The Squid's Ear Magazine


Gustafsson, Mats / Nu Ensemble: Hidros 8 Heal [VINYL] (Trost Records)

A conduction of an absolutely impressive ensemble of free and ea- improvisers on a powerfully diverse journey, from Anna Högberg & Gustafsson on sax, Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, Per-Åke Holmlander on tuba, Hedvig Mollestad on guitar, Dieb13 on turntables, Christof Kurzmann on lloopp & voice, Massimo Pupillo on bass, Gert-Jan Prins on drums & electronics, and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad on drums.
 

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Personnel:



Anna Hogberg-alto saxophone, baritone saxophone

Mats Gustafsson-baritone saxophone, conduction

Susana Santos Silva-trumpet

Per Ake Holmlander-tuba

Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen-guitar

Dieb13-turntables

Christof Kurzmann-lloopp, voice

Massimo Pupillo-bass

Gert-Jan Prins-drums, electronics

Ivar Loe Bjornstad-drums


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UPC: 9120036683631

Label: Trost Records
Catalog ID: TROST 224LP
Squidco Product Code: 32456

Format: LP
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: Austria
Packaging: LP
Recorded at DE Studio, in Antwerp, Belgium, on November 23rd, 2016.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Swedish reeds player-composer Mats Gustafsson began organizing his composed improvisations with graphic scores - the series of Hidros for different versions of NU Ensembles, in 1997. Each version of Hidros offered a new piece, a new line-up and a new theme. Up until now, only four versions of Hidros, including the latest one, Hidros 8 - Heal, were released officially - the first one, Hidros One (Caprice, 1999), Hidros 3 (dedicated to Patti Smith, with sonic Youth, Smalltown Supersound, 2004) and Hidros 6 - Knockin' (dedicated to the music and words of Little Richard, NotTwo, 2014). Other versions of Hidros were dedicated to Sami culture, Frank Zappa (Hidros 7 - Zap), Austrian contemporary composer György Ligeti and to architecture. Gustafsson performed recently his Hidros 9 for three different groups of instruments, with the conductor using three types of graphic scores and different conducting methods.

Hidros 8 - Heal was inspired by the current, troubled state of the world, and Gustafsson, who always insists that our role - as artists and individuals, is to fight stupidity, locally and globally, describes this composition as "an attempt to rise and find the questions about the state of things. there is an extreme unbalance on local and global levels at the moment - from ideological, economical, cultural and political perspectives - and we need an equilibrium of some sorts very soon. can it HEAL? what can make it all HEAL? and for how long can it HEAL?"

The ten-piece NU Ensemble of Hidros 8 - Heal features close comrades from Fire! Orchestra (sax player Anna Högberg, Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and tubist Per-Åke Holmlander), Austrian turntables wizard Dieb13 (who worked with Gustafson in the Fake The Facts trio and in Hidros 6) and lloopp software player-vocalist Christof Kurzmann (who plays with Gustafsson in the Falling duo), Italian bassist Massimo Pupillo (of Zu, who played with Gustafsson in the sextet Original Silence, Zu collaboration with Gustafsson and in the trio Melt with drummer-vocalist Brian Chippendale), Norwegian guitar hero Hedvig Mollestad (who worked with Gustafsson in Hidros 7) and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad (who plays in Mollestad Trio), and Dutch drummer and electronics player Gert-Jan Prins (who played with Gustafson in the late nineties in a trio with pianist Misha Mengelberg). Holmlander, Dieb13 and Mollestad also play also in Hidros 9. Hidros 8 - Heal was recorded at DE Studio in Antwerp in November 2016.

