Ballister
This free-wheeling trio first came together at a closed session in 2009, and as any fan of improvised music can imagine, the band hit hard from the first note and hasn’t looked back since. The unabashed energy of Rempis and Nilssen-Love, coupled with the electrified cello antics of Lonberg-Holm, make for a powerful listening experience that combines driving grooves with noisy textures and occasional melodic interjections. These sliding and overlapping rhythms often give the music a feeling as if a rug is slowly being pulled out from underneath the listener while the music still maintains a strong forward momentum. Reference points include the Julius Hemphill groups of the 70’s and 80’s featuring Abdul Wadud, Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time, and the early-70’s explorations of Miles Davis’ electric bands.
Znachki Stilyag
Znachki Stilyag
2020 marks the tenth anniversary of the working trio Ballister, and it’s been a productive ten years. Eight previous records, and regular concert dates across North America and Europe, have produced a band that maintains a core sound and energy, while taking the time and space to continually expand their individual voices and respective interests.
In October 2019, these three musicians met up in Europe for the first time since a US tour in late 2017. With the myriad of projects that each one is involved with, having breaks in their output isn’t uncommon, but this was the longest one in the band’s history. And they dug in deep from the first downbeat, exhilarated to be back at it, and to compare notes on those individual discoveries over the previous two years.
Their tour took them across seven countries including Italy, Poland, Russia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway, but as is often the case, it was the riotous energy of the famed Moscow audience that pushed them to new heights. And while the band has long been known for its seemingly endless reserves of fuel, that’s not what comes to the fore here. Not that it’s absent – the band still cooks – but it’s the laser beam focus of the narrative in these longer form improvisations that truly astounds. Forty minutes disappear into a puff of smoke, and the listener’s head whirls from a journey whose seemingly obtuse path through territory as broad as the Wyoming sky becomes eminently clear with the final gesture. Their zigzagging route reveals an underlying logic and structure that’s infallible. There was no other way to get here.
On this new record – their first in three years – we hear Rempis adding more space, breath, and humor to his firebreathing as he matures into his mid-career status. Nilssen-Love increasingly incorporates influences from his ongoing work in Ethiopia and Brazil, often trading his remarkable ability to generate rhythmic drive for newfound subtleties. And check out the sheer breadth of Lonberg-Holm’s musical experience on display here; someone whose discography spans every genre imaginable over the last four decades, and whose jaw-dropping abilities as a musical chameleon gives him a truly singular voice in the improvised music world.
Znachki Stilyag, a somewhat nonsense title in Russian, roughly translates with some help from google as “Hipster Icons.” It was cobbled together from the word “znachki,” a type of small lapel pin, and “stilyag,” a type of western-oriented, zoot suit-wearing rebel from the Soviet era of the 1950’s. Rempis and Lonberg-Holm picked the words up separately during a sightseeing trip around Moscow before their concert, and pieced them together into this record title since they liked the sound of the two combined. And we suggest that you get yours now!
Dave Rempis: Reeds
Fred Lonberg-Holm: Cello
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Recorded October 30th, 2019 at Dom Cultural Center | Moscow, Russia
Recorded by Maxim Khaikin
Mixed by Dave Zuchowski
Mastered by Lasse Marhaug
Design by Johnathan Crawford
Inner cover/concert poster by art by Dmitry Gomzyakov aka ZonderZond
Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Kirill Polonsky, Dom, and Bigus Coshmarus
Worse For The Wear
Worse For The Wear
“After Effects must have keyframes selected from one layer in order to export them as text.” -Victor Aaron, Something Else!
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The fifth release by this powerful working trio in as many years shows a band once again not afraid to come out of the gate swinging. As always, these three individual virtuosos combine their unique talents to put forth a churning mix of hard-driving grooves and well-forged power. However, as the band has continued to work and tour together regularly for the past five years, their music continues to find new avenues of expression. On this recording, Worse For The Wear, Ballister’s trademark raw energy is tempered by a mix of introspective soundscapes and moments of quiet beauty that create a listening experience of great complexity. Recorded live in Chicago during the trio’s spring 2014 U.S. Tour, this release shows a band that continues to grow, slowly and patiently, further refining its sound into a tightly structured unit of remarkable depth and richness.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/baritone saxophones
Fred Lonberg-Holm – cello and electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums and percussion
Recorded in Chicago March 28th, 2014 @ Constellation
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Design by Johnathan Crawford
Produced by Dave Rempis
The Ballister Monologues
The Ballister Monologues
“The three men work very well together, with Rempis’ naked and vulnerable saxophone going from a whisper to a full throated scream at will, and Nilssen-Love, who has seemingly played on 1,000 LP’s this year, has pummeling rhythm. Lonberg-Holm is the wild card, almost the trickster as compared to the other more instruments. whether sawing away at his cello or blasting jolts of pure electricity into the proceedings, he has a pivotal role.” – Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues
Dave Rempis – reeds
Fred Lonberg-Holm – cello, electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
Recorded by Nate Cross at the North Door, Austin, TX, April 5, 2014.
