Label: Rune Grammofon
Genre: Free/Improv
Format: LP
Year: 2016 Norwegian press
Condition: NM/NM
One-from-last outing record from Fire!, the improv/noise trio led by Mats Gustafsson, which also features an Oren Ambarchi guitar turn on the title track. You might consider Fire! as somewhat of a supergroup, and those well versed in the Scandi scene will see this as me preaching to the choir. Nonetheless, those unfamiliar with these circles (and who might also see improv as a slightly daunting space to access) might find this a thrilling entry point. There's a hybrid feel to these four tracks, the intersection at the overlapping aesthetics of improv, noise, jazz and, to some degree, post-rock. Closer 'She Penetrates the Distant Silence. Slowly' is a perfect case in point, a slow moving 18 min+ monolith that somehow manages to be both sinister and uplifting. Imagine a more abstracted/desconstructed For Carnation, creeping towards a cathartic climax that always remains out of reach. The kind of band that would show up on stage at 3am Sunday night at ATP and fry in an instant whatever synapses you were lucky enough to have left at that point. The illogical summit of noise rock improv freedom. Maybe this is the new psychedelia?
