Mats Gustafsson - This Is From the Mouth (February 4, 2022 Catalytic-Sound)

Side A

1. This Is From the Mouth

Recorded, mixed and mastered, Spring, 2015.

Bass Saxophone, Organ, Electronics [Live] – Mats Gustafsson

Drums – Andreas Werliin, David Sandström

Illustration – Patti Jordan

Producer – Johan Berthling

Recorded By, Mixed By, Mastered By – Mikael Werliin

Typography – Jamie Lawson (2)

Illustrations:

Hang-Tail (Biconical 015)

Needlers (Corpus 019)

LP limited to 300 copies. Single-sided picture disc presented in a heavy poly sleeve screen printed front and back.

PRE-ORDER

Anguish - Anguish (RareNoise Records 2018)

The dark, impossibly intense dirges, industrial noise onslaughts and banshee-like free jazz wailing heard throughout Anguish could be an imposing soundtrack for a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future. This powerhouse, inter-generational offering and RareNoise Records debut brings together an unlikely gathering of members of the New Jersey-based experimental hip-hop group Dälek (electronic musician and vocalist Will Brooks with guitarist-keyboardist Mike Mare), the Swedish free jazz group Fire! Orchestra (tenor saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, drummer Andreas Werliin) and the classic ‘70s German krautrock band Faust (keyboardist and 68-year-old founding member Hans Joachim Irmler). 

Recorded in just three days during the summer of 2018 at Faust’s Scheer Studios, located in a former factory perched on the banks of the Danube in Swabia, Germany, near the Swiss border, Anguish stands as a hard-hitting manifesto for the next evolution in the hip-hop legacy. 

From the droning opener, “Vibrations,” fueled by ambient loops and sparked by Gustafsson’s cathartic, blast furnace intensity on tenor, to the slamming, industrial-tinged closer, “Wümme,” Anguish is an iron fist upside the head of complacency. “Cyclical Physical” is the sound of rage with an in-your-face rap from Brooks while the moody title track features a jazzy backdrop that has Gustafsson nimbly shadowing Brooks’ pointed spoken word rap. “Gut Feeling” is a hard-edged noise rock / metal romp with Brooks shouting the combative refrain: “Fuck your frail feelings!” 

The instrumental interlude “Brushes for Leah” is a dark, imposing soundtrack underscored by drummer Werliin’s subtle brushwork while Brooks spits thought-provoking verse with flowing aplomb on the ambient backdrop of “Healer’s Lament.” 

Gustafsson erupts with caustic abandon on the throbbing instrumental “DEW” then blows sinuous lines around Brooks’ vitriolic rap on the low-end industrial groover “A Maze of Decay.” Werliin's thunderous backbeat drives the kinetic closer “Wümme,” a krautrock flavored instrumental named for the rural German town where Faust formed in 1971. 

Will Brooks (dälek) - vocals, SAMPLR, Eventide/Elektron effect pedals, 1 note on MOOG rogue, 3 notes on grand piano

Mats Gustafsson - tenor saxophone,

live - electronics, 3 notes on grand piano

Hans Joachim Irmler - synthesizers, vocals

Mike Mare - guitar, electronics, synthesizer

Andreas Werliin - drums, percussion

Tracklisting:

Vibrations

Cyclical/Physical

Anguish

Gut Feeling

Brushes for Leah

Healer’s Lament

DEW

A Maze of Decay 

Wümme 

Recorded and mixed by Johannes Buff

Assistant Engineer: Jan Wagner

Recorded at Faust Studios

Scheer, Germany July 14 - 19, 2018

Mixed at END NOTE

Bayonne, Basque Country July 23 - 27, 2018

Spiritual counsel - LENNI

Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper

Mastered at Turtle Tone Studios, NYC, NY

All songs composed by Will Brooks, Mats Gustafsson, Hans Joachim Irmler, Mike Mare, and Andreas Werliin

All song published by Mayan Ruins Music (SESAC), Mike Mare Music (BMI),

All lyrics by Will Brooks, Mayan Ruins Music (SESAC) except “Healer’s Lament” by Kamau Daáood.

Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords:

Giacomo Bruzzo

Design & Layout by Paul Romano

Sculpture by Darla Jackson

Tonbruket - Live Salvation (ACT Music 2018)

Tonbruket live on stage is an experience you will never forget: The superb concert recording „Live Salvation" captures the band’s fluidity as it moves from lulling and sensitive folk through playful and hip jazz, and onwards and outwards to ferocious full-on rock, casting the Swedish quartet in a different light from its award-winning studio recordings.

The dovetailing and the interaction between the musicians are immaculate. If no single band member appears to stand out as a soloist, it is because they have a way of all soloing together at the same time. "The team is the star," wrote the Esslinger Zeitung's critic in a highly enthusiastic review of the Tonbruket concert at Jazzclub Bix in Stuttgart which is now presented on this CD.

