“I have two arms and two legs to work with my instruments,” says musician Tatsuya Nakatani. Indeed, in his solo performances he makes full use of all four, improvising with countless approaches to sound with drums, gongs and other instruments. For those who have seen him at The Bridge PAI or Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, it’s clear he doesn’t hold any part of himself back when he performs. He creates many of his own instruments, including wooden bow mallets and attachments to hang from gongs. Still, two sets of limbs feels like a limitation to Nakatani. “I always think: ‘How can I maximize this?’” he says.
His answer? The Nakatani Gong Orchestra. The basic concept behind the project is to train others to play bowed gongs. Nakatani leads a workshop with 11 musicians, who then perform together in order, increasing the depth and intensity of his music in a way that simply wouldn’t be possible for one person. After all, that’s 44 limbs to work with instead of just four.
Not content to just form a touring orchestra, Nakatani has created something closer to performance art. Each touring group is comprised of different members, many of whom aren’t musicians; what unites them is geography, curiosity and an interest in experimentation. They are all volunteers in a single city, fused together into the orchestra over the course of a two-and-a-half-hour workshop.
As he leads the workshop, Nakatani adapts the skills and tendencies of his volunteers to the unique acoustic setting of the performance. His overall approach is improvisational and experimental but draws influence from Japanese folk music. “I don’t compose in the normal music way,” he says. “I remember the gong sounds and I know how to layer and match them.” Nakatani views his role as a conductor more than a composer. “The gong orchestra is very limited in time,” he says. “I have to teach people how to bow the gongs and read my signs.”
Once the performance takes place on the evening of the workshop, the group then disbands, and Nakatani packs his gear into a van and drives on to the next stop. The experience lasts no more than half a day from start to finish, yet the effect is transformative for both participants and audience members. “I always feel it,” says Nakatani. “Everybody is so happy. Vibrationally, you get chills from that many gongs playing at the same time.”
The timbre and vibration of the gongs create a meditative atmosphere that is relaxing and restorative. Many say that the gongs produce frequencies that ultimately cultivate a heightened awareness of sound elsewhere. Nakatani likens this to the Japanese concept of ma, the idea that space can be created by defining non-space.
Though similar to gong baths and other rituals with sound waves, Nakatani notes that the events should not be mistaken for a spiritual ceremony. Rather, he places emphasis on the creative expression that comes from playing the gongs, stressing the importance of individuals finding their personal sound. “Sometimes people make unexpected sounds, but I try to use them in good ways,” he says. Much like the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, the gong orchestra embraces imperfection as part of the beauty of performance.
The Nakatani Gong Orchestra will arrive in Charlottesville on September 12, making way for an evening performance at The Haven. Lap the Miles event coordinator Annie Dunckel helped organize the event. “I wanted to have the gong orchestra come to Charlottesville after I saw it last summer in Baltimore,” says Dunckel. “I was blown away by the fact that all the people were local and sharing this music with their friends and neighbors. I love how this will be a local show despite it being a touring artist.”
To gather the right mixture of participants, Dunckel asked area creatives to participate, and musician Davis Salisbury is one of the volunteers. As one half of experimental drone duo Grand Banks, Salisbury also performs solo work as Dais Queue and is attuned to improvisational music. “I use a lot of [similar] influences to steer my own performances, so I am a good fit for this kind of thing,” Salisbury says. “But I have never personally played a gong in a real musical situation, just played around with them in stores or when a friend had one.”
He hasn’t seen the orchestra perform, but volunteered to participate based on Nakatani’s past performances. “Tatsuya is something like a force of nature, and it is impossible to passively sit through one of his performances,” says Salisbury. “He is an extremely skilled and dynamic improvisor. He brings a real energy and commitment to what he is doing to the performance, but there is also a palpable joy and even humor to the performances that humanizes them and provides moments of real connection.”
Nakatani will take the stage prior to the gong orchestra to play an improvisational set with his varied set of instruments—most likely including drums, hammered gongs and singing bowls. “I think that just about anyone could go to a Tatsuya show and walk away feeling like they saw something unique and joyful,” says Salisbury.
What music do you meditate to?
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