Fire! With Jim OÂ´Rourke

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4...according to our Mike on Thu 30 Jun, 2011.

Bit of a supergroup, this. Obviously we've got Jim O'Rourke, who I won't patronise you by introducing because, well, you're on this site already, aren't you. You weren't born yesterday. If you don't know who he is, there's this excellent website called Wikipedia... Anyway, besides him, we've got Andreas Werliin of Wildbirds & Peacedrums behind the kit, Hapna founder Johan Berthling (Tape, Animes, Sten Sandell Trio) on bass, and sax pest Mats Gustafsson (best known for The Thing, but he's collaborated with the likes of Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Derek Bailey, etc.) rounding off the line-up. How's that for pedigree? Anyway, on to the music...on this CD we've got four long and often groovy improvised jams, packaged in Rune Grammofon's trademark Kim Hiorthoy art (how that guy has kept his designs so consistently great and varied all these years while maintaining his own particular aesthetic truly boggles my mind). It's a tasty mix of space rock and free jazz that I have quickly warmed to. The bass and drums pound out a motorik, almost primitive groove for much of the time in the opening half, while the saxophone squeals and snakes around, taking everything with it in its peaks and troughs. It is pretty screechy and jarring in places, but this is sax-led free jazz, so what do you expect? In places Gustafsson does take things down a notch and allows O'Rourke to step into the foreground on guitar, and I really feel that helps keeps this record from losing its when he does...the sax is undoubtedly impressive but it's a bit shrill to be overpowering everything all the time (not to mention that the other musicians are too talented not to be given a chance to shine). The third track, the goofily-titled 'by whom and why am i previously unreleased?', brings things down to near-silence, giving Werliin a chance to really demonstrate his skills with the kit in a hushed and restrained solo backed with O'Rourke on harmonica, before we're back into full band territory on closer 'happy ending borrowing yours'. This too is rhythmically freer than the tight grooves of the opening two tracks, with O'Rourke back on guitar and the whole band creating a squalling vortex of noise. This is the closest the album gets to being hard work, really, and as far as O'Rourke's more leftfield releases go this is certainly among the more accessible!

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We are delighted to present the second album from this excellent Swedish trio, something of a supergroup with members from already well known projects. This time they collaborate with the legendary Jim O´Rourke. With their hypnotic, psychedelic jazz of sorts they have carved out a different sound than any of the groups they are normally associated with, now enhanced by the vital contributions from O´Rourke. Sax player, improviser, composer and fervent record collector Mats Gustafsson is possibly most know from powerjazztrio The Thing, he has also played more than 1500 concerts and participated on around 150 records with musicians like Peter Brötzmann, Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Joe McPhee and a host of others simply too many to mention here. Johan Berthling has worked freelance with jazz, improvised music, pop, folk and more. He is a founder member of the great trio Tape and founded Häpna, one of our favourite record labels. Among his current other groups are Animes with David Stackenäs and Raymond Strid and Sten Sandell Trio with pianist Sten Sandell and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. Johan is also working as a record producer. Andreas Werliin, drummer extraordinaire in Wildbirds & Peacedrums, is Fire!´s youngest member and one of the most interesting and acclaimed new percussionists in the creative music scene of Scandinavia. He has developed an exceptionally personal way of playing and is known for his strength and creativity. With Wildbirds & Peacedrums he has released two acclaimed albums of modern bluesy folk music and toured extensively in Europe.Probably best know as a member of Sonic Youth and Gastr Del Sol, Jim O´Rourke has played with an impressivly large number of musicians and produced albums for the likes of Wilco, Sonic Youth, John Fahey, Smog, Beth Orton, Joanna Newsom and Stereolab, to name but a few. Born in Chicago and long associated with the city´s experimental and improv scene, he later relocated to New York before moving on to Tokyo where he now lives and works. A couple of live videos with and without Jim O´Rourke: http://earthwindand.com/site/category/video Mats Gustafsson: Baritone saxophone, live electronics, Fender Rhodes Johan Berthling: Electric bass Andreas Werliin: Drums and percussion Jim O´Rourke: Electric guitar, synthesizer, harmonica.