Ringside Gamelan With Ensemble Nist-Nah
Within seconds of taking the stage, percussionist Will Guthrie, founder of the gamelan group Ensemble Nist-Nah, mentioned there was an empty row at the front for anyone wishing to sit on the floor. Now, as I get older and even less punk rock by the day (from a baseline level of punkness roughly equivalent to The Singing Nun, only less talented), I increasingly appreciate physical comfort at live events. Having arrived to zero empty chairs, faced with standing on my tip-toes for 2 hours in the hope of actually seeing something, I jumped at the chance of parking my arse, even on a concrete floor.
What became clear after squeezing past the seated throngs to find a place amidst the hipster feet that filled the floor of Café Oto*, a tiny though legendary experimental music venue in Dalston, now known internationally for its connection to the Oscar-winning soundtrack to ‘The Brutalist’, was that this was not only preferable to standing at the back of the room—this was the best way to experience the show, the second of the group’s 2-night residency.
Fun fact—gamelan is not a genre, as I assumed, but the collective name of the instruments, a mixture of xylophones, gongs, and cymbals, with its roots in Indonesian and Southeast Asian traditional music. It’s a unique sound that’s difficult to put into words. Did you ever see ‘Akira’? Imagine that soundtrack (one of the all-time greats, by the way), sans synthesizers.
Back to Café Oto. To describe the performance area as a “stage” would be an overstatement – it’s a curtain-backed clearing where, 3 hours earlier, people were sitting drinking coffee at bistro tables. Sprawled across the floor among a vast array of unamplified gamelan, Ensemble Nist-Nah, consisting of Australian-born Guthrie and 6 French nationals, performed an instrument-swapping ballet, often changing mid-song, producing deceptively simple rhythms that morphed and mutated into something closer to free jazz than anything formal and traditional. This was no meditative sound bath, especially not when accompanied by guest drummer Fyn Dobson, previously seen alongside the likes of FKA Twigs and Oneohtrix Point Never.
I cannot speak to the experience of those who experienced the performance from the apparent luxury of a wooden chair, nor from those who stood at the back of the room. But sat effectively ringside, on the level of and, at times, within an arm’s reach of the performers, occasionally moving my drink to ensure the ensemble didn’t spill it mid-show, it was an overwhelming sonic experience. Without an amp or microphone in sight, the power of the instruments and their players was breathtaking. Literally—after virtually every number, I found myself exhaling, only realizing after the fact that I had been holding my breath in sheer exhilaration. Compared to the millions of dullard 6-string strummers who stood perfectly still on stages filled with Marshalls and XLR cables, the show was also a feast for the eyes, the dozens of gongs, gamelan, and drums, and, at one particularly noteworthy moment, tuned planks of wood, creating a visual tapestry that puts almost every rock band on the planet to shame.
I’ve previously referred to Senyawa as the best live act on the planet. After experiencing Ensemble Nist-Nah, there may be some competition. To be fair, as with all culture, the way you experience something is as important, if not more so, as the thing itself. Had I been standing at the back of the room, maybe I’d be writing differently about it now. But for the 90 minutes they were on stage, close enough to see the sweat on the performers’ brows, it was an unparalleled musical and visual experience that, if you find yourself near them on a forthcoming tour, I cannot recommend enough.
Had I secured a chair, I’d have spent the evening on the edge of it. Though with hindsight, I should have brought a cushion.
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*Full disclosure: in January 2024, I played two shows at Café Oto with Goodiepal. Halfway through the first show, I was interrupted by the sound of some very loud electric drilling, as a workman had arrived at 9:30pm to repair the front door, which, as someone who’s been performing on-and-off for 20 years, is one of the greatest heckles I have ever experienced.
