Arashi (Akira Sakata / Johan Berthling / Paal Nilssen-Love) – Two-Day Residency w/ special guest Signe Emmeluth

Very excited to welcome back the trio of Akira Sakata (alto saxophone, clarinet, voice), Johan Berthling (double bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums & percussion) to OTO for the first time in four years! All incredible improvising musicians in their own right, the interplay between the three of them in this grouping is truly one of a kind. Don't miss!

“One of the most powerful, exciting working groups... Arashi storms - literally - with an uncompromising force and intensity, as if its own energy produces even more addictive kind of energy, leading to an ecstatic and thunderous tour-de-force.” – Free Jazz Blog

The trio of Scandinavian rhythm section Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Johan Berthling (double bass) hooking up with Japanese free jazz legend Akira Sakata (saxophone/clarinet) started in 2013 at the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway. The trio took their name from the legendary 1977 collaborative album by Yosuke Yamashita Trio and dance group Dairakudakan - an album that Sakata was a central part of, that even 40 years later stand solid as a radical and bold musical statement. And this piece of history gives us a clue to where the trio of Nilssen-Love, Berthling and Sakata is aiming for, not by looking back and rethreading what has been done before, but adopting its attitude of kicking the often stale sax/drums/bass-format forward with such force that it feels completely fresh.

"There are moments on this album when the energy is so furiously intense it feels like it's going to spin out of control and take someone's eye out. Sakata delivers wry alto phrases, as though from the corner of his mouth, before digressing into urgent flights of fancy, and finally launching into screaming, red-faced declamation - fueled by Nilsen-Love's boiling pulse-time drums and the low bounce of Berthling's double bass." – The WIRE on the trio's first release