This is a part of
Liveurope

fiery improvisation with sax duo

The first pan-European initiative supporting concert venues in their efforts to promote emerging European music.

Hanne De Backer has been soaring to new heights in the Belgian improv-scene in recent years. Her first creative steps were set as a theatre maker at KVS, later she focused more on her sax and music. In addition to her band g a b b r o, she is also a part of Mudskipper and Condor Gruppe, and she plays regularly with other improvisation artists like The Ex, Paal Nilssen-Love and Ken Vandermark. De Backer’s live sets are always very intense experiences that brim with energy.

Oslo-based Danish saxophonist and composer Signe Emmeluth is one of the key figures of the contemporary Scandinavian improv-scene. You may know her from the likes of Emmeluth Amoebe collective, Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit, or her many collaborations with . In 2021, she released her solo debut ‘Hi Hello I’m Signe’.

Signe and Hanne met for the first time in 2019 in Krakow when they played in the tentet of American trombone player Steve Swell. Soon after, they played together again on a tour with Paal Nilssen-Love's Large Unit. They discovered a shared passion for free music & dance and decided to play together more often. Since then, they played together with Dutch guitar manipulator Terrie Ex, with drum phenomenon Paal Nilssen-Love in the power quartet Mudskipper, and with Belgian pianist Jonas Cambien. This year they will release a first album as duo, on the Norwegian label Smalltown Supersound.