Monday September 2 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS

Ken Vandermark (USA): tenor saxophone & clarinet
Paal Nilssen-Love (Norway): drums & percussion

The high impact duo of Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Ken Vandermark (reeds) has been working together for more than two decades, touring in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Brazil, and releasing 11 albums of critically acclaimed, wide ranging improvised music throughout that period. Though they have both worked in many other exceptional groups - such as the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and Lean Left (with Terrie Hessels and Andy Moor of The Ex) - they have continued to return to their duo for more than 20 years because it remains crucial to their creative output.

Nilssen-Love and Vandermark began this collaboration when they recorded their initial album,Dual Pleasure, for the label Smalltownsupersound, in 2002. Shortly afterward, they performed their first concert at the Molde International Jazz Festival. Since then, they've performed on an international basis every year. Their approach to the duo context is ferocious in its intensity, combining extreme rhythmic velocity with formal deconstruction and re-assembly, with the freedom to use any genre as a resource at any time. In many ways, Nilssen-Love and Vandermark are more open in this setting than with any of their other playing situations, creating a unique approach to improvised music that is riveting in its ideas and execution.

“[Screen Off] comes with a fascinating twist: the musicians teamed up with producer Lasse Marhaug who trolled through hours of recordings that fans have uploaded to YouTube, raw audience recordings, compressed and occasionally distorted by the web site’s format… They use a musical version of a William Burroughs cut-up novel, by piecing the album together with the idea of creating a musical narrative at the forefront, so there may be snippets from different concerts even from different years sewn together, creating a cohesive flow for the music to follow… The entire album comes through like an imaginary concert of the mind, where powerhouse squeaks and crashes demonstrate the potency of the duo, making way for high pitched reeds and rolling drums, clearing the path for spacier sections only to take flight again, soaring high into the next gear shift. This album is highly recommended, but very difficult to explain, it really must be be experienced to be fully understood. It is an interesting way to move forward for the music, using avant-garde techniques from other artistic disciplines and folding them into progressive jazz in a very thoughtful manner.”
Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues Blog, August 2019

“The Lions Have Eaten One of the Guardsis yet another album solidifying Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love as one of the most powerful improvisational duos around. Vandermark and Nilssen-Love have been playing together for more than ten years now (with almost as many records) and in that time, they’ve pared away the excesses, trimmed the fat, and stream-lined their sound. In essence, they’ve become leaner, meaner, and extremer”.
Derek Stone, freejazzblog, December 2015