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, 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 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 is also fortunate to include members from the other Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. In other words, Nordic music at it’s best. Large Unit’s music is all compositions written by Nilssen-Love, but the musicians are always given great freedom to contribute their own flavours to the music. The band is stripped down to single players, duos, etc. and at times split into several groups. The power of the whole groups is of course a treat in itself when in full blast. 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, of course, evident. There is no doubt that Nilssen-Love has taken inspiration from his years in these bands, but still with the aim to create a new group with a sound of it’s own.

Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between of artistic disciples and contingencies. Since moving to New York in 2000 she has worked in disparate contexts as a solo artist and collaborator with creators in a wide range of disciplines. A native of South Korea, Lee has taken a broad array of inspirations—including noise, improvisation, jazz, western classical, and the traditional and popular music of her homeland—and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach. Her curiosity and a determined sense of exploration guide the work she has made in disparate contexts.

Anteloper is trumpeter and recent music resident Jaimie Branch and drummer Jason Nazary, two musicians who have been fixtures in the NYC jazz and new music scene for last decade, who have come together to collaborate on their respective instruments, while also exploring depths of new sonic territory with synthesizers and electronics.

With support by