The Geordie Approach are two Norwegians and a Geordie. They met in Leeds and play improvised music. They have been doing it since the early 00s. The name? A stupid comment about the correct volume to operate amplifiers (loud enough to disrupt all surrounding activity and stimulate acts of desperate violence) that became a kind of mantra to how the band would approach its performances and recordings. <p>Both of the band's previous records (on Simon H. Fell's Bruce's Fingers label) featured edited improvisations, cut to 'song length' to emphasise the group's highly compositional approach to improvisation; opting for focused episodes of layered improvisation over the more stream-of-consciousness approach of some free improvisation. <p>In the lead up to The Geordie Approach's latest album 'Shields', the band toured extensively around Europe and Japan honing their episodic, 'everything-is-permitted' approach to improvisation. Following festival performances in the UK, the band set up in a re-purposed Methodist church in Leeds with a handful of microphones and played two 30-minute pieces. These two pieces, 'North' and 'South' comprise the album. What you hear is what they played. No edits. No fixes. <p>Personnel: Stle Birkeland (drums), Petter Frost Fadnes (saxophone, electronics), Chris Sharkey (guitar, electronics).