After nearly a full decade together, it is now apposite to look back and consider all that Tonbruket have achieved. They have made four highly acclaimed studio albums on ACT, each of which received a Swedish Grammy. They have also performed countless tours, and always with the same line-up, which is never something that should be taken for granted. It means that Dan Berglund, Johan Lindström, Martin Hederos and Andreas Werliin have grown together into a unit that can groove like a perfectly-oiled machine (Tonbruket in English means ‘sound factory’) and yet can also defy expectations with their poetic lightness.

“Salvation”. The album title evokes spiritual healing. These four Swedes don't just play because they always have, not just because they lived it large as teenagers in punk bands, nor because they studied music. They perform because it is their be-all and end-all, because their physical and mental health depends on it. The formation of the band in 2009 by Dan Berglund and Johan Lindström was preceded by a traumatic experience: the sudden death of the man who had been Berglund's closest musical colleague, pianist Esbjörn Svensson. That tragic event on June 14, 2008 brought his trio e.s.t.’s spectacular success story to an abrupt halt.

Anyone who has ever experienced a Tonbruket concert will have an idea of what this album has in store. The songs tend to be much longer than the precisely worked studio versions. There is time for solos – but they serve the tune in a way that they never feel like solos. The listener at a Tonbruket concert can relax, close their eyes, surrender completely to wondrously dreamy sounds...only to be subjected to a merciless onslaught. Is it “progressive?” It’s more than that: avant-garde folk meeting psychedelic jazz and progressive rock.

"The way the musicians interweave acoustic and electrical instruments is a particularly fine craft," wrote the German magazine Stern. Tonbruket played music from their last three albums in Stuttgart, and all eight songs on the album have a special, added, live dimension about them. "Dig It To The End" has a deep, earthy groove, to which Martin Hederos’ swinging honky-tonk piano lends an unexpected lightness. "Nightmusic", at twelve minutes, is almost twice as long as before. In its long keyboard passages Tonbruket show a Pink Floyd-like playfulness, which then in turn leads to bass solos by band founder Dan Berglund, shadowed by the ghostly rustling percussion of Andreas Werliins.

To end the album, the 14-minute “Vinegar Heart” offers a fabulous trip, leading from the abyss up into the light and the heights – and back down again. What begins with dub noise moments, turns into a gentle journey through the Appalachians with the howling pedal steel guitar of Johan Lindström. The Kölnischer Rundschau’s reviewer once summed it all up rather neatly :"An adventure trip through the past, present and future. It fits in no category – and it’s fun."

1 The Missing ( Andreas Werliin, Martin Hederos & Tonbruket*) 09:31

2 Dig It To The End ( Dan Berglund***) 04:06

3 Nightmusic ( Johan Lindström**) 11:41

4 Sinkadus ( Dan Berglund, Johan Lindström & Tonbruket*) 07:04

5 Gripe ( Martin Hederos***) 07:09

6 Balloons ( Martin Hederos***) 06:02

7 Polka Oblivion ( Johan Lindström & Tonbruket*) 06:56

8 Vinegar Heart ( Johan Lindström***) 13:44

Dan Berglund / double bass

Johan Lindström / guitar, pedal steel

Martin Hederos / piano, synthesizers, violin

Andreas Werliin / drums

Recorded live in concert by Åke Linton

at Bix Jazzclub Stuttgart, November 17, 2016

Mixed by Tonbruket and Anton Sundell at Studio Bruket

Mastered by Henrik Jonsson at Masters of audio

* from the album Forevergreens, ACT 9811-2

** from the album Nubium Swimtrip, ACT 9558-2

*** from the album Dig it to the end, ACT 9026-2

Produced by Tonbruket

Cover art by Jesper Waldersten: Salvation, 2017

with the kind permission of the artist

Mats Gustafsson Trio: Fire! - The Hands (RUNE GRAMMOFON 2018)

For 20 years Rune Grammofon has made a habit of releasing music that is beyond easy classification, in later years typified by Swedish trio Fire!, consisting of Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin. All three are highly accomplished musicians, but Fire! music is not “difficult” in the sense that jazz and especially free jazz is often perceived. Very much a tight knit unit with three equal players, Fire! has been likened to powerful guitar led trios such as Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, but with Berthling´s heavy, doom laden basslines being such a typical identifier, we can´t help but thinking of Black Sabbath´s debut album when it comes to hypnotic impact.

The Hands is the trio´s sixth album and once again displays a totally uncompromising and intriguing mix of (mostly) heavy, dark and intensely burning music whether one decide on calling it jazz or rock. The album closes on a quiet and reflective note with the appropriately titled “I Guard Her To Rest. Declaring Silence”.

And we say it´s easily their best so far.

1 The Hands 4:39

2 When Her Lips Collapsed 4:52

3 Touches Me With The Tips Of Wonder 3:31

4 Washing Your Heart In Filth 4:54

5 Up. And Down 4:44

6 To Shave The Leaves. In Red. In Black 9:10

7 I Guard Her To Rest. Declaring Silence 4:50

Mats Gustafsson: Tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, live electronics

Johan Berthling: Electric and double bass

Andreas Werliin: Drums, percussion and feedback