Gard Nilssen Acoustic Unity - To Whom Who Buys A Record

Nilssen formed Acoustic Unity in 2014 with bassist Petter Eldh and saxophonist André Roligheten. The group has already released two internationally acclaimed albums, Firehouse and Live In Europe. Its latest, To Whom Who Buys A Record, is a stone-cold certainty for the best-of-2019 lists.

The quality which above all makes To Whom Who Buys A Record so special is the intensity of interaction between the musicians. The individual performances are exalted enough but group interplay means To Whom Who Buys A Record is far greater than the sum of its parts. In this respect, the album evokes an earlier drums, saxophone and bass masterpiece, Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity, which even at its most Dionysian was the work of three musicians flying in microscopically close, in-the-moment formation. Spiritual Unity is one of the hardest acts in jazz to follow.

Remarkably, Acoustic Unity pulls it off. To Whom Who Buys A Record moves between the exuberant and the reflective, the raucous and the mellifluous, the rugged and the delicate. It works equally well as a cognitive or visceral experience. Wherever it alights on the spectrum, it is balm for the soul.

“It feels like a perfect set-up now,” says Nilssen of the group. “Firehouse was our first meeting as a band. Four years have passed since then and we’ve played over a hundred gigs all over the world. We have kept the same loose approach but the interplay is deeper now. It takes the music to a different level. We recorded the new album in one room without amplification. In every sense it was up close and personal.

“It’s about dynamics. With an acoustic lineup you can exploit the whole range of sounds and textures the instruments offer. You can peel back the nuances. Andrè and Petter know how to do that. They are always exploring new ways to play their instruments. They are totally inspiring. They make me a better musician every time we play together.”

Historically, drummers have been the leaders of a surprisingly small proportion of era-defining bands. Prominent among the few are swing’s Chick Webb, hard bop’s Art Blakey and fusion’s Tony Williams. Yet jazz is nothing without rhythm.

Nilssen agrees that this is strange. ”For me, rhythm always comes first,” he says. “But drummers are still often regarded as accompanists and timekeepers rather than leaders and soloists. That is changing though. The traditional jazz-lineup has become more inclusive, there is more collective interplay. Back in the day the standard set-up was a soloist backed by a bass and drums rhythm section.”

When he was developing, Nilssen listened to a lot of drummers, but not to the exclusion of other players. “Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Paul Motian, Max Roach, Roy Haynes, Ed Blackwell, Jack DeJohnette, Audun Kleive and Jon Christensen gave me a big kick,” says Nilssen. “But I was listening to other musicians too. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Bill Frisell, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Eric Satie, Jimi Hendrix and The Police were my biggest inspirations. Nowadays my heroes are Susanne Sundfør and Eirik Hegdal and Christian Wallumrød. Fantastic artists.”

In conclusion, it is worth noting the significance of the title To Whom Who Buys A Record. It is a variation of the Ornette Coleman album title To Whom Who Keeps A Record.