Estonia’s Maarja Nuut: Finding the Heart of the Past in Digital Primitivism (NY Debut)

It starts in the past. An old tune from a village, a sliver of an ancient lament. All the joy or heartache of Estonia’s history in a few notes of music. And then it’s transformed, soaring into the 21^st century as loops and layers slowly build to create something new out of the traditional as voice and fiddle weave and glide into a new, hypnotic whole. Call it digital primitivism.

It’s what Estonian fiddler and singer Maarja Nuut will bring to her New York debut at Elebash Hall, 365 Fifth Avenue on New York on September 30 as part of the world music concert series Live@365, produced by Isabel Soffer/LiveSounds for the Department of Public Programs at the Graduate Center.

Nuut mashes up past and present, using tools from both. Electronic manipulation meets the ancient structure of tunes and songs. The result is subtle and hypnotic, sometimes as soft as the pause between breaths, sometimes as bold as a quick blaze. It’s one woman’s striking view of the music of her homeland.

A musician and teacher, Maarja Nuut grew up in Rakvere, close to the Baltic coast in northern Estonia. With a choir conductor for a mother, music was always around, and Nuut began learning violin as a young girl. “I remember going to concerts since very early childhood,” Nuut says. “I began walking to my first concert alone at the age of seven. I liked that a lot.”

Her first impact on the music scene came as a member of the trio Knihv, exploring the wealth of Estonian dance music. “It’s amazing that there were so many fiddlers with a distinctive style and their very own original tunes,” Nuiut says. “They hadn’t received proper attention from contemporary musicians, not to mention the wider audience. We decided to fix that by bringing genuine fiddle music back to the dance floors.”

Working with Knihv led her to become a founder of DanceLab, examining and trying to restore traditional dance to Estonia. And from working with the physicality of dance, on her 2013 album Soolo she began to experiment with the melding of past and present. This time it’s music for the mind more than the body, improvisations constructed over the framework of the past, something that seems to exist out of time. Everything stems from her deep love and knowledge of the Estonian tradition.

“This state is like an impulse which gives rise to music and makes me want to prolong being in the moment and concentrate,” Nuut explains. “That alters the way of seeing, hearing and perceiving. It is always ‘now’ and old tunes are as fresh as improvisations which were born a second ago.” Her digital loops and layers of fiddle and voice make for stark, affecting beauty on Soolo, using repetition and variation to build a musical world.

Live, there’s more freedom; she can follow any line of inspiration as it strikes. Her shows build bridges of intimacy with the audience, carrying them along with her. Each performance is different because every night is different, every venue and country brings different thoughts. The thread between them is Nuut herself, her playing and singing, and the stories she tells, about the music, about her instrument, about her country and its culture.

About Live@365:

Live@365 is presented by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and curated/produced by Isabel Soffer/LiveSounds.org. All Live@365 shows take place at the Graduate Center’s Elebash Recital Hall, an intimate, 180-seat space with classical recital hall design and superb state-of-the-art sound.

Live at 365 is made possible with the generous support of the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund.

The Graduate Center is located at 365 5th Avenue, between West 34 and West 35th Street. The venue is a short walk from the 6 train at the 33rd Street stop, the B / D / F / M or PATH train at the 34 Street Herald Square stop or the 1 / 2 / 3 trains at 34 Street Penn Station.

Tickets for all Live@365 shows can be purchased by visiting us online at Liveat365.org, by calling Showclix at 1-888-71-TICKETS (1-888-718-4253) or in person (if available), from 5:30 pm until showtime on the day of show at the venue. Tickets to all shows are $25 or $20 for Graduate Center members, students or faculty. Discount tickets for non-Graduate Center students may be purchased only in person at the event, when available.

For more information about shows, questions about the venue, and to learn more about the entire Live@365 season, please visit us on the web at Liveat365.org.

About the Graduate Center:

The Graduate Center is the principal doctorate-granting institution of the City University of New York (CUNY). As part of New York's vibrant and intellectual and cultural life, the Graduate Center presents a wide range of public conversations, panels, and performances, featuring prominent artists, writers and scholars. The spring 2015 season will feature events with Alison Bechdel, Bill T. Jones, Paul Krugman, Eric Bogosian, Joseph Stiglitz, and many others. For more information about the Graduate Center and its public programming, please visit www.gc.cuny.edu/publicprograms.