* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert * So… Steinmetz. Hugh Steinmetz. A Danish trumpet player my mentor Peter Brötzmann always talked highly about. 'Aaaaah jaaaaa - those crazy Danes!' Steinmetz was one of very few Scandinavian musicians who actually travelled south and collaborated with European musicians in the late 60s. He is a legend. And a key to understand the early developments of free jazz. The possibilities given to Steinmetz by the leader of the Danish Radio Jazz Group, Erik Moseholm, created chances to explore and to experiment, in a studio situation with a large hand-picked band and time to rehearse. Radical jazz music in large settings. Those times were WILD! The collection of pieces presented on this album makes my jaw fall into my lap. Makes me breathe without lungs. Makes me sweat.

This is fresh. And radical. Like very few other things I heard. There are elements of Xenakis, Penderecki and Stockhausen's large orchestral experimentations here, as well as traces of Gil Evans, George Russell and others. But it all boils down to originality! One of my all-time favorite artists is John Tchicai. When he enters on top of the swarming flutes my emotional hard-drive explodes. This is so beautiful. His tone. When the saw of Niels Harrit enters, I start laughing loudly. Hilarious and just monumentally GREAT!

Tape manipulations. Repetitive minimalistic ostinatos. Brutal fadings. Extreme tape speedings. This shit is so radical. Then and now. The connection between improvised music and the singing saw is crucial to the development of free improvised music - when John Stevens first heard Niels Harrit with TCJQ in Copenhagen in the early 60s he flipped out. As a finale, a graphic score, intuitive conductions and solo playing by Steinmetz himself. This music is freakin spectacular. 1965! I heard similar stuff done recently… but not 60 years ago! What is it with the Danes?

Mats Gustafsson, April 2026