Hidros 8 - Heal swings between a few intense moods that reflect the current feelings of unrest, chaos and confusion. It begins with a tense, abstract mode of electronic sounds and resonating gongs and cymbals, but when the whole ensemble joins its energy is channeled into a tough yet lyrical grind. Pupillo and the drummers set a massive pulse while Santos Silva and Högberg suggest a more poetic abstraction of rhythmic pattern. Gustafsson shifts the course again, with a powerful, searching solo and in intense and thorny duels with Holmlander, Dieb13 and Kurzmann, but, again, when the whole ensemble joins, this piece has the same suggestive and irresistible power of the Fire! Orchestra. Mollestad shines now with a searing guitar solo that corresponds with the work of seminal prog-rock guitarists like Robert Fripp and David Gilmour. The second half of Hidros 8 - Heal takes the message of this composition even further. Kurzmann recites, whispers, chants and almost shouts Gustafsson's impassioned, vulnerable lyrics with urgency and conviction, while the ensemble cements the lyrical and desperate state of mind of this composition, like an irreverent prayer motivating a positive change, out of the bewildering and noisy chaos: "....Why I am / Why I Lean / Why I Heal. // Why I am, I am why..........// Turn your time / Turn your time / heal / Again and again". Then, Högberg leads the NU Ensemble into the uplifting, cathartic conclusion of this most impressive composition."-Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective

Also available on CD.
Get additional information at The Free Jazz Collective

Artist Biographies

Anna Högberg is a saxophonist, a member of Dog Life, Fire! Orchestra

-Squidco 11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
"Born 1964 in Umeå, Northern Sweden.Saxplayer, improviser and composer. Solo artist and international tours and projects with a.o. Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Jim O´Rourke, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Yoshimi, Ken Vandermark and in working groups The Thing, FIRE!, Gush, Boots Brown, Swedish Azz and Fake (the facts). Large ensemble work with Barry Guy New Orchestra,FIRE! Orchestra and the NU - ensemble.over 1800 concerts and over 200 record productions in Europe, Australia, Africa, North & South America and Asia.Collaborations with contemporary dance, theater, art, poetry as well as projects with noise, electronica, contemporary rock and free jazz.Discaholic - running the discaholic corner website.Producer of international festivals and concert tours as well as work with own record labels Slottet, OlofBright Editions and Blue Tower Records."-Mats Gustafsson Website (http://matsgus.com/archives/category/bio)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Susana Santos Silva is a trumpeter, improviser and composer from Porto, Portugal.

She holds a Master Diploma in Jazz Performance '2010 from Codarts, Rotterdam, where she worked with Eric Vloeimans, Jarmo Hoogendijk and Wim Both.

She holds a Graduate Diploma in Jazz/Trumpet '2008 and in Trumpet '2004 from College of Music and Performing Arts in Porto, attending the last year of the course at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in the class of Prof. Reinhold Friedrich, where she also had baroque trumpet lessons with Prof. Edward Tarr.

She is a member and co-founder of the Porto based jazz musicians association Porta-Jazz and it's label, Carimbo. 
With Coreto, an ensemble of musicians from this association led by João Pedro Brandão, she recorded in 2012 the first album of the label, 'Aljamia'. Two more were released after that, 'Mergulho' and 'Sem Chão'.

In 2011 she releases her first album as a leader of her own Quintet, 'Devil´s Dress' on Tone of a Pitch Records. With this band she played 12 Points Jazz Festival, Dublin in 2011. In 2015 she releases her second album as a leader, 'Impermanence' on Carimbo Porta-Jazz. Life and Other Transient Storms, her new project with Lotte Anker, Sten Sandell, Torbjörn Zetterberg and Jon Falt, premiered last year at Tampere jazz Happening and their new album is now out on Clean Feed Records.

Her other main projects include LAMA, a Rotterdam based trio with portuguese bassist Gonçalo Almeida and canadian drummer Greg Smith, 'Oneiros' (2011), 'Lamaçal' (2013) feat. Chris Speed and 'The Elephant's Journey' feat. Joachim Badenhorst (2015), all released on Clean Feed Records, a duo with swedish bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg, 'Almost Tomorrow' Clean Feed 2013, a duo with the slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler 'This Love' Clean Feed 2015, a duo with drummer Jorge Queijo 'Songs from my Backyard' Wasser Bassin 2013, a collaboration with the belgian trio De Beren Gieren, 'The Detour Fish' Clean Feed 2014, a trio with Torbjörn Zetterberg and the swedish organist Hampus Lindwall 'If Nothing Else' Clean Feed 2015 and a quartet with Christine Wodrascka, Christian Meaas Svendsen and Håkon Berre, 'Rasengan!' (Barefoot Records 2016).

