Mats Gustafsson - Contra Songs

Actions For Free Jazz

£18.90

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: STSAFJ108
Release Date: Apr 2022
Genre: Jazz

01. Song For The Darkest Eye And Ear
02. Song For The Foreign Air
03. Song For The Night
04. Song For The Tongue Against The Glass
05. Song For Vassilis
06. Song For The Canned Emptiness Inside
07. Song For The Reconciliated Matters Of... You
08. Contra Song

"The Contra Songs have been between Mats and I since the early 2000s. A couple of these tracks were recorded for a release on Table of the Elements, but Mats understood during the recording that the best material would be saved for an album release. I recieved these recordings from Mats around 2004/2005. For reasons unknown to both Mats and I, the album was never released. The process of releasing it started many times but was never completed. Probably because something wasn’t right - we don’t know. But the album has always been between us. It has tied us together. And we both knew, without saying it, that one day we will get it right and release it.

And now is finally the time. We started the process again during the pandemic having the original tapes mastered by Martin Siewert - and most importantly for this release - a masterful vinyl cut by Daniel Krieger at SST in Frankfurt. Maybe that was the last piece of this puzzle? In my opinion this is some of the best music Mats has ever done. And I am so happy that this album can finally see the light of day, 19 years after it was recorded an October night in the church of Gustafsberg."

Recorded by Olof Madsen.
Mastered by Martin Siewert.
Cut by Daniel Krieger.
Artwork by Kim Hiorthøy.