Zack Nestel-Patt is a bassist and composer whose drive to combine seemingly disparate musical influences into a cohesive sound sets his outstanding instrumental music in a category of its own. Growing up in Massachusetts, Nestel-Patt studied and practiced the double bass, intensively immersing himself in the deep traditions of both jazz and classical music. His music is fundamentally grounded in those traditions, but also looks beyond, exploring the overlap between musical structure, improvisation, and modern studio techniques.
Nestel-Patt recorded his newest album, titled at the hour of closing, over the course of several years and in a variety of locations, including Baltimore, MD, West Stockbridge, MA, New York City, and Los Angeles. The compositions on the album were influenced by the various auras surrounding these different environments and by elements of the experimental electronic music (Brian Eno, Fennez) and contemporary classical music (Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzioli) he was immersing himself in. Nestel-Patt structured the album’s compositions around cascading layers of double bass and synthesizer, trying to blur the lines between organic and synthetic sounds. Though he had originally conceived the album as a series of works modeled after a classical string quartet but with differing instrumentation, Nestel-Patt’s explorations, both musically and geographically, ultimately yielded a complex, multi-layered set of atmospheric compositions, totally original and unique to themselves in form and effect.
The pieces on at the hour of closing directly grapple with the calamity of climate change. The composition titles themselves form a poem inspired by Moses Ibn Ezra, the great medieval Jewish philosopher and poet from Moorish Spain, and are a supplication for a new and revolutionary understanding of humanity’s relationship to the Earth. The pieces, along with their titles, recast humanity’s struggle to combat the destruction of a livable habitat as a modern manifestation of the biblical flood, and charge humanity to take responsibility for its own salvation.
at the hour of closing is the follow up release to 2018’s outstanding River Run, which established a unique and adventurous voice as a band leader and composer, incorporating elements of ambient electronic music and experimental indie rock into a jazz trio format. That album features musicians Kenji Herbert on electric guitar and Jonathan Pinson on drums.
Nestel-Patt has also been involved in numerous other bands and musical projects, such as the electro-acoustic instrumental trio Pools, which features electronic musician BlankFor.ms (Tyler Gilmore) and guitarist Kenji Herbert, as well as the indie rock/dream pop outfit No Swoon, which he co-leads with singer and guitarist Tasha Abbott. No Swoon have released a full-length record along with numerous singles, and have toured extensively in the USA since 2018.