Excellent live set, stunningly rendered, from the trio of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Barry Guy and drummer Raymond Strid. Tarfala formed in 1992 after a meeting at the Solo-92 Festival in Sweden. There have been two CDs so far on the Maya Recordings label but this deluxe 2xLP gatefold set with a bonus 7” and a large glossy booklet represents their first vinyl outing. This is classic high-energy free jazz, with Guy’s playing serving to drill them an elemental foundation deep into the earth, anchoring furious string navigations with massively heavy bottom end bombs that Strid knocks around all over the place, shepherding them into weird time fluxes that somehow combine static detail with constant movement. Gustafsson is, of course, one of the premier deconstructive thinkers on the saxophone but here his playing feels more focussed on classic free jazz grace and power, matching Peter Brotzmann in terms of lyrical fury and radical invention. Edition of 600 copies. Recommended. 

Beautifully rendered live recording of the world-beating trio of saxophonists Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark captured by the BBC’s Jazz On 3 for radio broadcast at London’s Cafe OTO in April of 2011. The absence of drums give the music a spectacular hymnal/gospel quality, with three horns testifying in fast, chirruping waves underlined by hypnotic, ululating drones and delicate asides. Indeed, the most striking aspect of the recording is the lightness of touch. You would think with a trio of conceptualists this weighty that the set would be more about monolithic force but there are long passages of beautiful, fluttering blues that seem to have as much to do with Jimmy Giuffre – or even Chet Baker/Terry Riley – as it does to post-FMP wildmanisms. All three players interact with a profound feel for the unravelling of compositions, laying down a slow-moving counterpoint that allows the horns to pirouette higher and higher, circling in bird-like hypnotics and carving spectacularly dramatic arcs of martial melody. A phenomenal set. 180g vinyl, edition of 500 copies.

Stunning new LP/CD set from free European saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, dedicated to the memory of his late mentor the saxophonist Bengt Nordstrom: Nordstrom is best known for producing Albert Ayler’s first recording, Something Different!!!!!!, and he was also a talented saxophonist, playing solo free improvised saxophone as early as 1962.  For Bengt, Gustafsson moves to a plastic Grafton alto sax, the same one favoured by Nordstrom, making this a unique entry in his back catalogue. The sound is breathy, muted, with a soft muffled tone that sounds at points like Frank Lowe or Marion Brown and Gustafsson’s playing is oddly lyrical, ripping through staggered scales and sounding single note fanfares in a way that is utterly compulsive. The rigour is still there, the deconstructive vision, but this one feels somehow more affirmative, a classic solo record in the mode of Braxton’s For Alto and Kaoru Abe’s Live At Gaya series. On white vinyl in an edition of 500 copies with a bonus CD edition of the album bundled alongside it. Highly recommended!