Large Unit

Paal Nilssen-Love has been one of the world’s most prolific and active musicians that came out of Norway for the last 20 years. With thousands of gigs and hundreds of recordings the drummer is known for bands like The Thing, OffOnOff, 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, Michiyo Yagi and many others.
In 2013 Nilssen-Love decided it was time to start his own big band ensemble. 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 also includes members from Finland, Sweden and Denmark. In other words: Nordic music at its most powerful.
Traces of Nilssen-Love’s experience from groups like Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Ken Vandermark’s Territory Band and Frode Gjerstad’s Circulasione Totale Orchestra are evident, but there is no doubt that with Large Unit Nilssen-Love aims to create a group with a sound of its own.
Large Unit burst into life at the Molde Jazzfestival in 2013 and has since then toured Norway and played festivals all over Europe. In the autumn of 2014 Large Unit unleashed its full load with the massive debut album”Erta Ale” – which was released in four different formats totalling more than two hours worth of music – a bold move for a debut release, but the album was met with positive reviews throughout the music scene.

Members:

Julie Kjær- alto saxophone/flute
Klaus Holm – Alto/Barrytone Saxophone
Kristoffer Alberts – alto/tenor saxophone
Thomas Johansson – Trumpet
Mats Äleklint – Trombone
Per Åke Holmlander – Tuba
Christian Medaas Svendsen – Bass
Jon Rune Strøm – Bass
Ketil Gutvik – Guitar
Tommi Keranen – Electronics
Andreas Wildhagen – Drums
Paal Nilssen-Love – Drums
Christian Obermayer – Live Sound