Ken Vandermark/ Paal Nilssen-Love - Screen Off [PNL Records - 2019]Screen Off is a searing, often noise-bound, at times playful journey into the jazz form- at it’s most virtual, jarring & fiery. The twenty-one track CD finds respected Norwegian bandleader/ drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, joining American Avant/ free Jazz saxophonists Ken Vandermark for a release that literal jumps ‘n’ bucks all over the place- the album consists of snippets of live recordings of the pair from youtube, and these are edited together into a gapless & fiery flowing forty two minute runtime. The recordings featured here come from a ten year period between 2008 & 2018, and each of the snippets/ cuts of the material hit on or near the two-minute mark. To make things even more manic there are blend into the mix rapid backwards elements, sudden noise elements, ect- all to create a seriously disorientating & brutally delirious experience.
The material moves blends of lairy honks & rapidly descending crash ‘n’ bash, onto spidery squeals backed by tight militaristic cymbal work. Through to bluntly jaunting wails 'n' bays with a backbone of stabbing percussive hits, onto slightly more harmonic-yet-no less raw mixes of smoked horn work & lazy skittering drum work. As you’d imagine using live recordings as its source- the quality is rough, ready & unbalanced- and this really adds another layer of danger & unpredictability to the whole thing.
Screen Off is certainly not for those who enjoy their Jazz clearly defined, captured & nuanced- but if like me you enjoy been sonically brutalized, and enjoyable battered by the Jazz form- as it flits & bangs against noise, you’ll have a hell of a time here.
   Roger Batty
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