Soundtrips NRW: Mats Gustafsson & Christof Kurzmann

In the organizer's words:

The Soundtrips NRW series, which has been running for 15 years, showcases the many facets of improvised music. In the first part of a concert, the touring musicians, Christof Kurzmann and Mats Gustafsson, play their own program. In the second half of the concert, they meet musicians from NRW.

Christof Kurzmann brought the free jazz saxophone to the local pop underground, using his own sound software and voice. Mats Gustafsson, saxophone and electronics, is considered a figurehead of Swedish free jazz.
On their joint record "Falling and five other failings" (2016), the two have succeeded in making an intimate and provocative statement and play with improvised music, their musical origins, as well as with old and new traditions. The music merges into a cosmos of its own, in which the unknown meets and changes. The duo's second album, "Prosperity", followed in 2022.

In the second set of the evening, Sebastian Büscher (saxophone) and Gunda Gottschalk (violin) join the duo.

Is it noise, electro-acoustic, free jazz, rock or just great music?

Mats Gustafsson
Christof Kurzmann
Sebastian Büscher