Join Sō + Nomon + Olivier Tarpaga for a special Brooklyn Bound at BKCM!! For tickets — which are pay-as-you-wish, suggested $20 — visit https://bkcm.org
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.
For more about NOMON music visit https://www.shaynadunkelmanmusic.com/nomon
Olivier Tarpaga (USA/Burkina Faso), is a Lester Horton Award-winning choreographer/director of the African Music Ensembles of Princeton University. Tarpaga has performed and taught music and dance regularly in more than 50 countries throughout Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.
Tarpaga’s music and dance works have been described as “unforgettable” by Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by The New York Times. His major works include Once the dust settles, flowers bloom (2023) When Birds Refused to Fly (2019), Declassified Memory Fragment (2015), Not Because You’re African (2010), Disorder Inside Order (2008), Sira Kan (2007), and Tin Suka (2001). His commissioned works include Only One Will Rise (2022) for the Limon Company, Wind of Nomads (2017) for Malaysia’s internationally renowned HANDS Percussion, Resist-Resurge: Traces of Hope for Maya Dance Theater of Singapore, and The way of sands (2012) for the Temple of Fine Arts in Perth, Australia.
Born in Kaya, Burkina Faso, Tarpaga followed in the steps of his father Abdoulaye Richard Tarpaga, co-artistic director of the 1960s Orchestre Super Volta. At the age of sixteen he was selected as an actor, dancer and drummer for Burkina Faso’s acclaimed company “Le Bourgeon du Burkina,” which performed at numerous festivals and theaters throughout Africa, Europe, and South America. Tarpaga is the founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Dafra Drum (1995–present), which plays traditional Manding music, and Dafra Kura Band (2011–present), which plays contemporary African music. He is also a co-founder of Burkina Faso’s internationally acclaimed Compagnie Ta (2000–2004) and Philadelphia-based Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project (2004–present).
