CIRCUS
Juliana Venter – vocals
Thomas Johansson – trumpet
Signe Emmeluth – alto saxophone
Kalle Moberg – accordion
Christian Meaas Svendsen – double bass & bass guitar
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums & percussion
Nilssen-Love has composed the music for Circus, drawing inspiration from Ethiopia and Brazil, in addition to his long-standing fascination for music from Mali and Senegal.
At first the band performed with a conventional set list with an order of songs. But now the bandleader likes to shake things up a little. He wants the band to improvise as free as possible but still using the written material. So now anyone can play any part of any song at any time. Sometimes you´ll hear a fragment of one song before the next is on. Sometimes the band happens to play parts from three different songs at the same time. Organised chaos!
Watch
In February 2024 the three guitarists of The Ex (Terrie Ex, Andy Moor and Arnold de Boer) joined them at Bimhuis Amsterdam. Listen
Jungle fever in the circus: The cheering lifted the roof during this concert and it’s a miracle that we didn´t all descend to civil disobedience, kicked down the tables and started dancing. (A. Vinger about the first concert which was played during the pandemic)
“Circus” by Paal Nilssen-Love made the audience go wild with a virtuoso performance (Jazz fest Berlin)
His new septet, Circus, conveys the usual raucous intensity, but it feels much different than his usual modus operandi, both in the prevalence of composed material – much of it borrowed from and/or inspired by Brazilian music – and the presence of vocalist Juliana Venter, an actor who brings plenty of drama to her mix of written and improvised melodies and texts. (…) The arrangements are full of shifts, toggling between radically different, jacked-up folk styles, but the timbre, visceral rapport, and presence of Venter carve out unique territory. It’s simultaneously playful and furious, with more concise improvised passages cutting through the arrangements with a furious sense of purpose. (…) A fantastic surprise. (Peter Margasak, the Quietus)
Large Unit
Thomas Johansson (NO) – trumpet; Mats Äleklint (SE) – trombone; Kristoffer Alberts (NO) – tenor and alto saxophone; Julie Kjær (DK) – alto saxophone and flute; Klaus Holm (NO) – Bb clarinet, alto and baritone saxophone; Per Åke Holmlander (SE) – tuba; Kalle Moberg (NO) – accordion; Ketil Gutvik (NO) – electric guitar; Tommi Keranen (FIN) – electronics; Jon Rune Strøm (NO) – double and electric bass; Christian Meaas Svendsen (NO) – double and electric bass; Andreas Wildhagen (NO) – drums & percussion; Paal Nilssen-Love (NO) – drums & percussion; Celio DeCarvalho (BR) – percussion; Christian Brynildsen Obermayer (NO) –sound
Paal Nilssen-Love is one of the hardest working and most prolific musicians there is. Known from bands like The Thing, Ballister, Hairy Bones, Chicago Tentet and Original Silence, as well as collaborations with musicians like Arto Lindsay, Otomo Yoshihide, Akira Sakata, Ken Vandermark, Jim O’Rourke, Peter Brötzmann, Thurston Moore and many others, and with an impressive live activity. In 2013 he decided it was time to start his own big band ensemble, and Large Unit came to life. Consisting of mostly younger Norwegian musicians, Large Unit manifests as an intense powerhouse force on stage, but also veers into more subtle and textural passages. The group is also fortunate to include members from the other Nordic countries; Finland, Sweden and Denmark. In other words: Nordic music at it’s best!
Large Unit burst into life at Molde Jazzfestival July 2013 and has since then toured Europe, Ethiopia, Brazil, Japan and USA.
After the two-track EP “First Blow” in 2013, they released the massive, more than two hour long debut album “Erta Ale” in 2014 – a format size fit for the band. They expanded to 14 members (including two Brazilian percussionists) in August 2015 and recorded live and in studio which resulted in the CD named “ANA”. The album combines Brazilian rhythms, free blowing and big band riffing in a highly successful way. Nilssen-Love had a new book of tunes for their European tour of 2015 and these were later recorded and appear on the studio album titled “Fluku”. They also expanded to include 20 music students from Oslo in connection with contemporary music organisation Ny Musikk’s festival Only Connect in Oslo. This concert, consisting of the commissioned piece “More Fun, Please!” was released in the spring of 2018.