Mastered by Gordon Comstock.
All music by Dave Rempis (ASCAP), Fred Lonberg-Holm (BMI) & Paal Nilssen-Live (TONO)
Thanks to Pedro Moreno
Smash and Grab
Smash and Grab
When Ballister hit the stage at the Catalytic Sound Festival in Chicago in December 2022, no one in the band was quite sure what to expect. Although they’d done a two-week tour of the US in April of that year, their first reunion following an almost three-year break due to the pandemic, you never know what might happen after several months apart. Sometimes that first gig is magic. And sometimes it swims around searching for a center. That’s just a danger of the art form.
But drummer Paal Nilssen-Love’s hard driving tom rolls at the start of “Smash,” called all three right to attention. And they dove in with a level of careless abandon that lesser groups would burn through like kerosene. But one of the defining characteristics of Ballister is the band’s ability to shape spewing lava into meaningful form thanks to their many years of shared history. On Smash and Grab, a punk aesthetic wraps itself into the mature sensibility of seasoned improvisers to create one of those rare sets that simply unfolds calmly in front of you like an origami flower. Full-on energy melts into quiet solo explorations by every band member, which in turn morph back into fiery rhythmic juxtapositions that pulse forth like a quasar. Drive and density meet centered patience in a series of unpredictable transitions.
Although the band had already been selecting material recorded during their earlier spring tour for a new release, all that went out the window after this set. As soon as they walked offstage they knew this was it.
For a set of music that was so clearly the one, it also only made sense to treat it as the rare and special event that it was, with a limited edition vinyl pressing. And why not make it hot pink, just for fun? This is only the fourth vinyl LP that Aerophonic has pressed in our 10-year history, and it’s a worthy addition to the other three sold out LP’s on that short list. Despite having released 10 other albums in their almost 15 years of work together, it’s also only the third LP in the Ballister catalogue. 2014’s Both Ends and 2017’s Low Level Stink are both long gone! So perhaps grab yours while you still can? (Also available on cd for the faint of heart!)
Dave Rempis – alto/tenor/bari saxophone
Fred Lonberg-Holm – cello/electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums/percussion
Recorded at the 3rd annual Catalytic Sound Festival December 2nd, 2022 at Elastic Arts, Chicago
Recorded by Bill Harris
Mixed and mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Artwork and cover design by Lasse Marhaug Produced by Dave Rempis
Special thanks to Ken Vandermark and all of the musicians of the Catalytic Sound Collective.
Slag
Slag
“SLAG is a triumphant recording on many levels. It can exhaust you with its energy jazz or lull you into submission with its minutiae. Either way, there is something overwhelmingly satisfying about being beaten about the head by this trio.” -Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
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The sixth release by Ballister, recorded live at the renowned Café Oto in London in March of 2015 finds a well-honed working unit that’s settled into the deep groove of their stride on a long tour. Exactly halfway through the journey, on the eve of Rempis’ fortieth birthday, the band bursts out the gate screaming, spewing fire and ash into what might have otherwise been a quiet Monday in London. Although the band and these players are often characterized as working in “improvised music,” or “jazz,” or some other equally insufficient moniker, this music rocks in a way that “Rock” hasn’t in years. The trio’s rhythmic drive drags the listener along face first, at times with flat-out abandon, and at times in lurches and spurts. But overall trajectory for this concert, and this group generally, remains full speed ahead with no time to look back.
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Dave Rempis – alto/tenor saxophones
Fred Lonberg-Holm – cello and electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums and percussion
Recorded in London March 23rd, 2015 @ Café Oto, by James Dunn
Mixed by Fred Lonberg-Holm
Mastered by Dave Zuchowski
Design by Johnathan Crawford
Produced by Dave Rempis
Mechanisms
Mechanisms
“This is Ballister. Handle with care. Named after the origins of the crossbow, Paal Nilssen-Love (Drums), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Cello, Electronics), and Dave Rempis (Saxophones), collectively pull back the arrow with all their might and pull the trigger with no regard for innocent bystanders.” -Phillip Coombs, Free Jazz Blog
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Recorded live in concert on November 24th 2010 at The Hideout, Chicago.
Dave Rempis: Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone
Fred Lonberg-Holm: Cello, Electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums, Percussion
Chrysopoeia
Chrysopoeia
“Chrysopoeia is an excellent album that shows a slightly different face of the trio. In their most wonderful moments Ballister combine Ken Vandermark’s idea of funkiness, heavy metal, free jazz and avant-gard music. To be honest, as long as they are on the scene, the absence of The Thing doesn’t hurt so much. I hope they will also last 20 years.” -Martin Schray, Free Jazz Blog
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Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Dave Rempis
Cello, Electronics – Fred Lonberg-Holm
Drums, Percussion – Paal Nilssen-Love
Recorded October 28th, 2019 at Alchemia in Krakow, Poland by Rafal Drewniany.
Design – Małgorzata Lipińska
Mastered – Lasse Marhaug
Mixed – Gordon Comstock
Producer – Ballister, Marek Winiarski