Norwegian master drummer Paal Nilssen-Love needs no introduction, but his new two solo gong albums may surprise his followers. Nilssen-Love has recorded himself playing solo before, including with gongs, but in 2018, he was offered a sponsorship deal with Paiste Cymbals, and soon, one thing led to another. The COVID-19 pandemic forced Nilsssen-Love to cancel his tours, and his collection of cymbals got stuck in Brazil. Nilssen-Love was at the Nesodden peninsula outside Oslo, so he began ordering new gongs from Paiste and used the lockdowns to deepen his study on the sonic possibilities of the new gongs. He ended up with nine gongs, eight of which are planetarium gongs, which are tuned to the frequencies of different planets, by mathematician and scientist Hans Gusto.
5th Of March 2021 was captured at Nesodden’s local gallery, Galleri Vanntårnet, an old water tower with incredible acoustics that works as an amplifier, recorded and mastered by his close friend Lasse Marhaug, who also did the cover artwork. Two of the largest gongs (38”) were tuned to a C and C#. There was also a 32” gong, which is also a C#, but the difference in frequencies is 70,64 and 68,05 Hz. Nilssen-Love moved through the room and cleverly employed the unique architecture, often using various woodblocks, banister, shekere, and styrofoam. This first solo gong session has an immediate, raw and physical presence, as you may feel slowly engulfed – or gently washed – by the potent and vibrant, low-end waves of sounds, while Nilssen-Love still explores the possibilities of this new set-up. It seduces deep meditation, but at times feels like Nilssen-Love conducts a mysterious, urgent, and timeless ritual to keep away the evil spirits of the pandemic. Nilssen-Love recommends «make sure to have the subs warmed up before you press play».
Three years later, when Nilssen-Love was still fascinated by the new gongs but already incorporated them into his regular set-up with bands like Circus and Arashi, he recorded 15th Of December 2024 at a performance at the Gustav Vigeland museum in Oslo, a day after he turned fifty years old and had an «insane birthday party». Marahug did the mixing and mastering and the cover artwork. The nine Paiste gong set-up was expanded with several objects and instruments, like a rusty metal plate (from the roof of a barn in Tromsø) lying on the floor, styrofoam, paper bags, knitting needles, ping-pong balls, and vibrators to play the gongs. Nilssen-Love already mastered the gongs and had a loose score, and during the concert he moved around in the space, and moved the actual instruments, creating a visual as much as as sonic experience for Nilssen-Love as well as the audience, like a sonic installation in motion. The piece ended with all gongs stacked against each other, and was over when the last sound was gone. This performance feels more like a thought-provoking sonic journey into the infinite universe of resonant sounds and powerful overtones and their immediate and long-term effects on us, audiences, or listeners, on bodies and souls. It perfectly fits Nilssen-Love’s question: «Where does a concert begin and where does it end?»
Eyal Hareuveni
Paal Nilssen-Love (Paiste gongs, various woodblocks, banister, shekere, styrofoam, tin plate, various objects)