She is also part of João Guimarães Octet, 'Zero' Toap 2014, Torbjörn Zetterberg 'Och Den Stora Frågan' Moserobie 2014, 'Om Liv & Död' Moserobie 2015, and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, with whom she played and recorded with musicians as Lee Konitz, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Cheek, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Maria Schneider, among many others.

She was a member of the European Movement Jazz Orchestra, with whom she played in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Egipt. The orchestra recorded 'EMJO Live at Coimbra', released in 2011 on Clean Feed Records."

-Susana Santos Silva Website (https://susanasantossilva.com/bio/)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Per-Åke Holmlander...

...born in 1957 in Skellefteå in the very north of Sweden. Holmlander received his diploma in classical tuba in 1983 at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm with Michael Lind as a teacher. Holmlander has always worked simultaneously with improvisation, jazz and rock music as well as classical and contemporary music.

As an improviser Holmlander has worked with - Eje Thelin, Marilyn Crispell, Paul Lovens, Folke Rabe, Phil Minton, Sten Sandell, Sven-Åke Johansson, Mats Persson, Gunter Christmann, Kjell Westling, Keith Rowe, Jan Allan, Georg Riedel, Position Alpha, DJustable, Jon Vanderlander Trio, The Swedish Radio Jazz Group, Ken Vandermark - Territory Band & Resonance Ensemble, The Frontroom Ensemble, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Torden Kvartetten & Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet...among many others.

Holmlander works a lot with theatre music, sometimes he plays solo and he regularly works with Fire! Orchestra, Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Barry Guy New Orchestra, Fredrik Ljungkvist and his Yun Kan 5 & 10 and recently with Parti&Minut, Swedish azz, Inner Ear & Mats Gustafsson NU-Ensemble.

Per-Åke has participated in more than 100 records and 1800 theatrical performances. He has given concerts in 38 countries and he is since December 2008 a member of the government run - Musikalliansen."

-Carliot.Org (http://carliot.org/)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen (born 4 February 1982 in Ålesund, Norway) is a Norwegian musician (guitar, vocals and composing). She is known for a series of album releases and collaborations with musicians like Jon Eberson, Jarle Bernhoft and Hilde Marie Kjersem.

Thomassen is a graduate from the Norwegian Academy of Music, and collaborates in a variety of rock and jazz bands, including her own Hedvig Mollestad Trio, Thomassen Trio, Bronco Busters, Songs and Sweet Potatoes, and VOM (as "Mester Pøggs"). She also has a central role in the bands of Jarle Bernhoft and Hilde Marie Kjersem, and has performed within Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Thomassen was awarded "The young jazz talent of the year" at Moldejazz in 2009, and showed up on a gig within Jarle Bernhoft Band at the 2011 Kongsberg Jazzfestival. When she released her debut solo album Shoot! (2011) leading her own trio, the music bears little resemblance to what she plays within Jon Eberson Group and the bands of Hilde Marie Kjersem and Jarle Bernhoft.

Hedvig Mollestad Trio (also referred to as HM3) consists of Hedvig Mollestad (guitar, vocals), Ellen Brekken (bass) and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad (drums). The trio has received numerous appraising reviews internationally, for both their studio albums and live performances. Their music is inspired by 70s heavyrock, but creates a peculiar musical mixture of ingredients like free jazz, prog and psychedelia. On its website the band describes their own music as "Outgoing & progressive instrumental rock". Since the trio's formation in 2009, HM3 has played many concerts and jazz festivals in both Norway and abroad and they have toured in Europe, Malaysia, Japan and the USA."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedvig_Mollestad_Thomassen)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Dieb13 is the performing name of Dieter Kovačič, a Viennese-based avant-garde musician. He has also performed under the names Takeshi Fumimoto, Echelon, Dieter Bohlen, and dieb14. After appearing on several compilations documenting the burgeoning Viennese avant-garde scene of the late 1990s, he released his first solo album in 2000. He has gone on to perform in a number of collaborations with other notable performers, including Burkhard Stangl, erikm, Mats Gustafsson and the John Butcher Group."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieb13)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Christof Kurzmann (vocals, lloopp, clarinet, alto sax), is an Austrian musician, performer, composer currently living in Buenos Aires. Beginning in 1994 he started his work in the field of experimental electronic music. Since that time Christof has collaborated with some of the most significant artists working in contemporary music and improvisation- including Toto Alvarez, Martin Brandlmayr, John Butcher, Eden Carrasco, Sebi Ciurcina, Werner Dafeldecker, Kai Fagaschinski, Fernanda Farrah, Bernhard Fleischmann, Michaela Grill, Margareth Kammerer, Leonel Kaplan, Bernhard Lang, Andrea Neumann, Fernando Perales, Eva Reiter, Marina Rosenfeld, Ursula Rucked, Burkhard Stangl, Michael Thieke, and Clayton Thomas- in groups such as El Infierno Musical, The Magic I.D., and Schee. During the course of his career, Christof has performed throughout Europe, Japan, North and South Amercia. He has also been a music curator since the mid 1980's, and in 1999 founded the record label, Charhizma, which has released more than 30 cds."

