In the history of jazz and improvisation the saxophone duet is remarkably rare. Sax players tend to lock horns with drummers, bassists, trumpeters, even cellists and violinists, but rarely with each other. But here to blow that convention out of the water come two of the planet’s most uncompromising and inventive young hornithologists, Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Mats Gustafsson has perfected the art of the vein-popping, no-compromise blowout, and has appeared with Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, improvising legends Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark. His own free jazz power trio The Thing recently released the acclaimed Cherry Thing album with Neneh Cherry; while his Fire! trio with Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin have released three albums on Rune Grammofon. The four tracks on Stones were recorded live on stage at the 2011 Vancouver Jazz Festival. Miraculously, this explosive encounter was also their first meeting. "It was completely magic", remembers Mats. "All was there, the communication, the interaction, the music, the mystery..." This is fire music that smoulders in the dark. Perhaps this will give the sax duo a new lease of life. After all, as Mats says, there’s "No escape... nothing to hide... you just need to go out there and interact!"
