Amsterdam-based avant jazz-rock quartet Brown vs Brown play jagged avant jazz-rock mixing herky-jerky rhythms, tightly composed and executed ensemble interplay, and exploratory sonic interludes featuring moderate -- but not excessive -- helpings of improvisation. The band is comprised of Dutch alto/baritone saxophonist Dirk Bruinsma, a veteran of the longstanding ensemble Blast; Dutch guitarist Jeroen Kimman; Austrian drummer/percussionist Gerri Jäger; and Finnish bassist Viljam Nybacka. Jäger and Nybacka came to Amsterdam to receive conservatory training and were soon caught up in the city’s diverse music scene, joining up with Bruinsma and Kimman in Brown vs Brown during 2004. In spring of that year the quartet began gigging mainly around Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands, but by 2006 had ranged farther afield in Europe with shows in such major cities as Rome, Berlin, and Vienna. In February 2007 Brown vs Brown entered a Vienna studio to record and mix their debut CD, Twitch and Shout, and the following month the group premiered a short-lived quintet lineup including ICP Orchestra trombonist Wolter Wierbos at Amsterdam’s venerable Bimhuis. The Austria-based PAO label released Twitch and Shout in the fall of 2007, and in November the band embarked on more European touring -- including dates in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, and the Netherlands -- to promote the album. After additional touring across Europe in the spring and fall of 2008, Brown vs Brown headed to the south of France to record their second CD, Odds and Unevens, in December of that year with noted avant-prog engineer Bob Drake (Thinking Plague, 5uu’s, the Science Group). Scattered live dates marked the calendar for the band during 2009, and in January 2010 Odds and Unevens received wide distribution upon its release by the Cuneiform label. While the bandmembers remained active in a number of other projects, they were also involved in composing new material for a third Brown vs Brown CD and announced various live European dates for spring 2010, when the group promised to "be back with a vengeance." However, by August of that year, the quartet members announced that -- given their involvement in other projects and with some of them moving out of the Netherlands (and also citing the need to keep things fresh) -- they would be taking "a bit of a break," uncertain of when they would be returning under the Brown vs Brown banner. On their website they offered a farewell: "bye for now...." ~ Dave Lynch