Vi Är Alla Guds Slavar is the latest missive from the long-running duo pairing of Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, etc) and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth, Chelsea Light Moving, Dream/Aktion Unit, etc). Thurston had first come across Mats' playing on a duo disc with Barry Guy and had assumed he was one of those older beardy European improv guys - Remember this was before the internet and everyone knew everything. Their first actual meeting goes back to the early 90s at Blue Tower Records in Stockholm (now Andra Jazz - arguably the greatest jazz record store in the world) on one of Thurston's frequent soundcheck-skipping discaholic binges. The young guy behind the counter was blowing his mind with side after side of crazy rare jazz, test pressings, acetates and more. Running late, he offered Thurston a lift to the gig and en route asked if there was any particular records he was looking for. "There is this sax player - Mats Gustafsson - I'm looking for some of his stuff" "That's me" says the young guy - and there started an intense friendship that has manifested intself in music through their discaholics anonymous trio (with Jim O'Rourke), Gustafsson's large scale HIDROS 3 composition for Sonic Youth and much more besides… You can watch a video interview with Thurston where he tells the story of their first meeting here:

"The first recording between Swedish dynamo Mats Gustafsson (tenor/baritone saxes & French glageolett) and Chicago's reigning tenor giant, Ken Vandermark (also on bass clarinet). The rhythm section consists of perennial Vandermark bassist collaborator Kent Kessler and Steve Hunt on drums." --- Mats Gustafsson / tenor and baritone sax, french flageolett Steve Hunt / drums Kent Kessler / bass Ken Vandermark / tenor sax and bass clarinet --- Recorded on October 15, 1995 at Überstudio, Chicago. 

"Talk about powerhouse trios! Take the fastest rising saxophone star in improvised music, put him together with the most innovative bassist in Europe and the most inventive percussionist in the world, and what do you get? ...a magnificent meeting of minds recorded in the studio during a broadcast on Swedish radio in 1992. The distinct elements: Gustafsson's lightning-quick soprano, tenor, baritone and fluteophone (his own invention), Guy's gonzo technique and unreal preparations (scrub brushes, sticks, mallets, slides and multiple bows) and Lovens' precision timing, volcanic energy and brilliant use of timbre and texture...a trio more exciting and combustible (if that's possible) than the sum of its parts."