Mats Gustafsson is a world-renowned horn player who has pushed the evolution of improvised music with his own unique voice. Joachim Nordwall is a cornerstone of the Swedish musical underground, exploring the extremities of guitar music with The Skull Defekts and solo recordings as The Idealist that access the spiritual and political dimensions of electronic music and dub. Nordwall also runs the esteemed and boundary pushing iDEAL Recordings. Gustafsson and Nordwall’s THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIME-TO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH-OR WORSE finds both musicians pushing their instruments to the limit in order to create a sound experience that is adventurous and fresh. This is an album that celebrates the ecstasy of low dynamic experimental music executed with skilled precision. The power of this inventive duo is that each musician drives the other to unexpected places creating sonic expanse that demands repeat exploration.

Nordwall’s masterful command of atmosphere is particularly evident here, the producer sculpting three-dimensional, tangible spaces for Gustafsson to explore. Gustafsson’s wild lyrical acrobatics transmute flute and saxophone into curling smoke tendrils, dissonant blasts of noise and clattering percussion. THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIME-TO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH-OR WORSE exudes a supernatural patience and grace that echo the circumstances of its creation. Gustafsson elaborates “This is SLOW music. It should take time to make. It needs time to digest.” Even the album’s track titles reflect the process. While each appears in both English and Swedish, they are not direct translations of each other but rather a call and response, reflective of the way the songs were created. The English titles were taken from Cordwainer Smith’s sci-fi novel Space Lords, where the Swedish titles written by Gunnar Lundkvist – as Klas Katt – are offered as strange juxtapositions to provoke new thoughts that spark further thought and conversation.

At a time when communication is merely a polarized shouting match, Gustafsson and Nordwall celebrate the need for sharing and the importance of truly listening to each other. THEIR POWER REACHED ACROSS SPACE AND TIME-TO DEFY THEM WAS DEATH-OR WORSE provides an authentic, living document of an ever-evolving conversation between masters of their craft. “It took us years of our lives to get to this point and hopefully the music will keep changing the listeners for every new time you listen to it,” explains Mats. Nordwall elaborates: “playing with Mats is about communication through music. We never make plans, this is how we sound together.”