluza, Robert Würz, Manuel Miethe, saxophones, Nikolaus Neuser, Gerhard Gschlößl, trombones, Amy Green, voice, Gerhard Uebele, Wolgang Georgsdorf, violins, Hui-Chun Lin, Vincent Laju, cellos, Noel Taylor, clarinet, Dietrich Petzold, viola, Maja von Kriegstein, electronics, objects, Niko Meinhold, Tommaso Vespo, pianos, Roman Stolyar, piano, flute, Hannes Buder, guitar, Ulf Mengersen, Horst Nonnenmacher, Ben Lehmann, Klaus Kürvers, Jan Roder, Kellen Mills, double basses, and Willi Kellers, Martial Frenzel, drums), 9 PM, Kunstfabrik Schlot, Invalidenstraße 117, 10115 Berlin
July 16: Nicola Ratti, electronics; Franziska Salker, recorders, electronics & Mario Verandi, synthesizer, electronics; Grū (Grgur Savić, saxophone, electronics, 8:30 PM, Experimentik, tik nord, Rigaerstraße 77, 10247 Berlin
July 16: Réka Csiszér, voice, cello, electronics, and Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, voice, bouzuk, dvina, electronics, 8:30 PM, Morphine Raum, Köpenicker Straße 147, 10997 Berlin (Hinterhof 1. Etage)
July 17: Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Roslay’s Mestizx, 7 PM, Schlueterhof, Humboldt Forum, Museumsinsel, 10178 Berlin
July 17: Liz Allbee, trumpet, John Edwards, double bass, and Steve Noble, 8 PM, Exploratorium, Zossener Strasse 24, 10961, Berlin
July 17: Riki Hidaka and Oren Ambarchi, guitars, 8:30 PM, Morphine Raum, Köpenicker Straße 147, 10997 Berlin (Hinterhof 1. Etage)
July 17: Brad Henkel Quartet (Brad Henkel, trumpet, Rieko Okuda, piano, Isabel Rößler, double bass, and Samuel Hall, drums), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
July 18: Madison Greenstone, clarinet, and Roman Lemberg, organ, play Max Murray’s Secundum Surdum, 7:30 PM, Kapelle der Versöhnung, Bernauerstraße 4, 10115 Berlin
July 18: Bill Callahan, 8 PM, Passionkirche, Marheinekeplatz 2, 10961 Berlin (sold out)
July 18: Mark Turner Quartet (Mark Turner, tenor saxophone, Jason Palmer, trumpet, Joe Martin, double bass, and Jonathan Pinson, drums), 9 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, Hauptstraße 89, 12159 Berlin
July 20: Gerald Clayton, piano, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitar, 6:30 and 9 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, Hauptstraße 89, 12159 Berlin
July 21: Ganavya, 8 PM, Saal 1, Funkhaus Berlin, Nalepastraße 18, 12459 Berlin