etienne nillesen

Thursday, May 14th, the premiere of ME! A duo with the great trombone player Matthias Muche. Although we have been playing together for several years in different projects (Elisabeth Coudoux EMISZATETT, Carl Ludwig Hübsch ART BLAU and the trio T.ON w/ Constantin Herzog on double bass) this is our first duo concert! Really looking forward to play with Matthias and in front of a live audience again!!! Concert starts at 20h,  Stadtgarten Cologne    

  Weston Olencki and I are digitally releasing our first record as a duo EN on May 1st on bandcamp! Eva Jeske made the beautiful cover for this project. Three panels of friction, breath, and sustained action. Etienne Nillesen – extended snare drum. Weston Olencki – trombone. releases May 1, 2020 All pieces recorded live May 2019 at studio 501, Chicago, IL. Mixed/Mastered by Weston Olencki. Album art and design by Eva Jeske.

Here’s a short ‘tonal’ improvisation on my extended snare drum recorded with my phone at home. This is something I am very interested in right now. Playing melodies on a snare drum without extra tuning or pitching by pressing the drumhead. Just letting the snare drum sing. Everything you hear are the natural acoustics of the drum + drumhead with no electronics used.

Paviljoen Ongehoorde Muziek invited me to participate in the POM Good Virus Sessions with a 1 minute improvisation. Here is the idea of POMs Good Virus Sessions: The musician records a one minute improvisation which ends in such a way so that another musician can pick this as a start of his 1 minute improvisation. And here is my contribution:   I thought it would be nice to send my video to two of my […]

Here is a really nice review (in German only) of the concert I played last January with Axel Dörner and Sebastian Gramss in Munich at Offene Ohren (MUG).

Musik die hören will / Music that wants to hear. Amazing new short video by Anna Lytton! Dušica Cajlan – prepared piano Etienne Nillesen – extended snare drum Georg Wissel – prepared alto sax Mastering: Gerald Schauder End of 2020 we have planned several concerts with this project. Anna will join Georg Wissel, Dusica Cajlan and me with live visuals/ drawings. Very excited to play with these amazing people again! More information and tourdates of […]

Plein Theater in Amsterdam, February 9th 2020. Nieuwe Noten concert series. photo credits: Elisabeth Melchior (video coming soon)

This weekend I am playing three concerts with Axel Dörner and Sebastian Gramss in Germany. Very excited to play with this trio! January 24th Weikersheim / Club W71 January 25th München / Offene Ohren January 26th Karlsruhe / Jazzclub Karlsruhe After these concerts I will go to The Netherlands to give a workshop at the conservatory in Maastricht on Tuesday (January 28th). Looking forward working with the students there! photo credits: Günter Horn    

Here are two short impressions of my solo concert in Stockholm on December 12th 2019 @ FRIM pa Fylkingen.

After three very intense but rewarding weeks, playing with EMISZATETT in Germany and Switzerland + a solo set, duo with Claudio Pena and a project with Sebastian Gramss, Rudi Mahall, Valentin Garvie, Ernesto Jodos and Martin de Lassaletta in Argentina, I am back home now for a few days. Practicing a bit for my solo set at Frim på Fylkingen in Stockholm on December 12th!! Judith Hamann is playing the other solo set that evening. […]