Erta Ale

Despite its name, drummer Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit was relatively compact for a free jazz orchestra, numbering just 11 players including the leader on this 3CD set. It included three brass players (cornet/flugelhorn, trombone, and tuba) and two saxophonists, plus electric guitar, turntable and electronics, and a double rhythm section: two bassists, two drummers. On later releases the group swelled to 15 members, and on one memorable occasion – a collaboration with the Ethiopian group Fendika, with special guest guitarist Terrie Ex – there were 22 people onstage. This set consists of two CDs mixing studio and live material, and a bonus disc documenting a full performance from the Moers Festival. It’s three hours of music in all, and it varies from stomping, romping mass blare to a quiet duet for bass and electronics. You get multiple versions of several compositions so you can compare and contrast, and four versions of a collective improv exercise called “Round About Nothing” that’s radically different every time, but always provides plenty of space for the drummers to go wild.