MURF / MURW FESTIVAL

@SEVERAL LOCATIONS – TILBURG
TICKETS

From 2-4 October Space is the Place programs three acts at Murf Murw Festival – a festival in Tilburg that focuses on theatre, music, visual arts and film: Ensemble Nist-Nah & Frank Rosaly/Jeff Parker/Rob Frye/Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti.

NOTE: Due to family circumstances unfortunately Jeff Parker will not be able to play at Murf Murw festival; guitarist Raphael Vanoli will replace him in the quartet.

Frank Rosaly/RAPHAEL VANOLI/Rob Frye/Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti

Drummer and composer Frank Rosaly brings together an exceptional quartet featuring woodwind player Rob Frye (Bitchin Bajas, Flux Bikes), guitarist Jeff Parker (Tortoise, Brian Blade) and multi-instrumentalist Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti (MESTIZX, Awichas) for a performance rooted in rhythm, repetition, improvisation and collective intention. Drawing from decades of jazz, improvised and experimental practices, Rosaly’s compositions embrace repetition and time, stretching form, abstracting cadence and exposing dissonance in pulse and structure through melodic development and a folky harmonic sensibility.

The music is inspired by Afro-Indigenous Puerto Rican Bomba traditions, including holandés, cuembé and seis corrido, alongside traditional plena, música jíbara, rumba, Cuban Regla Lucumí and batá drumming practices. Rather than reproducing these styles, the quartet creates a hybrid musical language in which stylistic borders are blurred and dismantled. Through improvisation, experimentation and deeply grounded ensemble interplay, they evoke the spirit of a bombazo: a communal gathering celebrating resistance, perseverance and pride. Rosaly’s work reflects on identity, colonialism, migration and ancestry, paying tribute to Taíno and African cultural legacies through rich tapestries of sound, rhythm and performance.

Will GUTHRIE’S ENSEMBLE NIST-NAH

Led by Nantes-based Australian drummer and percussionist Will Guthrie, Ensemble Nist-Nah brings together eight musicians around an impressive collection of gongs, bells, singing bowls, and tuned percussion.

Drawing from gamelan traditions from Indonesia and other gong-based music cultures from Southeast Asia, the ensemble creates not a reconstruction of traditional music, but a living, constantly evolving sound body. Pulsating rhythms, resonating metals, hypnotic repetitions, and collective improvisation merge into music that feels simultaneously ceremonial, physical, and surprisingly contemporary.