Mats Gustafsson (saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (double bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) also known as The Thing, are back. Those who know them, know exactly what I’m talking about, what to expect from them, those who never had the chance – or misfortune – to collide with them until now, can’t even imagine what’s this trio about. Avant-gard, free jazz, action-jazz, 101% improvising, no grooves, riffs, themes, nothing to hang on, this is quite something anti-establishment, anti-pattern, anti-structure, and not at least anti-music form of expression. Art – or madness, quite impossible to drew a line between them. Far as I know, no MySpace, no Facebook or Twitter page, not even official web site, this is an old-style, hardworking band, taking the world club by club, selling their CDs after their tumultuous gigs and going further, eventually sometimes looking back, but not necessarily and not in anger.
This time they delivered “only” 30 and so minutes and as the album title announce it, this was recorded in mono. And this time no other artist were involved, we’ve got exclusively the three core members of this project. It’s quite enough I guess. Paal Nilssen-Love is one of the best drummers I heard lately, Mats Gustafsson is definitively a maniac while Ingebrigt Håker Flaten keeps the balance between them.
This is hardcore. Listen with care.
Mats Gustafsson – Official Site
Smalltown Superjazzz
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GQHiej8hZo&w=540&h=396]
