Mattias Risberg - Stamps (2018)

If you’re a fan of Carla Bley you already know Mattias Risberg: together with saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist he released the album “And Now the Queen – A Tribute to Carla Bley” (2016). Something you could expect from the keyboardist Risberg whose musical interests are deeply rooted in several music idioms, going from John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Jan Johansson and Paul Bley to J.S. Bach, Carlo Gesualdo, Igor Stravinskij and Olivier Messiaen, through the likes of John Lennon, Frank Zappa, early Genesis and Yes.
While Risberg is known for the passion he dedicates to vintage instruments like mellotron, Hammond organ, analog synthesizers, clavichord and even pipe organs, in “STAMPS” he focuses only on the piano, now and then prepared, with the sole aid of some Moog Taurus pedals. And he does it alone, in the solo format.
During the working process Risberg was reminded of his youth, how he ”created” inner rooms, guided by music, books, paintings, nature. And by his small collection of stamps. The best way to return to that youthful state of mind was to improvise, as is shown in “STAMPS”, which is the result of those six weeks of spontaneous recordings without script or overdubs. Musically you recognize all the references mentioned above, crossing stylistic borders but also recovering the inspiration of other art forms, the literary one included. Yes, there’s a bit of James Joyce and Paul Klee here for you to find in the inner and outer environments of ”STAMPS”.