Description
“Ex and Nilssen-Love began playing together about ten years ago, first in Mats Gustafsson and Jim O’Rourke’s project Original Silence (The First Original Silence and The Second Original Silence, Smalltown Supersound, 2007), later on the short-lived trio OffOnOff (with Zu’s bass player Massimo Pupillo, Clash, Rune Grammofon, 2007) and solidified their musical bond in the Lean Left quartet (first presented as The Ex Guitars Meet Nilssen-Love/Vandermark Duo). Unlike Original Silence and OffOnOff, Lean Left is a working groups that already has released six album (the seventh one is due to be released soon). Ex and Nilssen-Love continued their extracurricular activity also outside the quartet. Schobberdebonk is their third duo album, following Hurgu! (PNL, 2011) and Gored Gored (Terp, 2013), and was recorded live at festival PiedNu at Le Havre, France on April 2015.
Ex and Nilssen-Love offer a different dynamics than the one of Baars and Ex. Nilssen-Love knows how to employ Ex great skills as a rhythm guitarist, his role in The Ex. Ex is a rhythm guitarist with highly imaginative concept of rhythm and time like no one else, but nevertheless, one that thrive on a hard, massive pulse, exactly the kind that Nilssen-Love keeps feeding him. Ex does not surrender easily to Nilssen-Love rhythmic attacks. He tries to suggest abstract, minimalist soundscapes, counter the pulse with loose strategy of tension building, color it with weird noises or suddenly steer it to other directions. But, finally, he interlocks with Nilssen-Love powerful blows. Then the two are simply irresistible. Nothing can stop their wild ride that ends, true to The Ex legacy, with a quote of an Ethiopian dance.” -Free Jazz Blog