B.A.A.D.M. 005

Mattias Gustafsson – Nattmusik

  • LP
  • Edition of 300
  • 2017
  • A1.Hålrum
  • A2.Harald & Helen
  • A3.Nattmusik part II (tagning 1)
  • B1.Äntra Tunneln
  • B2.”Känn ingen oro, känn ingen ängslan”

According to the the­o­ries of Greek/​Roman sci­en­tist Claudius Galenus (131 – 216 AD), human tem­pera­ment has a direct and reac­tionary link to the world around us. A phleg­matic per­son­al­ity is con­nected to water and the moist chill of win­ter; the arid­ity of sum­mer is asso­ci­ated with fire and human iras­ci­bil­ity. For the B.A.A.D.M. debut of Mattias Gustafsson (Altar Of Flies, Ornaments, Cryme), we pre­sented him with this the­ory of human/​world sym­bio­sis and asked him to explore its numer­ous impli­ca­tions: the tran­sience of envi­ron­ment and being, the regen­er­a­tive inti­macy between life and the earth, the prospect of death and decay as inte­gral com­po­nents of rebirth. 

Nattmusik’ is Gustafsson’s first record under his own name, remov­ing the medi­a­tion of the artis­tic alias to fully embrace the sym­bio­sis between body and envi­ron­ment. Keyboards splut­ter through bad wiring and wither into despon­dency, with notes engulfed by the sounds of earthly stir (tec­tonic rum­bles of low fre­quency, muf­fled winds of sine wave). Symphonies of piano and elec­tron­ics start to bloom and then flicker into states of death as the tem­per­a­ture sud­denly drops. Body and tel­luric ele­ments respire into eachother, as the con­tours of Galenus’ the­ory rip­ple with crum­bling field record­ings and spurts of melodic dejec­tion. Nattmusik’ depicts a world in which emo­tional decay feeds the flour­ish of nature – an earth thriv­ing upon inevitable human decline.

Composed and recorded by Mattias Gustafsson at Traststigen, Altar House and Lagmansskolan, Sweden, 2015 – 2016. Magnetic tape, vinyl, acoustic gui­tar, organ, voice, radio and field record­ings. Mastered by Christophe Albertijn – Studio Les Ateliers Claus. Album design by Mathieu Serruys & Joris Verdoodt.

BAADM Mattias Gustafsson Nattmusik LP 2 BAADM Mattias Gustafsson Nattmusik LP 3 BAADM Mattias Gustafsson Nattmusik LP 4