Mats Gustafsson and David Stackenäs deliver a fir-soaked album of "Swedish Mountain Blues" just for you.
Excerpted from KEN VANDERMARK'S Liner Notes: "Listening to the music on this album by Mats and David, and considering its reference to the Blues (in title at least), I am left to ponder how strongly Black American Blues music is ingrained into the cultural DNA of even a middle-aged, white, middle-class citizen of the United States. Also I am forced to realize how foreign those methods of expression might seem to artists born into European history. Perhaps this subconscious content of American Blues is as significant a component in the difference between the sound of American improvised music and its European counterpart as the issue of "time."
...so I think that this set of pieces is about a feeling, if it is meant to be connected to the Blues. And the feeling here is bordered by the somber baritone hymn that begins and ends the album. Inside that frame are a series of heartfelt statements made by close European friends of mine- but even though they're close to me I realize that I experience their music as a foreigner. When I listen to this material it's colored by American ears, and no matter how much time I spend in Europe with European artists I know that I will always be the American in the band."
Ta płyta to klasyczny przykład sytuacji, gdy muzycy wchodzą do studia nie po to, by stworzyć porządną muzykę, lecz żeby mieć świetną zabawę z gry na swoich instrumentach. Efekt: ledwie śladowe ilości ładu i składu; muzyka, która jedynie momentami może zainteresować w sposób odmienny od negatywnego. A przynajmniej mnie.