Sticks and Stones

«Nilssen-Love explores a restricted, a standard and an expanded kit, and little gets lost to the architecture. Solo drum albums are a matter of taste, but Sticks & Stones also has something to say about how context shapes improvisation

Julian Cowley

«Paal Nilssen-Love’s solo percussion project Sticks and Stones (SOFA 505) is exemplary, balancing the colours of three different drum-kit layouts with meaty ideas. The music hovers delicately or locks into spluttering patterns, with rude interruptions from a host of woodblocks, bells and exotic cymbals. The descriptive sounds Nilssen-Love gets from his cymbals on the delicate «Butterfly Wings» melt in the ear. Nilssen-Love is also responsible for the powerhouse drumming on the scintillating Standing Wave (SOFA 504) from pianist Sten Sandell’s trio with Johan Berthling on bass. Nilssen-Love’s Andrew Cyrille meets Paul Motion playing matches Sandell’s densely ornate lines to perfection. There’s a hint of the Andrew Hills about his playing and though he deals with the tension/release of sonic energy that is food and drink to free music, he does so in a highly original way. Frenetic certainly, but also kaleidoscopic and expansive music which taps into considerable resources of Dionysian energy.»

Philip Clark

«A busy participant in the projects of Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson, Frode Gjerstad and others, Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love is both clever and versatile in his approach to his drum kit. Such traits serve him well in the context of this solo percussion venture and his precise skill with his sticks is evident from the opening «No way out II». Moving from scraped cymbals to chattering toms and snare and back again, his creative use of temporal space, dynamics and non-linear rhythm move the piece beyond a mere display of technical acumen. Other tracks accomplish similar feats. «Snap» deals in subtle and fractured patterns that suggest martial cdences without stating them outright. Exploring the resontating properties of rubbed surfaces on «Butterfly Wings» he creates radiating ripples of metallic sound that are both hauning and beautiful. Kindred experiments on «Gulebøy» fall somewhat flat by comparison, but «Fast Colour» is a blur of interlocking rhythmic constituents as the drummer´s sticks race from one surface to the next maintaining a momentum that is never heavy-handed. Perhaps most instructive is Nilssen-Love´s decision to keep things marshaled and to the point while avoiding the popular trend advanced by some drummers (Han Bennink anyone?) in a solo context of bowling the listener over with thundering volume and bombast. Nilssen-Love shies away from gimmickry as well, sticking primarily to the inherent properties of his kit, and rarely integrating extraneous elements. An equally effective aspect is the relative brevity of the program and while there are moments where listener attention is liable to lapse, by and large the recital remains absorbing throughout its duration.»

Derek Taylor

«A young percussionist who has understood and absorbed Tony Oxley´s step beyond Elvin Jones, Paal Nilssen-Love is here recorded solo in Sofienberg Church in Oslo. The resonant acoustic surprised the drummer - used to clubs and studios - and he abandoned some of his material in order to explore it. What results is rich and detalied, a sly wit gently deflating any portentousness, with intimate vocal-mimickry from rim.shots and skull-hits. Anyone attracted to the speculative soundworld of Varèse´s lonisation or the work of Roger Turner will find this album fascinating. Thomas Hukkelberg´s recording is a hi-fi wonder.