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Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2025
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec May 12-18, 2025 The 41st edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville was the second with Scott Thomson as artistic director, after taking the reins of the festival from festival founder and artistic director Michel Levasseur following the 39th edition in 2023. This year's affair was drastically reduced from the usual 20 concerts over four days to two concerts on Saturday evening, May 17 ...
Continue ReadingAALY TRIO: Sustain
by Mark Corroto
The previous recording by the AALY Trio, comprised of saxophonist (and flutist) Mats Gustafsson, double bassist Peter Janson and drummer Kjell Nordeson, was recorded 25 years prior (Double Or Nothing, Okka Disk, 2002). The reunion of this Swedish outfit is cause for celebration. If we rewind the clock a bit, Gustafsson and Janson began playing together in the early 1980s. They formed this trio in 1986 and named it after an Art Ensemble Of Chicago composition, “Lebert Aaly: ...
Continue ReadingGush: Afro Blue
by John Sharpe
Time brings perspective. The three members of the Swedish band Gush--pianist Sten Sandell, drummer Raymond Strid and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson--were amazed at the quality of the music on this archive tape when they heard it again a quarter century after it was recorded, having forgotten about it completely in the interim. And they are right to be taken aback. The recording, from a concert in Stockholm in December 1998, is simply magnificent. This is unsurprising in retrospect, as all three ...
Continue ReadingFire!: Testament
by Chris May
Recorded and then played back at reduced speed, even a seemingly simple two-note bird call reveals elaborate complexity and detail. It is worth hanging on to that thought when approaching the deceptively straightforward Testament. On a cursory listening, most of the album--an amalgam of Mats Gustafsson's slow-and-deliberate long-held low-end baritone notes and Johan Berthling and Andreas Werlin's matching bass ostinatos and drum patterns--sounds primordial. The recipe goes reductio ad absurdum on track two, “The Dark Inside Of A ...
Continue ReadingMats Gustafsson: Hidros 9 Mirrors
by Mark Corroto
For saxophonist, composer, conductor Mats Gustafsson, the motto “go big, or go home" has always applied to his music. Whether it is blowing his baritone saxophone in the avant garage band The Thing or battling the Japanese noise artist Merzbow, Gustafsson is constantly expanding concepts of composed and improvised music. Through various ensembles such as Gush, Fire! Orchestra, Swedish azz, Fake The Facts, AALY Trio, Sonore, and his duos with everyone from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, to Steve Swell, Christian ...
Continue ReadingBengt "Frippe" Nordström: Vinyl Box
by Mark Corroto
Sometimes an artist can tilt the axis of a genre. Tilt it by just a degree or two. The effects might not be felt as such in the moment, but after decades their imprint is profound. Peter Brötzmann was one example, as was Derek Bailey. Add to that list, the Swedish saxophonist Bengt “Frippe" Nordström (1936 to 2000). As a musician born into a family with wealth, he was spared the necessity of playing gigs to earn his livelihood. In ...
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