• Bengt "Frippe" Nordström vinyl box

  Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

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  BACK IN STOCK FROM 25 JUNE 2023!
  
  "Here, in one amazing package, is the explosion Bengt 'Frippe' Nordström set off with his Bird Notes label and his own radical approach to solo saxophone. Exhaustively researched and lovingly restored, this music now finally returns from the realm of the out of reach, and ready to reset the timer again."
  —Jim O’Rourke
  
  
  For the past decade, Mats Gustafsson has fastidiously produced and compiled the most thorough and comprehensive collection of archival solo recordings of the late legendary Swedish saxophonist and eccentric archivist of free music activity in Sweden, Bengt “Frippe” Nordström (1936–2000). Bringing together rare and unreleased recordings taken from an extensive collection of home-recorded solo sax improvisations, it documents his radical and experimental approach to the instrument, which predates the avant-garde solo work of artists such as Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Roscoe Mitchell, Peter Brötzmann and others.
  
  Little is known about Nordström outside of the small circle of avid free music aficionados, largely owing to the fact that the releases on his in-house label Bird Notes were pressed in editions as small as 1 to 10 copies. These 78, 45 and 33 rpm artifacts, often only made as test pressings for friends, were never introduced to the broader music market at the time. Over 50 metal masters were produced in 12” and 7” format and were combined or recombined on different records, which makes these objects exemplars of a kind of pre-post-modern approach to distribution and manufacturing — both a nightmare and a wet dream for collectors up to this day.
  
  Nordström was well-acquainted with Don Cherry and Albert Ayler, befriending both the legendary artists in their respective time in Stockholm. He recorded Ayler's first solo record Something Different!!!!!! in 1962, founding his Bird Notes label in the process. Over the following decade, his trusted ¼-inch tape recorder was used to document his own practice and many other free music events in Stockholm.
  
  Frippe was known for his eccentric personality and strikingly formal attire, a musician with the dress sense of a bespectacled accountant haunting the jazz clubs of Stockholm seven nights a week. Notoriously, the outsider would frequently storm the stage of ensembles with no prior invitation to collaborate or simply gate-crash the gig by playing his sax from the audience.
  
  Gustafsson’s enduring work in anthologising his friend and mentor culminates in this release, a comprehensive collection of never-before-heard recordings of an artist of action and attitude whose work has had a decisive influence on the underground free improvised music scene in Sweden. In close collaboration with the Swedish writer and art critic Thomas Millroth, an acknowledged specialist in all things Frippe, the ultimate box set has finally become a reality, an object to behold, beautifully designed by Teresa Iten for Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu.
  
  Besides spectacular recordings of unreleased solo work from the 1960s for Nordström’s Bird Note label and the first reissue of the legendary album Natural Music from 1968, it contains a series of tributes performed by some of the most respected proponents of today’s Swedish improvised music scene: Anna Högberg, Isak Hedtjärn, Dror Feiler, Jörgen Adolfsson, Mats Gustafsson, and Sven-Åke Johansson.
  
  
  Content:
  
  Natural Music (album/nvnc-lp032)
  
  Drastic Plastic (album/nvnc-lp033)
  
  Någonting (album/nvnc-lp034)
  
  Reality (album/nvnc-lp035)
  
  To Bengt (10inch/nvnc-lp036)
  
  When Will The Blues Leave? (single/nvnc-ep001)
  
  
  A 32-page booklet with essays by Thomas Millroth and John Corbett, unpublished photography, rare press clippings and notes from the artist.
  
  A complete Bird Note detailed discography compiled by Mats Gustafsson
  
  Free streaming of
  "FRIPPE Bengt Nordström, Moderna Muséet, 1973-05-29"
  a film by Torbjörn Ehrnvall
  
  
  Mastering by Andreas 'Lupo' Lubich
  
  Concept and design by Teresa Iten
  
  Produced by Mats Gustafsson, Thomas Millroth and Antoine Prum for NI-VU-NI-CONNU
  
  
  2023
  
  Includes unlimited streaming of Bengt "Frippe" Nordström Vinyl Box via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more
  ships out within 14 days

  Buy Record/Vinyl   €190 EUR

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