Paal Nilssen-Love Circus

Nilssen-Love has composed the music for this band, drawing inspiration from Ethiopia and Brazil, in addition to his long-standing fascination for music from Mali and Senegal. The songs are like maps with freedom for each musician to choose direction and intensity. This makes Circus a highly unpredictable band – exciting, intense, exhilarating, touching on different feelings which can be sad as well as fun – indeed, watching them live is like going to the circus!
Jungle fever in the circus: The cheering lifted the roof during this concert and it’s a miracle that we didn´t all descend to civil disobedience, kicked down the tables and started dancing. (A. Vinger)

His new septet, Circus, conveys the usual raucous intensity, but it feels much different than his usual modus operandi, both in the prevalence of composed material – much of it borrowed from and/or inspired by Brazilian music - and the presence of vocalist Juliana Venter, an actor who brings plenty of drama to her mix of written and improvised melodies and texts. (…) The arrangements are full of shifts, toggling between radically different, jacked-up folk styles, but the timbre, visceral rapport, and presence of Venter carve out unique territory. It’s simultaneously playful and furious, with more concise improvised passages cutting through the arrangements with a furious sense of purpose. (…) A fantastic surprise. (Peter Margasak, the Quietus)
Listen: https://paalnilssen-love.bandcamp.com/album/pairs-of-three
Watch: https://youtu.be/o0uD19jqqoQ