The Ägg: The Ägg

Put three electric guitarists, three electric bassists and four drummers in one room all coming from the vibrant Stockholm scene of free improvisation, free jazz and art rock. Let them jam freely, lock in hypnotic grooves that loosely sound like Fela Kuti's Afro-beat bands or worse, like North Korean marching bands on acid, sketch noisy textures that brings to mind Captain Beefheart in its wildest psychedelic moments or the voluminous symphonies of Glenn Branca in its poetic passages and you begin to get an idea how The Ägg sound.



This conglomerate of sound is comprised of guitarists David Stackenäs, member of the experimental group The New Songs and Seval song-based outfits and close collaborator of sax titan Mats Gustafsson; Anton Toorell, member of the alternative, "tuba-techno/radio-pop" Invader Ace and John Lindblom, leader of the now defunct Swedish quintet Firehouse; bassists Patric Thorman, member of Seval, and collaborator of pianist Sten Sandell and saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist; Joe Williamson, close collaborator of Stackenä and Dutch saxophonist Tobias Delius; and Vilhelm Bromander; and drummers Raymond Strid, close collaborator of Gustafsson, bass master Barry Guy and many others; Erik Carlsson, member of Swedish Azz, with Gustafsson, Ola Hultgren, member of Thus:Owls and of vocalists Ane Brun and Torun Eriksen bands and Christopher Cantillo, member of vocalist Anna von Hausswolff band.

The three pieces feature The Ägg playing with chaotic abandon but also with commanding control. The massive sound erupts immediately, collide violently with intense, urgent noises and moves forward in huge, nervous waves then backwards with walls of dense, metallic sounds and a loose consistency and with no attempt to develop a a clear narrative of progression. Thety then disperse in space and soon begin to accumulate again till the next sonic climax. Slowly this complex, restless and mulch-dimensional sonic universe becomes clearer and more nuanced and attaches detailed colors and rhythms as it reaches the third and more reserved piece, "Lapse."



The Ägg offers a unique listening experience, deeply physical, often irritating but always captivating.