Mats Gustafsson
This Is From the Mouth

An album like this, in my opinion, is more of a 'manifesto' than a mere recording and/or simple music to listen to. Using expressions like 'pop music' or 'easy-listening' in this case would definitely be wrong and even somewhat blasphemous. There is nothing easy in the droning fury of the sound of this latest release by Mats Gustafsson, a highly respected musician and saxophonist, known also for his collaborations over the years with artists of the caliber of Sonic Youth, The Ex, Zu, Jim O'Rourke. Besides being a great jazz saxophonist, of course, and as such, one of the most important in the free-jazz scene not only in Sweden, but in the entire Scandinavia.

'This Is From the Mouth' was released last March and it actually consists of a single composition lasting eighteen minutes in which Gustafsson, accompanied by David Sandstrom (Refused) and Andreas Werliin (Fire!, Wildbird & Peacedrums), plays what would essentially be the musical adaptation for a theatrical work, a project called 'Das Fliegende Kind' ('The Flying Boy') conceived by Roland Schimmelpfenning and directed by Lars Rufolfsson. The adaptation and recordings were conceived by Mats himself, and all the material was recorded with the production of Johan Berthing (Fire!, Tape) at Orieonteatern in Stockholm, Sweden, in what once was an industrial building.

And practically, there couldn't have been a better location for such a sound performance as this one. Even if we start from what we might consider an episode of experimental free-jazz, we must indeed take into account that in this case the droning element and influences from space music, cosmic music, and kraut-rock take center stage. The same sonic and noise influences of bands like Sonic Youth are more than relevant in a work whose intent, after all, would literally be to create a growing fervor inside the listener's head until a real explosion of the mind should occur. And in trying to accomplish this mission, these three guys surely have used all the skills at their disposal and all the power and fury they are capable of.

It is a work that deals with the avant-garde in all sectors and a composition that I would define as post-industrial. Not industrial, but truly post-industrial, and the location is fitting because the sound of this recording is indeed the same sound that remains when the assembly line has stopped. When the factory has closed, and the production activities seem to be over. When everything is shut down, and an apparent calm reigns. When it seems like nothing is left, but at the same time with your eyes, or better, with your mind, you can clearly see that everything is still in front of you. When in the end you manage to grasp the reverb of life's noise and cannot stop breathing, remembering in your mind things you apparently should have never seen and experiences you mistakenly thought you never lived firsthand. Yet these are inside you and inside each of us.