Lean Left throws together two explosive duos – the sax/drums collision course of Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love with the pile-driving guitarists from The Ex – to make up a positively apocalyptic quartet: an elemental musical force featuring Grade A international players zoning in and scrambling together rock, jazz, noise and blistering free improv into a highly-charged onstage assault, each member taking their sounds and bodies to the edge and often snapping out of the wilds and into glorious passages of regular rhythm. The foursome crashes along sometimes creating a cacophonous racket but always musical and always ready
to change direction or turn a new corner. The music of Lean Left is extroverted, energetic, powerful and inclusive but also confrontational and provocative: where rhythm, noise, melody and harmony melt together in perfect union.
Or as English comedic genius Stewart Lee stated about the band, “jazz theorizing be damned, its like being 18 again. “
I Forgot To Breathe (Trost) is the first studio album in Lean Left‘s eight year career, and it channels the ferocity of their live performances with a sonic clarity yet to be heard on any of their recordings. Featuring a half dozen improvised pieces, the material charts an adventure in sound few have taken but all can relish.
Recorded September 15, 2015 at the Electric Monkey Studios, Amsterdam by Kasper Frenkel. Mixed by Andy Moor. Artwork by Kiva Stimac.
Lean Left is:
Ken Vandermark – tenor saxophone – baritone saxophone – B clarinet
Terrie Ex – left guitar
Paal Nilssen Love – Drums
Andy Moor – right guitar
Review of I Forgot To Breathe: http://www.freejazzblog.org
