"New Species unites multi-instrumentalist Dan Lao and master percussionist Vasco Trilla in an inventive, highly expressive duo exploration. Recorded live at Old Heaven Books, the album merges saxophone, DIY flute and dizi with richly textured drums and percussion. The result is an immersive sound world where spontaneity, nuance and dynamic interplay guide the narrative.

Released by NoBusiness Records, the album moves fluidly between atmospheric abstraction, rhythmic tension and melodic fragments, revealing two artists deeply attuned to each other's gestures. New Species stands as a bold statement of contemporary free improvisation, full of colour, contrast and inventive musical."-Nobusiness

"Lao Dan, a classically trained Chinese flutist who studied at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music (SYCM), adheres to his own vision and approach to the bamboo flute and its sounds. His playing continues to push the boundaries of artistic expression on this instrument, exploring the possibilities of free, energetic ways of creating sound, constrained by neither jazz nor traditional Chinese musical conventions. His improvisation often provides the audience with an overwhelming sound experience where East and West, ancient and modern, collide dramatically.

On this duo release, he also treats tenor saxophone and several types of flutes, together with drummer and percussionist Vasco Trilla, who should be a well-known musician to fans of salt peanuts*, as he has, in recent years, participated in a number of exciting releases. Trilla Vasco is considered one of the truly modern masters of the new free sound approach to drums and percussion.

We are served seven compositions/improvisations where the two have collaborated, and they start with "You are You" with Dan on tenor saxophone. He has a tone in his horn that is almost "to cut yourself on". It is sharp and fine, and eventually he hands over the stage to Trilla, who delivers a laid-back and fine drum solo, before they both settle into a landscape we know from a number of the "tougher" saxophonists from the 1980s and 90s. And together with Trilla's loose and fine drumming, this becomes a, to the highest degree, tough sequence. It can sound like Dan is trying to "straighten out the tenor" with the help of pure energy. And he moves fiercely up in the upper registers. Raw tough!

Then follows "New Species" in two parts, where they take it all the way down with the help of Dan's flutes and Trilla's cymbals. In the first part, this becomes a kind of thoughtful and meditative music, before they pick it up a bit, with the help of free-flowing flute and high-energy saxophone. This continues in the second part, and it is fascinating to hear all the sounds coming out of the flutes and saxophone (I assume the tenor saxophone is involved), where they build up the intensity gradually, before they move on to "Ted Horse Road", which starts with Chinese flute and cymbals. This one is more "Chinese" than the previous ones, and there is a lot of Chinese landscape that appears in this one.

"Ole Heaven Books" has the same title as the name of the bookstore in Shenzhen City, where the recording was made live on October 29, 2024. This is a long improvisation that starts right down there with flute and quiet percussion, before the tenor saxophone settles in on top, and we get a sequence that, almost, could have been done by John Coltrane or Albert Ayler (on tenor saxophone). At the same time, there is so much blues in the game that it could have been taken from even older saxophonists. Because this is a beautiful and subdued blues in ballad form, where Dan's saxophone playing is extremely beautiful. The song develops nicely in temperament, as Trilla "attacks" the drum kit, and Dan goes more fiercely to "attack" with the tenor saxophone, but all the time with the blues as a background. We get an extremely fierce sequence that shows what an excellent saxophonist Dan is, while Trilla pushes with excellent drumming.

They then move on to "Fire Boy", which is a relatively short and to the point with flute and free and nice drumming. This is free jazz expression at its best, with a touch of Chinese traditions, before they round off with the long "Nobodies Are Going to Sleg". Here it opens with relatively raw saxophone playing and flute, which creates an exciting contrast, before the flute(s) take over in an eastern sequence with Trilla "playfully" in the background. The flute playing is extremely creative and tough where he plays a duo with himself. Here they get plenty of time to interact, and with Dan's flutes we get a song that has a lot of Chinese in it, while Trilla contributes with nice "club" playing on the drums.

The two met at Old Heaven Books while Trilla was in town to play with John Edwards and Luis Vicente, while Dan was there to play with Danish trombonist Maria Bertel. This was during the Oct-Loft Festival, and we should be happy that they could meet for this live recording from Ole Heaven Books, which is a place where many such spontaneous concerts are arranged. And this has become a nice and exciting duo constellation, with two of the most exciting and free improvisational musicians on the planet today."-Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts (translated by Google)