photos from the el nicho festival – mexico city, may 2016

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Mazen Kerbaj

Over the last week I was lucky enough to attend the El Nicho festival, which took place across a number of venues in Mexico city. Those readers in London might remember the festival’s founder Eric Namour from the killer gigs he put on in the days before Cafe Oto, and before his departure to Mexico. El Nicho is a festival of avant-garde music, now in its sixth season, which brings together a diverse group of cross-disciplinary practitioners from across the globe, placing them in close collaboration with each other and with peers and audiences from Mexico. Stretching over five days (many of which had more than one event), its ambition was staggering. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that was ready to collapse as the final day wound down.

The “headliners” were The Thing (Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (NO), Mats Gustafsson (SE), and Paal Nilssen-Love (NO)), Arashi (Akira Sakata (JP) Johan Berthling (SE), Paal Nilssen-Love), Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling, Mazen Kerbaj (LB), Lori Goldston (US), Mike Cooper (GB), Aimee Theriot (MX), Akira Sakata, Leafcutter John (GB), Ignaz Schich (DE), Greg Pope (GB), John Hegre (NO), Kassell Jaeger (FR), Moniek Darge (BE), Francoise Vanhecke (BE), Eko Eko Azarak (US), Alexander Bruck (DE/MX), Ensemble Liminar, and Juan Sebastian Lach, among others.

The festival was a stunning success – both in terms of the remarkable bar of performances, and attendance, as well as in each event’s execution. What I found particularly refreshing was the constant collaborations between artists. One moment you would find them solo, the next in an unexpected duo, and again in an ensemble – many of which were mind-blowing. Particular favorites of mine were Mazen Kerbaj, Lori Goldston, Mike Cooper. Everything the three touched turned to gold. Francois Bonnet, current director of Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in Paris, gave an amazing acusmátic presentation of historic works from the studio on an eight channel speaker system surrounding the audience, before issuing a staggering performance under his moniker Kassell Jaeger. I adored the performance of Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie I Darío Bernal Villegas, Alejandro Castaños, Ramón del Buey, Juan Cristóbal Cerrillo, Carlos Iturralde, and Iván Manzanilla. There were also a number of brilliant performances of works by James Tenney by Alexander Bruck, Ensemble Liminar, and Juan Sebastian Lach, which I couldn’t get enough of.

The diversity of the week was wonderful, ranging from historic electronic works, 20th century avant-garde Classical, Free-Jazz, and improvisations by many of today’s best practitioners. Who could ask for more. I took a number of photos over the week and thought I would share them. The only give a small window into what occurred, but I hope you enjoy them all the same.

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Francois Bonnet, Tito Rivas, and Eric Namour discuss the history of Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM)

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Francois Bonnet

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Darío Bernal Villegas in duo with Mazen Kerbaj

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Mazen Kerbaj in duo with Darío Bernal Villegas

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Mazen Kerbaj / Darío Bernal Villegas duo

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Mazen Kerbaj in duo with Darío Bernal Villegas

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Ignaz Schick in duo with Carlos Alegra

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