NOMON

Brooklyn-based percussion duo NOMON (Shayna and Nava Dunkelman) presents an audiovisual event with original music in collaboration with Cornell DMA composers Seare Farhat, Matias de Roux, María Bulla, Michele Cheng, Laura Cetilia, Josh Biggs, Han Xu, and Miles Friday at Cornell Cinema.

Shayna and Nava Dunkelman are musicians and percussionists currently based in Brooklyn, NY. After spending years apart working on their own unique voices, they came together in 2018 to form NOMON.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan to an Indonesian mother and an American father, the sisters became multi-instrumentalists performing alongside their mother, a musician and composer active in Asia and the Middle East.

They are strongly drawn to the dance-like movements and flow of playing percussion. It is as visual as it is aural. The trajectory of the hands and sticks, the shift of body weight, the eyes aiming to strike—the physicality of the performance has a choreographic quality as it is. The body follows a sequence of movements when immersed in playing the array of percussive instruments surrounding it.

The music lives in the intersection of electronic soundscapes and intricately composed percussion parts. They combine drum machines, vocal samples, synth melodies and modular synthesizers triggered by analog sensors with carefully chosen percussion sounds to create a cohesive interweaving of the electronic and acoustic elements. The seamless blend of the two worlds is essential to their music.

When composing, they are inspired by industrial music, avant-garde percussion improvisation, rhythms and sounds from their cultural background (Japan and Indonesia) and contemporary electronic music that incorporates voices instrumentally.

In addition to solo performances, Shayna toured with Pulitzer Award-Winning and Grammy-nominated composer Du Yun, Balún, Ali Sethi Grammy Award-winning ensemble Attacca Quartet among others.

Nava is a member of electro-percussion experimental noise duo IMA, and has performed or collaborated with Fred Frith, John Zorn, William Winant, Ikue Mori, Brandon Seabrook, Angélica Negrón, Pauchi Sasaki, and gabby fluke-mogul and many others.

Cornell DMA Composers: Seare Farhat, Matias de Roux, María Bulla, Michele Cheng, Laura Cetilia, Josh Biggs, Han Xu, and Miles Friday

This production is generously supported by the Department of Music, Cornell Cinema, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Finance Commission, and Cornell Council for the Arts.

more info at this website: www.navadunkelman.com/nomon

Ithaca Premiere