Oslo's Blow Out club bring their annual festival to London for the very first time with two days of the very best of free-improvised music. Set up by Paal Nilssen-Love (Lean Left/The Thing/Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet) and Ståle Liavik Solberg, the concert series Blow Out! is a collaboration with Konsertforeninga and presents improvised music from home and abroad every Tuesday throughout the year as well as an annual 3-day festival.




PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE

Paal Nilssen-Love is "one of the most innovative, dynamic and versatile drummers in jazz!" (Downbeat). He has lent his incredible speed and unstoppable creative dynamism to countless groups, notably The Thing and his long-running duo with Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark, and last year extended his range yet further with the formation of the Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit which consists of Norway´s younger generation of improvising musicians.

"Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love's mature style is a riveting blend of the power of a rock or drum'n'bass player, the rhythmic freedoms of a contemporary improviser and the sense of detail of an abstract percussionist." - John Fordham, The Guardian

www.paalnilssen-love.com




STÅLE LIAVIK SOLBERG

Young Norwegian drummer playing iin VCDC with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Frode Gjerstad as well as other groups.




STEVE BERESFORD

Steve Beresford is one of the giants of British improvised music, a restless multi-instrumentalist whose irreverent and anarchic spirit has been disrupting and galvanising improvised music for forty years. A superb pianist, he also plays an assortment of electronic devices and toy instruments. Always balanced precariously on the edge of chaos, he possesses an energy and verve that can animate any musical situation.




RACHEL MUSSON

Rachel is a saxophonist, improviser and composer living in London, UK. She is involved with a variety of improvisation-based projects, one of which, a trio featuring Liam Noble and Mark Sanders has just released an album on Babel Label. Rachel is also working on a trio project with Danish saxophonist Julie Kjaer and cellist Hannah Marshall, and a duo with bassist Olie Brice. She is a member of clarinetist Alex Ward’s new quintet, Atmospheric Disturbance, a large improvising free jazz band led by Eddie Prevost, and Loz Speyer’s Inner Space Music (with Chris Biscoe, Olie Brice and Simon Roth).

She has also written for and recorded with her own band, Skein, which released a highly acclaimed album on F-IRE Records at the end of 2010. She was picked by BBC Jazz on Three to perform at Cheltenham Jazz Festival last year, and in the same year was nominated for a London Jazz Award. She has performed with Alcyona Mick, Han Bennink, Liam Noble, Gail Brand, Eddie Prevost, Olie Brice, Federico Ughi, Mary Halvorson, John Russell, Adam Linson, Sebastian Rochford, among many others.

rachelmusson.com/




JULIE KJÆR

Saxophonist and flautist Julie Kjær’s edgy and thoughtfull playing and ‘dark, otherworldly imagery’ (Jazzwise) has become incerasingly evident around Europe, inhabiting ground between composition and free improv. She has toured internationally and recorded with Django Bates and his band StoRMChaser, and the Danish big-band “Blood Sweat Drum’n Bass” where she has played with amongst others: Dave Douglas, Arve Henriksen and Palle Mikkelborg. She plays with London Improvisers Orchestra and is a leader and sidewoman of several other English and Danish ensembles. Currently she is working on a new trio project with bass player John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble and on a project with the Danish-English sextet ‘Pierette Ensemble’. The ensemble’s cd will be released spring 2014. Julie was recently chosen to be a part of Sound and Music’s ‘Portfolio’ artist development program for improvisers. She has played with people like: Veryan Weston, Steve Beresford, Oren Marshall, Chris Biscoe, Dylan Bates, Steve Watts, Helge Norbakken, and Gimo Mendes.

juliekjaer.com/about/




HANNAH MARSHALL

Hannah Marshall is a cellist who is continuing to extract, invent, and exorcize as many sounds and emotional qualities from her instrument as she can. She has been a regular member of Alexander Hawkins’ Ensembles and has toured in Europe and South America with Luc Ex and Veryan Weston’s ensembles – SOL 6 & 12. She plays with ‘String Terrorists’ - Barrel (a trio with Violinist Alison Blunt & Violist/poet Ivor kallin). And has been invited by Fred Frith and Suichi Chino in their residencies at café Oto. She also plays with Terry Day, Tim Hodgkinson, Roger Turner, Paul May, Kay Grant, and the London Improvisers Orchestra.

www.hannahmarshall.net




STEN SANDELL

Sten Sandell is a composer, Piano, organ, percussion, voice and electro-acoustic music. From 1976 to 1986 he undertook wide-ranging studies: on piano with Mats Persson and Carl-Axel Dominique; in improvisation/compositio with Sven-David Sandstrom; and with Par Lindgren into electro-acoustic music. Attended the Academy of Music in Stockholm during the period 1981 to 1986. Influences are broad and include free improvisation, contemporary music (John Cage, Morton Feldman, I. Xenakis etc.), and ethnic music (classical music from India, Japan, Iran etc. folk music from Sweden, Norway, North Africa). From 1976 to the present day, has been involved in group work, solo projects and in dance, drama, and film. The two long-standing groups are Sa Vidare, 1979-89 with guitarist Peter Soderberg and saxophonist Johan Petri, who played 'structurally organised improvisations', and Gush (from 1988 and ongoing) with saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and percussionist Raymond Strid, well known for their free improvised music. Instrumentation for solo projects has included piano, synthesizer, sampler, percussion, and voice and is represented on a number of records, for example, Frames, on the Bauta label.

