Nakatani Gong Orchestra + SHHH!! Ensemble

In many ways, percussion is so simple. When an audience witnesses a drummer, they’re tapping into an intuition that creates a relationship, marrying sound with choreography. The stick (or finger, hand, implement) comes up – and then down to strike the instrument, activating its resonance. This phenomenon makes the music tangible, allowing an audience to not just witness the action but to believe in the results of the sound, perhaps even inviting their ears and mind to open up to an instrument’s rich spectrum of color. This invitation to an instrument’s nature not only makes percussion-artists exceptionally resourceful and collaborative, but more often than not, practitioners of improvisation and creators rooted in the DIY spirit. New Works Calgary, Contemporary Calgary, Bug Incision, and Sound Atlas Festival are thrilled to be presenting an evening of stunning percussion performance in an eclectic double bill between the Ottawa-based SHHH!! Ensemble, and the legendary nomadic percussion-sound-artist Tatsuya Nakatani, presenting his traveling Nakatani Gong Orchestra.

Comprised of percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham the SHHH!! Ensemble have carved a space in modern chamber music, fiercely supportive of a growing body of Canadian composers, particularly women writing notated music. Having premiered works by Kelly-Marie Murphy, Noora Nakhaei, Monica Pearce, and the late Jocelyn Morlock, SHHH!! is not showing any sign of delay in their work’s expansion. The duo’s debut album Meanwhile (Analekta) was released in October 2022 to critical acclaim, reaching top positions on Apple Music and Spotify playlists, as well as being nominated for Classical Recording of the Year at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards. The title track, Meanwhile, was the first piece written for SHHH!! by composer John Beckwith. Currently, SHHH!! Ensemble is preparing to record their second album, a large-scale commissioned work by Frank Horvat entitled An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene, to be released in the fall of 2023 on the Leaf Music label. For their performance in Calgary, the duo will present commissions by Jocelyn Morlock, Monica Pearce, Harry Stafylakis, and Mari Alice Conrad, in addition to an improvised set with Tatsuya Nakatani.

No stranger to the scene in YYC, Tatsuya Nakatani makes his return to Calgary to present his Nakatani Gong Orchestra for the first time in the city. Having been internationally active since the 1990’s, Tatsuya Nakatani has produced over 80 recordings, with extensive tours and over 150 concerts a year. Tatsuya’s work represents the epitome of the Do-It-Yourself artist as he is not only his own record producer and engineer, but auto-mechanic, tour manager, and visual artist, having lived in his built-out van over countless tours where his vast collection of instruments, kitchen, and living quarters travel with him, keeping his work nomadic and courageously independent. 

Nakatani’s sound practice has adopted various instruments of not only struck, but bowed nature, centers around his use of the wind gong as an expressive tool for building layers of complex vibration, ethereal melodies, and dramatic pacing of texture. Made up of sixteen Calgary locals with Nakatani as conductor and sculptor, the Nakatani Gong Orchestra’s performance will be a momentous occasion, featuring Nakatani’s own compositions in a richly immersive sound world rarely experienced. The various players will be using hand-carved Kobo-bows Nakatani crafts himself, commanding the instruments to his intentions as a ground-up independent artist, while rooted in community building and collaboration through this unique sound-art experience.

–Chris Sies