Even though the focus of VERA’s program is no longer exclusively on underground guitar music for quite some time now, this must be the first time that a ‘hybrid gamelan / percussion ensemble‘ will make their way to our venue. After performances at Bimhuis in 2023 and Le Guess Who 2025 we are very happy to welcome Ensemble Nist-Nah to Groningen.
Ensemble Nist-Nah was formed in 2019 by Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie. The diverse and rotating group of French musicians that make up Ensemble Nist-Nah – whose collective experience encompasses traditional Gamelan performance, contemporary composition, noise, jazz, and everything in between – perform on drum kits, traditional and junk percussion, and a complete set of Javanese Gamelan instruments.
The music of Ensemble Nist-Nah is informed, influenced and inspired by various traditional musics from Indonesia and gong based musics from South east Asia. From the stately suspended temporality of the courtly Javanese Gamelan Sekatan, to the delirious, thuggish repetition that accompanies the Javanese trance ritual Jathilan. However the music aims to distances itself from dry academic discourse or questionable exoticism. It resulted in two beautiful and exciting records that were released on leading experimental label Black Truffle in 2022 and 2025 and several tours through Europe and the UK.
This  concert will be the first edition of Minorie that won’t take place in the Zienema set-up as a seated concert. Because of the amount of instruments that Ensemble Nisht-Nah will bring they will play on the floor before the main stage with audiences close and around it. There will be a few rows of chairs with additional standing places so make sure to be on time to secure your chair if needed.
Opener of the night will be Jon Collin and the combination with Ensemble Nist-Nah fits in the best way possible; stylistically different but very close in spirit. Instead of Gamelan music, this English guitarist and experimenter takes the blues and opens up the more than a century old genre with drones, feedback, charged moments of silence, field recordings and diy recording techniques. His minimalist take on American Primitive and all kinds of other folk music has made Jon Collin an important voice in underground guitar music for almost two decades running his own imprints Winebox Press and Early Music. Since his move to Stockholm some years ago he has added the nyckelharpa – or ‘keyed fiddle’ – to his repertoire, an instrument that’s typical for Swedish folk and religious music. Other excursions are unlikely collaborations with electronic acts like Troth and Demdike Stare. Be surprised by this special guitarist.

Ensemble Nist-Nah | Bandcamp

Jon Collin | Bandcamp