Wednesday 21 February 2018, 7.30pm
A welcome return for the formidable, no-holds-barred grouping of Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin. Having expanded out into a full-blown 28-piece Fire! Orchestra in recent years, this show sees them return to the original trio. Consisting of members from The Thing, Tape and Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Fire! is all about burning up tradition and blazing new paths and fresh approaches in improvised music - approaches informed equally by garage punk, electroacoustics and the noise of heavy industry.
Hailing from Umeå in Northern Sweden, Gustafsson is a saxophonist/composer/improviser working across noise, electronics, contemporary rock and free jazz as well as contemporary dance, theater and art projects. He has performed both as a solo artist and toured internationally with Peter Brötzmann, Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Jim O´Rourke, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Yoshimi, Ken Vandermark and in working groups The Thing, Sonore, FIRE!, Gush, Boots Brown, Swedish Azz and Nash Kontroll. He also participates in the large ensembles Barry Guy New Orchestra, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and the NU – ensemble.
Johan was born in Botkyrka, Stockholm, Sweden in 1973. He started playing the double and electric bass and underwent musicial studies in Jönköping, Skurup and at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm. After ending studies in 1998 he’s been working as a freelance musician with jazz, rock, improvised music and music for theatre.
He has worked with many notable musicians, including: Mats Gustafsson, Sten Sandell, Raymond Strid, Paal Nilssen-Love, Akira Sakata, Fredrik Ljungkvist, El Perro del Mar, Jonas Kullhammar, Mette Rasmussen, Goran Kajfes, Oren Ambarchi, Martin Küchen, Steve Noble, Andreas Werliin, Tenniscoats, Bill Wells, Jim O’Rourke, Stina Nordenstam, Anna Ternheim and Titiyo and he has featured on more than 100 recordings.
He’s active in the groups Fire!, Fire! Orchestra, Tape, Angles 9, Nacka Forum, LSB, Arashi and Goran Kajfes Subtropic Arkestra.
Berthling has also worked as a composer for film together with Andreas Söderström, working with swedish directors such as Anders Weidemann, Lisa Langseth, Amanda Adolfsson, Jonas Selberg Augustsén, Thomas Jackson and Axel Petersen and has been hired as a music producer by artists like Weeping Willows, Taxi Taxi, Idiot Kid, Little Children, Santa Maria, ASS, Tenniscoats and the Thing.
He has been running the Häpna record label (together with Klas Augustsson) since 1999.
Andreas Werliin was born 1982 in the vast snow of northern Sweden and later on raised on the west coast village Strömstad, Andreas is now one of the most interesting and well-acclaimed new generation percussionists and record producers in the creative music scene of Scandinavia. He has received a Bachelor in Fine Art from the Program of Improvisational Performance at Gothenburg University. Andreas has developed an exceptionally personal way of playing and is known for his strength, creativity and sensitive listening. Today also working as a record producer and mixing with credits on over hundred albums. With improvisational music at hart he’s today a part of many different groups and projects such as Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Fire!, Fire! Orchestra, Tonbruket, Time Is A Mountain and Angles 9.