"[Sandell's] performance with maestro drummer Nilssen-Love is a masterclass in duo mechanics, the two players ripping shreds off each other as Sandell collapses piano notes into micro-dimensional cells furiously birthing clusters which spark into further dazzling patterns as Nilssen-Love seemingly places his kit in a static state of constant destruction and reassembly." - Rock A Rolla review of Jacana (Rune Grammofon) with Paal Nilssen-Love

www.stensandell.com




LOTTE ANKER

Lotte Anker (born 1958 Copenhagen) is a Danish jazz saxophonist, and composer. With pianist Marilyn Crispell, she serves as one of the co-leaders of the Copenhagen Art Ensemble. She has studied music at the Copenhagen University from 1980-84. In 1988, she formed a quartet with piano player Mette Petersen, (the Lotte Anker / Mette Petersen Quartet). In 1992, they added trumpetplayer Nils-Petter Molvær. In 1995, she became a member of the free improvising trio ”Anker, Friis, Poulsen” (with Hasse Poulsen, guitar and Peter Friis-Nielsen, bass). Since 1996, she, and Ture Larsen, has been co-leader of the 12-piece orchestra Copenhagen Art Ensemble. She recorded the album Magic Carpet, pianist Craig Taborn, and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

www.lotteanker.com/




PAT THOMAS

Pat Thomas studied classical piano from aged 8 and started playing Jazz from the age of 16. He has since gone on to develop an utterly unique style - embracing improvisation, jazz and new music. He has played with Derek Bailey in Company Week (1990/91) and in the trio AND (with Noble) – with Tony Oxley’s Quartet and Celebration Orchestra and in Duo with Lol Coxhill.

"Sartorially shabby as Thomas may be, and on first impression even rather stolid, he has a somewhat imperious charisma that’s immediately amplified when he starts to play. Unlike other pianists whose virtuosity seems to be racing ahead of their thought processes Thomas always seems supremely in command of his gift, and his playing, no matter how free and ready to tangle with abstraction, always carries a charge of authoritative exactitude." The Jazzmann




INGEBRIGT HÅKER FLATEN

"Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten exploded on the Scandinavian avant-garde jazz scene in the mid-'90s. By 2002, he had become one of the hardest working bassists there, having appeared on more than 20 albums, many of them also featuring drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. He plays in the Norwegian groups Element and Atomic. Saxophonist Mats Gustaffson opened him the doors to Chicago, where he plays in Ken Vandermark's School Days."-AllMusic




SAKA (JON RUNE STRØM / DAG ERIK KNEDAL ANDERSEN / KRISTOFFER BERRE ALBERTS)

New free jazz power trio consisting of bassist Jon Rune Strøm, drummer Dag Erik Knedal Andersen and saxophonist Kristoffer Berre Alberts. The future of free jazz is in safe hands here.




SANDELL/STRANDBERG/THORMAN




JOHN RUSSELL

John Russell got his first guitar in 1965 while living in Kent and began to play in and around London from 1971 onwards. An early involvement with the emerging free improvisation scene (from 1972) followed, seeing him play in such places as The Little Theatre Club, Ronnie Scott’s, The Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Musicians’ Co-Op and the London Musicians’ Collective.

From 1974 his work extended into teaching, broadcasts (radio and television) and touring in the United Kingdom and, ever extensively, in other countries around the world . He has played with many of the world’s leading improvisers and his work can be heard on over 50 CDs. In 1981, he founded QUAQUA, a large bank of improvisers put together in different combinations for specific projects and, in 1991, he started MOPOMOSO which has become the UK’s longest running concert series featuring mainly improvised music.

John Russell website




TERRIE EX

Terrie Hessells is one of the founding members of the ever-vital, long-running Dutch punk band The Ex - a band that have defied categorization ever since they started playing in 1979. Born out of the punk explosion, when anything and everything was possible, the band have still managed to retain both curiosity and passion for their music, partnering with people from varied musical and non-musical backgrounds including Kamagurka, Tom Cora, Sonic Youth, Han Bennink, Jan Mulder, Shellac and Wolter Wierbos. In 2002 The Ex set up a lively musical exchange with Ethiopia, which eventually led to two CD recordings and hundreds of concerts with the legendary saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria. Terrie also runs the label Terp which has published numerous recordings born of the Ex's wide-ranging collaborations.

www.theex.nl
www.terprecords.nl




ALAN SILVA

Alan Silva grew up in Harlem, playing piano and drums. He studied with James P. Johnson, Scott Joplin and later trumpet with Donald Byrd and musicology at Columbia with Alan Lomax before picking up the bass. A participant in the 'October Revolution' and a key member of the Jazz Composers Guild with Cecil Taylor and Bill Dixon, Silva has performed with most of the greats of free jazz including Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, Archie Shepp, Dave Burrell, Jimmy Lyons, Francois Tusques, Frank Wright, Bobby Few, Bill Dixon, Franz Koglmann, Andrew Hill and Alexander von Schlippenbach.

He has been resident in Paris since 1970 and has issued several LPs as a leader including the two with the Celestrial Communication Orchestra for BYG Actuel. In the late 80s/early 90s he has primarily focussed on the synthesiser as an instrument and his wildly creative approach to it has continued his legacy of unimpeded creativity and imagination.




METTE RASMUSSEN

"Mette Rasmussen has a remarkably fluid and expressive tone on the alto saxophone. Her playing at times evokes the rich, heavenward clarity of Albert Ayler, at others the throaty roar of Mats Gustafsson. Equally, though, she’s able to sidestep these influences and assert her own individual sound in piercingly high tones and controlled outbursts of free playing." - Viennese Waltz