Rune Grammofon presents the third album from Swedish trio Fire! -- something of a supergroup with members from already well-known projects. And again, it's a collaboration, this time with the extraordinary and prolific guitarist Oren Ambarchi. With their heavy, hypnotic, psychedelic rock'n'jazz explorations, they have carved out a different sound than any of the groups they are normally associated with. Sax player, improviser, composer and fervent record collector Mats Gustafsson is probably best-known from power-jazz trio The Thing, he has also played more than 1,500 concerts and participated on around 150 records with musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Joe McPhee and a host of others. Johan Berthling has worked freelance with jazz, improvised music, pop, folk and more. He is a founding member of the great trio Tape and founded Häpna. Among his current groups are Animes with David Stackenäs and Raymond Strid and Sten Sandell Trio with pianist Sten Sandell and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. 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. Oren Ambarchi is a true explorer of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it's no longer easily identifiable as itself" as The Wire once wrote. Born in Sydney, Australia, Oren started out as a drummer playing free jazz before starting to experiment with a guitar laying about in the rehearsal room, one thing leading to another. He has a number of albums to his name on labels like Tzadik, Touch, Häpna, Southern Lord and Black Truffle and has collaborated with Fennesz, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Jim O'Rourke, Keith Rowe, Evan Parker, Merzbow and Sunn 0))), to mention just a few. |