Spilla / Ensemble Nist-Nah

"Spilla" LP (2025) by Ensemble Nist-Nah.

This is a project formed in 2019 by Australian drummer/percussionist Will Guthrie.

This album features two different groups working on each side, further highlighting the members' songwriting contributions. Each side features one song written by a member other than Guthrie.

As this makes clear, Ensemble Nist-Nah is not aiming to "recreate the gamelan ensemble" of Europe, but rather to play a unique hybrid percussion music that uses Javanese gamelan instruments and other percussion instruments, fusing Southeast Asian musical influences with free jazz and contemporary hip hop.

While previous albums like "Nist-Nah" and "Elders" included traditional Javanese music, the only song on "Spilla" that was composed outside the group is by Roscoe Mitchell, whom Guthrie has long admired and occasionally performed with.

If we consider gamelan as a session that is fine as it is, music that creates space, then this work by Ensemble Nist-Nah is not just a reproduction, but a new piece of music. The jacket, featuring hand-drawn illustrations of cymbals and gongs by core member Charles Dubois, is also cute and mushroom-like (Ammel).