NEW THE THING TOUR — SHAKING THE EUROPE 2016!!!!!!

Mo 25 April – Katowice JazzArt festival – Katowice, PO

Tu 26 April – Café Wagner – Jena, DE

We 27 April – Bunker Ulmenwall – Bielefeld,DE – in memory of Erhard Hessling

Th 28 April – Kulturbrauerei – Berlin, DE

Fr 29 April – Jazzit – Salzburg, AT

Sa 30 April – Thirsty Ear fest at Mocvara, Zagreb HR

Su 1 May – Kulturforum Villach at Bambergsaal – Villach, AT

http://www.thethingjazz.com/

SEE U ALL OUT THERE  — it will be SHAKING !

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE!!!!

ready for action…

a new duo….500 years after the death of Hieronymus Bosch … this is what we can offer:

a.k.a.

Helmut Lachenmann Shame-ber Orchestra

Mats Gustafsson – electronics and broken reeds

Greg Saunier  –  drums  and such

thanx to everyone at TonZaal in Den Bosch for making this a reality!

booking: danielle@oosterop.com

Release of the new FIRE ORCHESTRA ALBUM ” RITUAL”

and a MAJOR EU tour in connection with the release – old school night liner bus tour;

SEE U OUT THERE!!!!

EUROPEAN SHAKE TOUR w THE THING with sound tech “mixed grill”

2 LP set on pristine 180 g vinyl – fold out w printed inner sleeves OUT NOW! + amazing bumper sticker.

all available on the SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE tour!!

just back from new zealand and australia!
THANK you all down there!
https://www.facebook.com/johan.berthling/posts/1035393993172890

festival stage in hobart, tasmania!

soon on tour in Europa again. look at the schedule here: SEE YOU OUT THERE!
http://matsgus.com/

meanwhile some recent reviews of the new album SHE SLEEPS, SHE SLEEPS

http://thequietus.com/articles/19591-fire-she-sleeps-she-sleeps-review

http://tidningenkulturen.se/index.php/musik/musikkritik/20847-jazz-i-olika-farger-och-storlekar

http://jazznyt.blogspot.de/2016/01/fire-she-sleeps-she-sleeps-rune.html?m=1

http://elintruso.com/2016/01/15/encuesta-2015-periodistas-internacionales/

EXPLOSIVE START OF 2016!

premiere of FIRE! in Australia and NZ

FIRE & MARIAM WALLENTIN

sound: mikael werliin

w special guest appereances by Oren Ambarchi, Joe Talia, Tony Buck, Magda  Mayas, Jeff Henderson and others

new release: SHE SLEEPS SHE SLEEPS – on RUNE GRAMMOFON

http://www.runegrammofon.com/

coming soon!!!

2016 starting up with an unusual release…….

the first (!?) ever solo vinyl  recorded on a piano mate ( without a piano…..)

release in january 2016….

order now:

http://bluetapes.co.uk/

x-ray four: Mats Gustafsson – Piano Mating LP

£18.99

Ultra-clear 180g heavyweight LP with screenprinted artwork + download
Limited edition of 500
Pre-order and receive download now – physicals ship in January

They sound like two holes puncturing the fabric of reality – holes that disobey time and space; black holes then, where you can poke your head through and see what is really going on behind the curtain.

The two side-long pieces of Piano Mating by Mats Gustafsson are incredibly pure, simple-sounding and slowly-ascending drones that feel convincingly like tractor beams for the soul.

Is this spiritual music for heathens? It happened because we asked Mats to compose an album using an instrument he’d never recorded with before. He came back with one of the most bizarre pieces of kit ever – the Dubreq Pianomate. A deliciously odd device from the manufacturers of the Stylophone, which turns your nan’s living room piano into, well, a giant Stylophone!

Mats doesn’t hook his up to a piano though. Instead he manipulates the machine on its own to wring out these strange, expressive sonic prayers.

“‘Microtonal electronic maracas is perhaps an apt description? Ha ha!” Mats laughs of the unique sound of his Pianomate. “It is just a totally different beast compared to anything else I ever played.

“The Piano Mate does whatever it wants really. But I can control pitch and volume and detune it while playing. The microtonal clusters that it offers are highly inspirational to work with and really something that is quite hard to achieve on the saxophones.

“And I just love the sound of it. That color really kicks my mind and ass.”

Compositionally, Mats let the unique restrictions and limited tonal palette of the Pianomate guide him, rather than him attempt to bend the unwieldy instrument to his will.

“Making this music was a lot about creating a specific state of mind. Letting the music take over,” he explains. “Letting the sounds create the music. Slow. Listening for it and going for it. Never pushing it. Hard to describe, actually. And of course, part of the mystery of it all.”

Although he admits he rarely listens back to his recordings once he’s finished with them, Mats says that Piano Mating has brought something new and indefinable to his iconoclastic music:

“I really hear very different things every time I listen back to these recordings. I found them still very surprising and, funnily enough, very inspirational to me. In my sax playing, I get a lot of inspiration from listening to the piano mate.

“I love my Piano Mate! – there should be one in every household!!!”

Praise for Piano Mating:

“These two long pieces flatten me against the wall of my living room. They are viruses overloading my hearing, dismantling my sense of acoustic placement. For the final five minutes of the first piece, it’s entirely unclear how many of the drones are generated by Gustaffson, and how many are internal echoes rebounding off the inside of my own head. Three dimensions collapse into two dimensions. And then one. Piano Mating is an imposition that I am forced to deal with. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it.” – ATTN Magazine

“Mats Gustafsson is either the greatest artist, the greatest anti-artist, or the greatest non-artist to wield a Piano Mate. I haven’t made up my mind yet. Well, no, cross out non-artist. This taps a reaction in me – the still air, a sense of calm, mingled with raw, unmediated desire. Not for anything in particular, mind – just a burning, below the gut, that knows no object.” – Collapse Board

“Whenever we see an e-mail from X Ray Records and Blue Tapes announcing new music we get excited. A boutique label releasing some astoundingly original work from some excellent experimental artists, it’s fair to say we’ve found pleasure in most of their catalogue. Experimentation like Piano Mating takes time and talent and would certainly not sound as beautiful without the work put into it.” -SCRZ Magazine

“Saxophone motherfucker Mats Gustafsson is a master of transcendental noise, and his place in the pantheon of this cosmically-inclined blog is inarguable.” – 20 Jazz Funk Greats