Fire!

Fire! is an experimental improv trio composed of saxist Mats Gustafsson (the Thing), bassist Johan Berthling (Tape), and drummer Andreas Werling (Wildbirds & Peacedrums). They arrived in 2009 with You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago. In 2011 they issued the live Unreleased? with Jim O'Rourke, while In the Mouth - A Hand, a collaboration with Oren Ambarchi, appeared in 2012. Fire! created the 28-member Fire! Orchestra, a performing and recording entity comprised of jazz, improv, and avant-rock musicians. Their debut, 2013's Exit, was followed months later by Fire!'s (Without Noticing). Following Fire! Orchestra's Enter in 2014, the trio delivered the acclaimed She Sleep, She Sleeps in 2016, as well as Fire! Orchestra's Ritual. 2018's The Hands by Fire! was answered by Actions from the orchestra in 2020. In 2021, Fire! returned with Testament. The idea for Fire! originated with concert promoter Conny Lindström. He booked the trio at a small bar in a Stockholm restaurant. The sheer volume shocked patrons and staff alike, but all had a good time. Encouraged by their reception, the trio called themselves Fire! and booked time in Tape's studio, located in an industrial section of the city. The sound from those sessions melded the musical backgrounds of all three members while creating connections between free jazz, experimental psychedelia, and post-punk and industrial soundscapes, textures, and dynamics. The trio had no compunctions about employing overdubs or found sounds, either. Shortly after that first barroom show, Fire!'s debut, You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago, appeared on Rune Grammofon -- their new label home. The following year they toured Japan with Jim O'Rourke, resulting in the collaborative album Unreleased? In 2012, they worked alongside Australian multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi for In the Mouth - A Hand. Fire! toured Europe and Asia, developing a live show that delighted and even awed audiences, with increasing attendance with each gig. But Fire! had a trick up its sleeve. During breaks from the road, they recruited and assembled musicians from the jazz, free improv, and avant-rock communities for their Fire! Orchestra recording of January 2013's live Exit. The set consisted of two long tracks with lyrics by the Ex's Arnold De Boer, sung and chanted by Mariam Wallentin and Sofia Jernberg, as the large group -- conducted by Gustafsson -- surged, roared, and grooved behind them. Critics fell all over themselves readily comparing the group to big bands led by Carla Bley, Keith Tippett, and Sam Rivers. Fire! answered by delivering (Without Noticing) in August. The seven-track set revealed a different avant-groove dimension to their musical persona using electronics and keyboards. The following year, Fire! Orchestra issued Enter, an album-length studio composition split into four tracks and recorded in a single day. Lyrics penned by vocalist Mariam Wallentin were sung by her, Ethiopia-born Sofie Jernberg, and Silverbullit's Simon Ohlsson; their set showcased a focused yet wide-ranging, dissonant jazz-rock aesthetic with hard-grooving, ever-shifting rhythms and polyphonic textures. The Fire! Orchestra toured with the trio, splitting shows, and the latter traveled the globe in the aftermath, playing clubs, small theaters, and jazz festivals across Europe, Asia, and North America. Fire! returned with the seminal She Sleeps, She Sleeps in 2016. Unlike previous offerings, the widely acclaimed album showcased a darker, brooding, more hypnotic brand of jazz in a 21st century context, influenced by film noir soundtracks. While U.S. critics selectively praised it, the album was wholeheartedly embraced by English and European critics who proclaimed it a welcome change in musical direction. Fire Orchestra! released Ritual three months later. The big band was pared down to 18 players for a five-movement suite with Wallentin's and Jernberg's voices front and center. Recorded in just two days, the music joined tightly coiled riffing, biting vamps, and free form instrumental play in focused expression. The trio followed with their sixth album, The Hands, in 2018. Its explosive heaviness and dark atmospherics drew favorable critical comparisons to Black Sabbath's eponymous debut album. In 2019, Fire! Orchestra released the studio offering Arrival, juxtaposing new originals with covers of Robbie Basho's "Blue Crystal Fire" and Chic's "At Last I Am Free" (this performance was inspired by Robert Wyatt's iconic 1981 post-punk version). A year earlier, in 2018, the 16th annual Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow, Poland commissioned Fire! Orchestra to interpret and perform a contemporary version of composer Krzysztof Penderecki's only jazz work, Actions for Free Jazz Orchestra. It was initially performed in 1971 by an orchestra formed by Don Cherry and conducted by the composer. The Fire! Orchestra's version is a much longer, live interpretation recorded and released as Actions during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In February 2021, Fire! released Defeat, shifting creative gears again as Gustafsson gave his flute a prominent place in the group's sound palette. Further, Fire! enlisted guest trumpeters Goran Kajfes and Mats Aleklint (who also wrote the horn charts), adding heft and tonal dimension. Following the trio's world tour, the Fire! Orchestra underwent wholesale changes. The big-band's roster (drawn from five continents) was increased to a whopping 43 members to perform a new work at 2022's Oslo Jazz Festival. Following that performance, they recorded the seven-part, two-hour composition at the legendary Atlantis studio in Stockholm with a cast that included guitarist Reine Fiske and American saxophonist Joe McPhee; it was mixed by O'Rourke. Titled Echoes, it was released in April 2023. In December 2022, Fire! traveled to Chicago's Electrical Audio Studios. They spent three days working alongside engineer/producer Steve Albini. In a back-to-roots approach, the trio stripped away all extraneous instrumentation and effects -- keyboards, electronics, flutes, etc. -- and recorded live to analog tape from the studio floor. The album, titled Testament, was released by Rune Grammofon in February 2024.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo