‘These seriously playful/playfully serious gentlemen share the same vibe: a strong sense of speed and importance, paired with a kind of childlike curiosity for what lies behind the next bend. Alternating between baritone saxophone, flutophone, slide flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, phrases are repeated and elaborated, questions, answers, rhetoric, ornamentation, criticism, and free flow, all this and more can coexist when it comes from the same source.
There is a lot of commotion in this music, a lot of pressing and panting. But there are also feelings in the brutality, a brutal finesse that leads us from one sonic landscape to another. Not like a hike, more like a run through forests and scrubs, down steep slopes and up through narrow gorges…’

‘Hans Hulbækmo and Egil Kalman have long been a playful and creative rhythm section, with one foot in free jazz and the other in folk music. They’ve played together in the Marthe Lea Band and other projects, and since last year they’ve delved into the folk music of Norway and Sweden — all set in an experimental duo format. Drums and jaw harp (Hans) meet modular synth and double bass (Egil).
‘Unit of Time draws from the rhythmic details of folk music, as the basis for minimalist compositions full of improvisation. It’s not all about the groove, though. Some melodies are interpreted straightforwardly enough, but the unconventional instruments give the music a new depth. Unusual timbres and sonic phenomena emerge, mesemerizingly.’

The Chicago-based poet and singer heads up a spicy gumbo of jazz, folk and soul.
‘By merging ferociously honest poetry with various black musical traditions, Tate stands as heir to Chicagoan Oscar Brown Jr., the veteran urban griot whose lyrics long have decried racism and social injustice’ (The Chicago Tribune).