Pillow Circles

About This Project

Jorrit Dijkstra – alto saxophone, lyricon, analog synth, crackle box
Tony Malaby – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Jeb Bishop – trombone
Oene van Geel – viola
Paul Pallesen – guitar, banjo
Raphael Vanoli – guitar
Jason Roebke – bass, crackle box
Frank Rosaly – drums, percussion, crackle box

Pillow Circles is Jorrit Dijkstra’s suite of compositions for eight-piece ensemble, with a prominent role for the sound of the electric guitar. Blending influences from the fringes of indie-rock, electronica, and free jazz, these pieces display an impressive variety in textures and dynamics. At the same time the Pillow Circles are a set of sensitive, at times dreamy melodies, with a distinctive sense of groove. The band’s already unusual instrumentation is supplemented by analog electronics: guitar effect pedals, the Lyricon (a vintage analog wind synthesizer), and the obscure Crackle Box (a small low-fi noisemaker invented by Dutch electronic musician Michel Waisvisz) all form an essential part of the sound palette. Each Pillow Circle is dedicated to a musician or composer that has influenced Dijkstra’s music, and include the late Dutch film composer Rogier van Otterloo, American contemporary opera pioneer Robert Ashley, obscure 1950’s alto saxophonist Ernie Henry, and Radiohead’s creative brain Jonny Greenwood. The project features some of the most interesting improvisers from Chicago, Amsterdam and New York, musicians that have played a role in Dijkstra’s other projects. Altogether this makes Pillow Circles a highly personal balance of Dijkstra’s past musical influences, as well as a vision of his work to come.

The Pillow Circles project was commissioned by the North Sea Jazz Festival 2009 and Muziek Centrum Nederland, and was made possible through grants from the Netherland-America Foundation, Muziek Centrum Nederland and the Nederlands Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten NFPK+

Press Quotes:

There’s a new spirit in the ensemble avant jazz being created lately in some circles. At least I think so. Jorrit Dijkstra is a part of it, at least in his recent Pillow Circles (Clean Feed). […] He has created an excellent vehicle for a talented and inspired group of musicians and the results are striking. Many stylistic elements combine in ways that do not seem patched together. Jorrit integrates the free, the electric, the advanced melodic approach and the textural colorfield perspective in a seamless whole. This is extraordinarily interesting music, played by some extraordinarily open and articulate musicians. Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate

“A title well chosen, because Dijkstra wrote his work for a remarkable line-up of bass, drums, viola, trombone, two saxophones and two guitarists, and he plays very inventively with the textures hidden inside such a diverse band. For example the tension between Tony Malaby’s clear soprano sax and the odd sound of the Lyricon (wind synthesizer) was extremely exciting. Because of the line-up with two guitar players the first piece reminded of the music of Henry Threadgill, however, later on Dijkstra’s idiosyncrasy took over.” Mischa Andriessen, jazzenzo.nl

“His series of pieces under the name Pillow Circles contained extreme soft and incredibly hectic passages, melodic and orchestrated parts, as well as extremely abstract explorations, with abrupt silences, dissonant licks on the Lyricon, and rock rhythms. All of this often occurred in the same composition”. Koen Schouten/Frank van Herk in De Volkskrant