Mattias Gustafsson – Frånvarande

• Medium: vinyl record
• Year: 2019
• Client: B.A.A.D.M.
• In collaboration with: Joris Verdoodt

Photograph by Michiel De Cleene. Edition of 300 copies with down­load code.

Frånvarande acts as both the pre­lude and epi­logue to Mattias Gustafsson’s 2017 record Nattmusik, form­ing a tem­po­ral cra­dle around his B.A.A.D.M. debut. Side A was recorded back in 2012 and orig­i­nally released under his Ornaments alias, man­i­fest­ing as the with­ered, rain-eroded mem­ory of a majes­tic orches­tral lament. It was this 20-minute piece that inspired us to present Gustafsson with the con­cep­tual frame­work for Nattmusik, through which he explored the cycli­cal sym­bio­sis of human­ity and nature. The four move­ments of side B were cap­tured in win­ter 2018 as an elab­o­ra­tion on these themes, with pianos and loops tum­bling into thick­ets of crum­pled, per­ish­ing cas­sette. As a col­lec­tion, these pieces frame Nattmusik as an absent point of origin.