Gush - 30 (Krakow 2018) (NotTwo, 2023)

By Ferruccio Martinotti

One of the most pleasant and unexpected moments happened across our dangerous sonic territories was the phoenix’s rebirth off her ashes represented by the Gush comeback, after a more than 25 years hiatus. A series of live recordings (Afro Blue 1998, Tampere 1996) has seen back the light of the day and what was a guessing about a real reunion of the group is now a certainty: Gush is back and a full cylinders gigs schedule proves it without any doubts. 

For the ones still unaware, Gush is a trio, one of the protean incarnations of the irrepressible Swedish genius Mats Gustaffson (here accompanied by two real top notch musicians, Sten Sandell on piano and Raymond Strid on drums), that, as said, called it a day in 1998, before deciding, for the sake of our immense pleasure, to dust off the spurs and ride the horse back. Should you be interested (we definitely can’t figure out the opposite...) in reading the umpteenth chapter of the astonishing Mats’ musical adventures, a handy, gorgeous chance is grabbing the bonanza of a 3 CD set, recorded live in Krakow (Alchemia Club, 26-27 November 2018, Manga 28 November 2018), celebrating the band’s 30th anniversary. 

The liner notes focusing on “lyricism, percussive rhythm” and a “seamless convergence of sounds, culminating in an organic, harmonious unity”, touching absolutely the point: we enjoy long radius flows of sounds interspersed with out of the blue edgy peaks, combined with smooth moments to take a breath; blinding, flashing lights and pitch darkness, concrete musique tones, delivering the marvelous result of physical and intellectual sheer pleasure, trademark of Mr. Gustafsson, whatever the line-up or the shape of his projects. Just a foot note. During a long chat with him some months ago, while talking about Gush, Mats defined it (laughing...) as his “modal music” mood and even though we weren't honestly able to picture such a nuance, that’s a point that certainly deserved to be shared with the readers. Modal or not, the roster of players sharing the duties with the trio surely represent not a simple musical back-up band but rather a perfectly assembled team, co-protagonists actors for the final result of this beautiful work and we feel mandatory to shine a light on them. We have: Sonja Jernberg, vocal, long time partner in crime with Mats in The End; Anders Nyqvist, trumpets, from the Klangforum Wien ensemble; Philipp Wachsmann, violin, from, among others, Evan Parker Octet, King Ubu Orchestru, Keith Tippet’s Ark, London Improvisers Orchestra, London Jazz Composers Orchestra; Christine Abdelnour, alto sax, Split Second and Magda Mayas’ Filament in her resume; Jorgen Adolfsson, reeds, who lent his blow to Archimedes Badkar, Bitter Funeral Beer Band, Galento Sound Service; Peter Sodeberg, lute and guitar, who played along with Christer Bothen and Frim Storband; Sven-Ake Johansson, voice, legendary composer, poet, visual artist who worked with the likes of Kowald, Brotzmann, Schlippenbach, Carl and Reichel. 

As usual, good news from the Northern Front, it’s simply time to get Gush on a stage ASAP.