Contra Songs by mats gustafsson

Alone at night. Large church room. Lots of air. Stone. Wood. Glass.
Quietness. Stillness. The dead and the alive. Surroundedness.
Existentialistic matters spinning. Peaceful state of mind. The dialectic equilibrium of complete stillness and deeper thoughts on contra- resistance on local and global levels. Fighting (y)our stupidities. Contra.
I have never ever before gotten myself into such an unusual setting for a recording project.

And yet, so simple. So naked. So peaceful. Alone at night. As we all are.
I borrowed the keys to the beautiful church of Gustafsberg, from my neighbor Rune.

I went there at midnight. Set up my recording gear. Old school DAT machine, tube pre-amps and two AKG 414s in an extreme stereo set-up, close to the horn. The horn of choice. The contrabass sax. The monstrous sax-machine “Tubax” made by the German engineer Benedikt Eppelsheim at the turn of the century. I sat down in the first row of benches. Breathing. Preparing. Contemplating. The saxophone positioned in the very middle of the church, close to the altar. More than 6 hours straight of low-end sax noise and many breaks later: the sun set. At around 7 am… I was done. I was alone the whole night. And yet, not all alone. Some things were going on in that church. In that room. I kid you not. Never audible. But strongly felt. Whatever presence of the old or new gods—old and new dreams—it effected the music and my mind. I let it happen. I let it all flow.

Alone at night. There is nothing to explain.
—Mats Gustafsson, 2003/2021

Born 1964 in Umeå, Sweden.
Saxplayer, improviser and composer.
working groups The Thing, FIRE!, Gush, Swedish Azz and Fake (the facts). 1800 concerts and over 200 album productions.