Joe McPhee & Paal Nilssen-Love - I Love Noise (2024) Hi Res

Paal Nilssen-Love and Joe McPhee started playing together when Paal was 25. Now he’s 50, so this musical dialogue has been going on for the quarter of a century. It has taken many forms, first with The Thing, then The Thing/Cato Salsa Experience big-band, on to the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, with several one-off collaborations on the way (some previously released on PNL) – but throughout the years the duo format has been the best way to hear these two voices. It’s also the place where the music is the most free and pushed forward. You could say that this is the meeting of two generations, but after working together for this long, that point hardly seems relevant. This is simply Joe and Paal, two friends who like to make noise together, and are damn good at it.

There have been multiple releases by the duo (several single albums, and even a seven-disc box-set). Listened to in chronological order, the recordings of the duo tell a story. Now there’s time for another chapter. I Love Noise was recorded at the Catalythic Sound Festival at Elastic Arts in Chicago in 2022. If either of the two could claim a home away from home, it would be Chicago, given all their connections to the city’s musicians, artists and clubs. And with their friends Ken Vandermark and Dave Rempis organizing the festival, in the post-Covid debris of a music scene doing its best to reassemble, it would be safe to say that this special performance was one in the company of friends.

I Love Noise starts with Joe reading his poetry. His words are like his playing – poignant, clear, well-timed, rhythmic, surprising, often funny as hell (try hearing his “Fuck Free Jazz” piece without smiling), and with the kind of experience and weight only 80 years of life as a creative artist can bring. Paal respectfully stays out at the beginning, listening as much as the audience, then enters, adding colour and shapes to the words, slowly building up a perfect balance of percussion and voice. After 20 minutes Joe leaves the words behind and starts playing the tenor, and the duo goes on a musical rampage that makes it clear that the title of the album, however joyful, is no joke. Joe and Paal love noise. And the audience at Elastic Arts love their noise. And now everyone can enjoy this beautiful, loud, life-affirming NOISE.