Hidros 9 Mirrors is a carried out improvisation work based mostly on graphic
scores by Swedish sax player-composer Mats Gustafsson for 25 musicians –
two equivalent 9-piece “mirror” chamber ensembles – The Norwegian
NyMusikk Trondheim (together with grasp double bass participant Michael F. Duch
and organist Daniel Formo) and the Polish Avant Artwork Ensemble, 4 soloists
– trumpeter Anders Nyqvist (on slide and piccolo trumpets), Colin
Stetson on amplified bass saxophone, guitarist Hevig Mollestad and
tubaist Per-Åke Holmlander, plus Revox tape machines performed by Jérôme
Noetinger and turntables performed by dieb13 (aka Dieter Kovačič) (all
soloists labored earlier than with Gustafsson, together with dieb13). All are
carried out by Gusatfasson himself, utilizing three forms of graphic scores
and totally different, on the spot conducting strategies, the place predetermined guidelines
will management tempo, dynamics, density and different musical parameters.

This bold work is an in-depth exploration and continuation of the
earlier piece Hidros o.T. (2019), commissioned by NyMusikk Trondheim,
and impressed by the mirrored kinds and visible constructions of Austrian
artist Mathias Pöschl. It was commissioned by the Avant Artwork Basis
and premiered and recorded dwell on the pageant in Warsaw in October
2022. The graphic scores have been seen on stage, each for the musicians
and the viewers.

The environment of this work is each introspective and futurist,
investigating and experimenting thoughtfully and slowly with how the
sonic palettes of the standard and acoustic, together with the strings
gamers of each ensembles – 4 double basses, 2 cellos, and a couple of violins,
resonate and work together with the sonic palette of Stestson’s bass
saxophone with contact microphone amplifier, Nyqvist’s trumpets,
Mollestad electrical guitar, Holmlander’s tuba, dieb13’s turntables and
Noetinger’s classic tape machines. Gustafsson known as the 9 items
“Mirrors”, “Shadows”, “Echoes” and “Reflection” and these titles seize
the dynamics of the enigmatic, refined interactions and counsel
shocking however difficult sonic views and textures that demand
repeated listening to be able to decipher the multi-layered dynamics.

Mats Gustafsson & Ensemble E – EE Opus One (Trost, 2023)

Gustafsson needed to mix traditions of up to date Music, noise,
free improvised music, free jazz and different experimental music fields and
traditions with the deeper music traditions with the brand new, seven-piece
Ensemble E. EE Opus One is a provocative however profound sonic analysis of
conventional and non-traditional methods of expressing folks music of Norway,
Sweden, Portugal, Poland, Ukraine. The Ensemble E was recorded dwell at
the Codes Pageant in Lublin, Poland, in Could 2022.

This unconventional instrumentation of the ensemble consists of Norwegian
Hardanger fiddler Helga Myhr, Polish Bilgoraj suka participant (a singular
fiddle that’s performed vertically) Sylwia Świątkowska, Portuguese
trumpeter Susana Santos Silva (who additionally performs in Fireplace! Orchestra),
Polish vocalist-tubaist Maniucha Bikont, Norwegian organist and ready
piano participant Daniel Formo (who additionally performs in Hidros 9 Mirrors), Swedish
ready piano and clavichord participant and percussionist, and Gustafsson
who performs on baritone sax, flute and the Swedish fipple flute spilåpipa
and conducts the Ensemble E.

Gustafsson explains that by placing all these distant and contrasting
components “subsequent to one another/ on high of one another/ inside of every
different”, with no conventional prejudices however with a spirit of sharing, he
might provide new musical programs. “That is all about how it’s shared.
And with whom. And WHO we’re”, he concludes. The 48-minute, improvised
with on the spot conduction and graphic rating EE Opus One sounds prefer it
visits premature and imaginative, chartered and unchartered genre-evasive
melodic territories that preserve melting into one another and drifting aside
whereas balancing between solo expressions and collective interplay. The
intense but poetic EE Opus One suggests a borderless and compassionate
world village.