Fire! with Jim O´Rourke: Unreleased? (Rune Grammofon 2011)

On their second album this excellent Swedish supergroup teams up with none other than the legendary Jim O´Rourke for a stunning slice of hypnotic jazz psychedelia and sonic mayhem of the subtle sort. Recorded in Tokyo last September, ”Unreleased?” boasts four tracks, three of them between 9 and 18 minutes long, giving ample time for those evolving, warm grooves to settle or work their way towards epic conclusions.

Mats Gustafsson (The Thing) – saxophone,  Fender Rhodes, electronics
Johan Berthling (Tape) – electric bass
Andreas Werliin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums) – drums
Jim O´Rourke (Gastr del Sol, Sonic Youth) – electric guitar, synthesizer

Also available as two vinyl editions  with free mp3 download.

The red vinyl edition is limited to only 100 copies and will initially be sold exclusively from our site. First come, first served, this is bound to be a collectors item.


Reviews... this second album sees them joined by experimental gadabout and former Sonic Youth member Jim O´Rourke, who applies a layer of raw - yet surprisingly subtle - electronics and feedback to their basic template of groove-based rhythmic improvisations. Generally speaking, these are slow-building, lumbering jams built on repetition and mounting tension: the kind of rock-minimalism that recalls the loping, psychedelicised excursions of Sunburned Hand Of Man as much as it does Faust´s caveman jams with Tony Conrad on "Outside The Dream Syndicate". Over this, Gustafsson´s baritone honk - played with a wide Ayler-ish vibrato - works as an intensifier rather than a melodic voice, pouring out long, braying notes that ratchet up the sense of menace like a blood-curdling howl on a moonlit night.
Jazzwise (UK)
Rune Grammofon