Brötzmann in Focus

Brötzmann / Nilssen-Love - Butterfly Mushroom (Trost, 2024)

By Eyal Hareuveni

Butterfly Mushroom is the second volume of the two-day studio recording at Zuiderpershuis in Antwerp from August 2015 of the great Peter Brötzmann, who passed away in Wuppertal on June 22, 2023, with favorite drummer, Norwegian Paal Nilssen-Love, following Chicken Shit Bingo (“Butterfly Mushroom” was the opening piece of that first volume), released earlier this year. Brötzmann and Nilsssen-Love played together for the first time when Brötzmann joined Frode Gjerstad Trio in 2001 (Sharp Knives Cut Deeper, Splasc(H), 2023), and continued their collaborative work for 18 years when Nilssen-Love joined the Chicago Tentet in 2004. They continued to work as a duo, different trios (with Mats Gustafsson, Steve Swell, Michiyo Yagi, Massimo Pupillo., and Fred Lonbeg-Holm) and the Hairy Bones quartet (with Toshinori Kondo and Pupillo).

Brötzmann told sound and visual artist Lasse Marhaug (who designed the cover) that throughout most of his career, he could not afford studio recordings due to their cost, but also because he wanted to document the development of the music. It was not possible in a limited studio time. But lately, he began to think that working in the studio is like “painting and graphics… In the studio, you go with a certain number of ideas and try to realize them. If you like them it’s fine. If you don’t, you throw it away. We all know I can play loud, I can play with some power and strength, and Paal is good at pushing things too. But what we learned, and Paal is about half my age, is that we agree in that the studio work can be different. It was very good.”

In Chicken Shit Bingo and Butterfly Mushroom, Brötzmann wanted to play on a new contra-alto clarinet he bought and Nilssen-Love wanted to play on new Korean gongs he had not tried yet, and, obviously, their deep rapport was as strong and stimulating as ever. The music, as Brötzmann described it, has a definite contemplative and reflexive approach and is less aggressive, but the titles of the eight pieces are typical ones of Brötzmann.

Brötzmann and Nilssen-Love open this second volume with “Boot licking, Boots kickin” and “Ride the Bar”, familiar, fierce attacks with Brötzmann on the bass saxophone, but both pieces also suggest the vulnerable side of Brötzmann. “Frozen Nose, Melting Toes”, with the new contra-alto clarinet, allows Brötzmann to sketch a sparse, openly emotional and melancholic ballad, accompanied by a quiet, hypnotic pulse of Nilseen-Love. “Bubble Butt Trouble” feeds on that melancholic vibe, now with on the trusted tarogato, and Nilssen-Love building powerful, ritualist patterns around him. Nilssen-Love knows how to frame Brötzmann’s introspective but still angry voice in an unpredictable but propulsive, rhythmic drive on “Spill The Beans And Tell The Truth”. “Strain my Taters”, with Brötzmann, again, on the contra-alto clarinet, is a dark blues, but the following “Chicken Shit Bingo” offers a playful, raw but brighter side of him. This album ends “Ye Gods and Little Fishes”, a powerful, mournful dance with Brötzmann touching cries on the new contra-alto clarinet, that concludes with a most beautiful, quiet and fragile coda.


Few drummers have kept such a long, friendly and productive relationship with Brötzmann. No doubt, Nilssen-Love had one of the most profound relationships with the great master and Butterfly Mushroom, like Chicken Shit Bingo, is a great testament to their unique connection.

Žiga Koritnik - Brötzmann In My Focus (PEGA, 2024)

 

The photo of great Slovenian photographer Žiga Koritnik, capturing Brötzmann and Nilssen-Love playing in a studio, at a close distance, is in the inner sleeve of Butterfly Mushroom. Koritnik devoted his second book of photographs (following Cloud Arrangers, 2019) to Brötzmann and more intimate and generous perspectives of the late master, including a few photos of Brötzmann and Nilssen-Love, mainly with the Chicago Tentet. Brötzmann compliments Koritnik’s art. “For sure Žiga loves the music, you have to come so close to the musicians, you hear them talk, you smell sweat, cigar smoke, fruity wine, bourbon or whiskey - whatever. And there we have the connection - we need all our senses for whatever we are doing - our WORK - LOVE - LIFE”.

Nilssen-Love contributed a beautiful, touching text about Brötzmann, his close friend who always had a camera with him, and with whom he kept sharing “experiences and memories through photos”. One of the most emotional photos in this book is of Brötzmann hugging Nilssen-Love after a duo set in Wleń, Poland. “In this book, Žiga has managed to capture Peter in many different situations. Not only on stage. And that’s the beauty of this book”, Nilssen-Love writes. “After performing for five decades there are thousands of photos of Peter on stage, full on, playing his ass off. Žiga’s photos capture another side of him that is more personal and intimate. I’m glad these photos exist, that Žiga paid attention and captured these moments. We can look back and be reminded of the energy Peter gave and shared - on stage, off stage, on camera”.

Koritnik concludes this book by saying how much he admired Brötzmann since he first experienced Die Like A Dog at the Konfrontationen festival in Nickelsdorf in 1994. “Peter was undeniably the gateway to my understanding of the world of free improvised music”, he writes. Later on, their connection became closer, and Brötzmann asked Koritnik to arrange an exhibition of his artwork in Ljubljana, and the work on this book began in 2021. “I am genuinely grateful for having heard so many of his incredible concerts, seen his art firsthand, had the opportunity to know him, be occasionally near him, and learn so much from him. And that he allowed me to fulfill my mission-photography.”