-http://kenvandermark.com/2013/10/made-to-break-biography/ (Ken Vandermark Website)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Massimo Pupillo (Ostia - Roma) is a bass and double bass player and composer. Best known for being the bassist of Zu, which produced bio 15 albums with labels like Atavistic / Touch n 'Go (USA), Southern (EU), Heads (JAPAN), Ipecac Records (USA) and numerous singles and split with other labels.

He collaborate in many different (musical and not only) projects, from jazz, to improvisation, avant-garde, noise, taking an interest in movies soundtracks and theater.He has join the stage and the sounds with a very long list of musicians including ... Thurston Moore, Jim O' Rourke (sonic youth), Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen Love, Terrie (Ex), Katia Labeque, Giovanni Sollima, Nicola Tescari, David Chalmin, Chris Corsano, Eraldo Bernocchi and FM Einheit (Einsturzende Neubauten), Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Yoshigaki Yasuhiro, Geoff Farina, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, DJ Olive, Otomo Yoshihide, Amy Denio, Gianni Gebbia, Lukas Ligeti, Fred Lonberg- Holm, Joe Lally e Guy Picciotto (fugazi), Peter Brötzmann, Caspar Brötzmann, Damo Suzuki (Can), Eugene S. Robinson (Oxbow), Steve MacKay (The Stooges), Mieko Suzuki, Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O' Malley and... yes we could go on for a long time..."

-Massimo Pupillo Website (http://m.zuism.net/#bio)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Gert-Jan Prins focuses on the sonic and musical qualities of electronic noise and percussion and investigates its relationship with the visual. While he started his career as a drummer, his works include performances, sound-installations, compositions, electronic circuits and collaborations with other musicians, visual artists, composers, and dancers."

-Gert Jan Prins Website (http://www.gjp.info/)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Ivar Loe Bjørnstad (born 1981 in Surnadal, Norway) is a Norwegian jazz and rock musician (drums), brother of the dancer Marit Loe Bjørnstad (1983) and the singer Ingebjørg Loe Bjørnstad (1978).

Bjørnstad studied jazz at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo together with Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen and Even Helte Hermansen (guitarist of Bushman's Revenge). With an origin as a rock musician, he also mentions the guitarist Bill Frisell as one of his inspirations, accompanied by the major Norwegian drummers Audun Kleive and Per Oddvar Johansen. He resides in Oslo, and has since the turn of the Millennium collaborated with countless bands and constellations in a variety of genres. He has collaborated with artists like Bjørn Kjellemyr, Jon Eberson, Karl Seglem, Ken Stringfellowcurrently, and currently (2013) play within the bands Hedvig Mollestad Trio, the Hilde Marie Kjersem Band and Cakewalk. The debut album Shoot! of the Hedvig Mollestad Trio was recorded live in the studio with only a few minor overdubs."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Loe_Bj%C3%B8rnstad)
11/29/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



SIDE A



1. Hidros 8 Heal Part 1 23:56

SIDE B



1. Hidros 8 Heal Part 2 22:18

Related Categories of Interest:


Vinyl Recordings
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Jazz
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Turntablists
Spoken Word
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(NoBusiness)
A 2-part single improvisation recorded live at la Maison Peinte, Labarthe-sur-Leze in 2014 from Jean-Luc Capozzo on trumpet & flugelhorn, and drummer Didier Lasserre, showing a great range of style and dynamic in gutsy playing using powerful technique and creative interaction.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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