Encyclopedia Mandolinnica

On Encyclopedia Mandolinnica, Champion Mandolinist Ethan Setiawan catalogs the possibilities of his instrument

On his new record, “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica”, award-winning instrumentalist Ethan Setiawan explores the many possibilities of mandolin music through duets and trios with his friends, mentors, and heroes. “The record attempts to be as descriptive as possible about as many aspects of the mandolin as possible - kind of like an encyclopedia.” explains Setiawan, “I think it also leaves the door open for some appendixes…there may even be further volumes...”  Taking inspiration from albums like Darol Anger’s “Diary of a Fiddler”, and Mike Barnett’s “+1”, which are both made up of fiddle duets with a variety of collaborators, the breadth of Setiawan’s ambitious project is brought into focus through a stripped-down mandolin ensemble format, allowing the instrument itself to take center stage. 

Originally from Goshen, Indiana, Ethan Setiawan tried out numerous instruments before finding his way to the mandolin, making a name for himself when he won both the National Mandolin Championship in Winfield, KS and the Rockygrass Mandolin Championship. He attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship. Years later, Setiawan has become a leading voice of the mandolin, his path wending its way through traditional bluegrass, to Bach partitas, and free jazz. He performs regularly with his progressive bluegrass band Fine Ground, and Scottish fusion duo Hildaland. His previous solo albums “Flux” and “Gambit” (produced by Darol Anger) were made up of original tunes drawing from all these wells, but employed a more traditional full band format.

“I like variety, having lots of different music to work on is interesting to me,” Setiawan explains. “I might fall under the category of having too many different things going on actually…but I think it helps that the projects I work on are all distinct from one another. I have a progressive bluegrass band, a Scottish/folk duo, and a Latin jazz string band. Each project calls on different aspects of my musicianship, and this record is different from all of them again!”

 On “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica”, Setiawan duets with some of his past teachers, such as Don Stiernberg and Mike Marshall, both foundational to the mandolin’s place in current folk music. He also worked with players who are in the process of forging their influence on the instrument, like classical mandolinist Caterina Lichtenberg, Watchhouse frontman Andrew Marlin, and Scottish folk star Laura-Beth Salter. A notable moment on the record is an octave mandolin trio with Sharon Gilchrist and Darol Anger, called “Back At It,” a mid-tempo number that showcases the emotive melodic possibilities of the instrument in a lower register and the tasteful restraint of three powerhouse musicians. Contrastingly, on “Blazing Star” Setiawan duets with Jacob Jolliff in lightning-fast, virtuosic conversation. “I did a better job of keeping the full picture in mind during the process for this record,” Setiawan explains. “I was thinking, ok do we have a fast tune? A slow tune? What else does this record need to make it all work together?”

Setiawan recorded and mixed the album himself over a year, allowing him to gain perspective and clarity on each tune and session before moving on to the next. “Spreading the sessions out was an interesting way to make a record” he says, “and not a way I’d ever made one before. The space between individual sessions let me think a lot about how the record was shaping up and make repertoire or arrangement decisions based on what had already happened.”

With “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica,” Ethan Setiawan has added a collection of foundational mandolin music to his already illustrious recording catalog. A musician whose thirst for knowledge and exploration is never sated, Setiawan shows once again that he is always interested in reaching for the next challenge.

Artwork by Mike Cox