All Large Unit’s compositions are written by Nilssen-Love, but the musicians are always given great freedom to contribute their own flavors to the music. The band is stripped down to single players, duos etc., and at times split into several groups. The power of the whole group is of course a treat in itself when in full blast.
Nilssen-Love has taken inspiration from his years in groups like Peter Brötzmann Chicago tentet, Ken Vandermark ́s Territory band and FrodeGjerstad ́s Circulasione Totale Orchestra. Traces from this experience are evident, but still with the aim to create a new group with a sound of it’s own.
At Molde jazzfest 2018 Large Unit was extended to 21 persons, adding musicians from Brazil and from the Ethiopian music/dance band Fendika, and throwing Dutch guitarist Terrie Ex in the mix as well. Large Unit EthioBraz nowadays consists of all Large Unit musicians plusMelaku Belay (ET) – dance; Zinash Tsegaye (ET) – dance; Nardos Tesfaye (ET) – vocals; Habetamu Yeshambel (ET) – masingo (stringinstrument); Mesay Abebaye (ET) – kobero (drums); Sentayehu Tadasse (ET) – krahr (stringinstrument); Robel Solomon (ET) – bass, Terrie Ex (NL) guitar
Ethiobraz is a colorful cross-pollination, an exuberant tribute to musical openness, positive energy and life. Twenty-one artists from three continents, together account for an exciting, emotionally intense trip (Guy Peters)
Watch EthioBraz
New Brazilian Funk
Frode Gjerstad (N) – alto saxophone
Paulinho Bicolor (BR) – cuíca
Kiko Dinucci (BR) – electric guitar, voice
Felipe Zenicola (BR) – electric bass
Paal Nilssen-Love (N) – drums
Imagine a meeting between Ornette Coleman’s electric band and Hermeto Pascoal. Very electric, quite danceable, wild and rapid-changing grooves with clear links and references to samba and samba rock.
The band met and played their first concert in 2018 at Roskilde Festival in Denmark, performing in front of an enthusiastic audience of 2000 people shaking their asses and dancing through the course of the band’s 50-minute concert. The concert in its entirety is released on CD on PNL Records
Although the band is run by Nilssen-Love, the music is free improvised and all members are equal. The band members were chosen by Paal because of their individual qualities and his own musical relation with them.
Frode Gjerstad, the oldest member of the group, took Paal on his shoulders when Paal was only 16. Since then, they´ve worked off and on in large groups but mostly duo and trio. Frode Gjerstad has for years and years sought out free improvisation as his means and remains the strongest figure of free music in Norway.
Kiko Dinucci is a guitar player and singer/songwriter, famous, ao, for his group Metá Metá, and his solo career, where he explores the sound of “samba sujo”, with strong influences from rock, punk and post-punk. He has also worked with legends like Elza Soares, Tom Zé, Criolo, Jards Macalé..
Felipe Zenicola is a new figure on the scene of improvised music and is mostly known for his work with Chinese Cookie Poets. He plays the electric bass like no one else: full of energy and with quite a stamina. He´s in it for the long run.
Paulinho Bicolor is somewhat a rare figure on the scene in Brazil. He knows all the various percussion instruments of Brazilian music, not least the string instrument cavaquinho. But Paulinho decided to focus on the cuíca only. He has mastered the instrument which is actually a friction drum. He is continuously pushing himself, the instrument and in fact, the instrument´s traditions to another level.
Be prepared for a new take on what Brazilian funk and improvised music can be, NOW!
Despite the title, New Brazilian Funk doesn’t have much funk except for Dinucci’s line of jagged electric guitar riffs in “The Fruit of the Lemon” and the electric bass of Felipe Zenicola. [The approach is] a free-for-all yet with more ebb and flow, identifiable rhythm(s) and an urgent impetus driving the wailing skronk of Norwegian alto saxophonist Frode Gjerstad. Paulinho Bicolor’s voice-like cuica provides Brazilian undertones and the ensemble playing has a punk-jazz feel. Nilssen-Love is a perfect team player, taking almost no solos, the spark plug that drives the sonic engine, supporting and stimulating the international cast of players (NYC jazzrecord)