Ensemble Nist-Nah is an eight-piece Gamelan/percussion group led by Nantes-based Australian drummer Will Guthrie who take traditional Indonesian music in adventurous new directions. From the stately suspended temporality of the Javanese Gamelan Sekatan, to the delirious, thuggish repetition of the Javanese trance ritual Jathilan, to the shimmering acoustic glitch of contemporary Balinese composer Dewa Alit, Guthrie pays tribute to this sophisticated yet elemental percussion music whilst drawing on Roscoe Mitchell’s percussion works, Henry Threadgill’s multi-directional improvisatory music, as well as cross-cultural adventures from the likes of Trevor Watts, Michael Ranta and Mike Cooper.

[An] astounding debut from Ensemble Nist-Nah, a percussion group that uses drum kits, junk percussion and a complete set of Javanese gamelan instruments to produce sounds that absorb folk, jazz, noise and elements of contemporary composition … it sounds like "On the Corner"-era Miles Davis re-imagining latter-day Autechre via Antony Manning's foundational "Islets in Pink Polypropylene” (Boomkat)