The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Will Guthrie 
  Nist-Nah
  (Black Truffle) 


  
   review by Brian Olewnick
  2020-10-28
Will Guthrie: Nist-Nah (Black Truffle)

Though generally associated with the world of post-AMM improvisation, having recorded with the likes of Keith Rowe, Jérôme Noetinger, Ferran Fages and large portions of the Australian improv community, Will Guthrie has always cut a noticeably different figure, a drummer of extreme precision as well as sheer strength and fortitude. This came to the fore in recent years with his participation, with Jean-Luc Guionnet and Clayton Thomas, in Ames Room where his combination of intricate, often pounding patterns both shifted on a dime and held rock steady to a degree of intensity and duration that was hard to believe.

With the solo recording, Nist-Nah, Guthrie takes off on a new tack, one directly inspired by Balinese and Javanese gamelan music, using an assortment of instruments from the region in addition to his drum kit. Crucially, Guthrie doesn't simply try to imitate a culture of which he's not a part, but uses ideas found therein to generate his own music, one heavily indebted to the tradition but creating its own unique space. The brief introductory title track gives a hint: precisely drummed, intricate patterns varying in rhythm and pitch accompanied by a cloud of softly struck metallophones. Guthrie varies the ambiance with each piece. "Catlike" takes a rapid, steady rhythm and gradually embeds it in soft swirls of bell-tones and what sounds like strong breaths (but which might well be a form of maraca-like percussion). The mist imperceptibly overwhelms the first rhythm, creating a lush garden of percolating, extremely lovely sounds. Having lulled the listener into a pleasant kind of soporific state, Guthrie suddenly turns more sonically aggressive on "Lit 1+2", with a short explosion of metals, before subsiding into gentler, though still bumpy terrain. While the first five tracks are Guthrie compositions, the final one, "Kebogiro Glendeng", is a lengthy arrangement of a traditional Javanese song. Its utterly infectious melody is iterated, embellished and expanded upon throughout the track's 17 minutes, creating overlapping rhythms, layers of buzzing and other touches, slowly diffusing the music into a fine, complex haze.

A brilliant and unusual recording, highly recommended for listeners familiar with either Guthrie's prior work or Southeast Asian traditional music.







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Derek Bailey/
John Stevens:
The Duke of
Wellington
(Confront)



Paul Dunmall:
Away With
Troubles And Anxieties!
(Discus)



Shifa (
Musson/
Thomas/
Sanders):
Ecliptic
(Discus)



Natsuki Tamura/
Satoko Fujii:
Ki
(Libra)



Borah Bergman/
Anthony Braxton/
Peter Brotzmann:
Eight By Three
(Mixtery)



Hedvig Mollestad Trio:
Bees In
The Bonnet
(Rune Grammofon)



Acid Mothers Temple &
The Melting Paraiso
UFO:
Black Mountain
ide
(Rolling Heads)



Evan Parker/
Bill Nace:
Branches (
Live at Cafe OTO)[VINYL]
(Open Mouth)



Alexander Hawkins/
Taylor Ho Bynum:
A Near Permanent State
Of Wonder
(RogueArt)



Joseph Holbrooke (
w/ Derek Bailey/
Gavin Bryars/
Tony Oxley):
Last Live 2001 -
In Memoriam
Derek Bailey
And
Tony Oxley
[2 CDs]
(Tzadik)



Zeena Parkins:
Modesty Of
The Magic Thing
(Tzadik)



Dave Douglas (
Douglas/
Ridout/
Adewumi/
Brennan/
Pass/
Royston):
Alloy
(Greenleaf Music)



Ivo Pereleman/
Nate Wooley/
Matt Moran/
Mark Helias/
Tom Rainey:
A Modicum
Of the Blues
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)



Angles 11:
Tell Them
It's The Sound Of Freedom
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)



Sifter (
w/ Lisa Mezzacappa):
Flake/
Fracture
(Queen Bee Records)



Jean-Marc Foussat:
Abbatage
(Fou Records)



Chester Hawkins:
Apsis
(Intangible Arts)



Karl Evangelista's Apura +
Andrew Cyrille:
Bukas
(577 Records)



Frode Gjerstad/
Alexander von Schlippenbach/
Dag Magnus Narvesen:
Seven Tracks
(Relative Pitch)



Kaze (
Fujii/
Tamura/
Orins/
Pruvost) with/ Koichi Makigami:
Shishiodoshi
(Circum-Libra)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (17281)