| Musicians | Mats
Gustafsson — fluteophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone Barry Guy — double bass Paul Lovens — selected and unselected drums and cymbals, musical saw |
| Cover and Artwork |  Painting
by: Edward
Jarvis |
| Songs | 1. Part
I (4:25) (MPEG2) 2. Part II (12:25) 3. Part III (6:40) 4. Part IV (27:15) 5. Part V (3:45) total time: 54:45 all compositions by Mats Gustafsson (STIM/NCB), Barry Guy (PRS/MCPS), and Paul Lovens (GEMA) |
| Recording Info |
Recorded December
11, 1992 by P2 Sveriges Radio (the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation)
at the Radio House in Stockholm Original recording produced by: Lars-Göran Ulander |
| Reviews |
**** (4 stars)
Mouth Eating Trees rather squares the circle, a trio performance of great concentration and one which, despite the extraordinary title, gives away little more about itself, creating a sequence of five engimatic numbered canvases, each with a sweep out of all proportion to actual size. Numbers one and five are tiny and yet seem to contain an extraordinary amount of musical information. The very long part four, on the other hand, makes a whole out of tiny elements, almost like a mosaic, but with much less sense of developing, unfolding structure. — Richard Cook & Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, fifth edition Swedish reed player Mats Gustafsson has displayed his prowess as
a member of the Gush trio and in duet with both Paul Lovens and
Günter Christmann. The Chicago OkkaDisk label first championed
him in the U.S. with the release of Parrot Fish Eye where he was
paired with several Chicago musicians. Though any of the above would
serve as a great introduction to this phenomenal young player, Mouth
Eating..., in company with masters Guy and Lovens, is nothing short
of spectacular. Recorded live in a studio during a Swedish radio
broadcast, this recording kicks in from the very first hushed phrases
of the opening solo by Gustafsson and builds to a sustained level
of intensity that never falters. Faced with masterful collaborators
on the level of Guy and Lovens must be a daunting task for a young
player, but Gustafsson flourishes. The three connect immediately,
with a level of subtlety and detail that Guy and Lovens have grown
to command over their years of collective explorations of spontaneous
inventions. Rather than an interaction of give and take, the three
seamlessly lock in, perfectly attuned for dynamically charged results.
The music unfolds with an open sense of sonic space and incendiary
tensions, moving in and out between hushed sections of delicate
filigrees and dense barrages of skirling tempests. All three aptly
draw from the full sonic and textural range of their instruments,
from clattering keypads, scrubbed strings, and the eerie timbers
of bowed saw to caterwauling cascades of reed overtones, scrabbled
skeins of double bowed bass, and arcing forks of crackling toms
and shimmering cymbals... |