I guess that some cool things happen in the southern Swedish city Malmö, judging by the debut album of the psych-improv, all-guitars trio HALStER. This trio debit album, «Mindfulness», was recorded after many weekly-based sessions in downtown Malmö. It features Anders Lindsjö, who is the more experienced of three in the free-improv field and collaborated before with sax titan Mats Gustafsson and drummer Raymond Strid and is part of another free-improvising trio Bomb, and Mattias Nihlén and Adam Persson, both played in an experimental improv trio with Argentinian musician Anla Courtis as The Faina Shanda trio («Live At India Däck», More is More, 2016) and in the the instrumental rock group Ved, incorporating elements of psychedelic and prog-rock, industrial and punk music.

HALStER interplay is free-associative and busy one, focused on exploring sounds, shifting dynamics and sketching sparse and chaotic textures and is less concerned in shaping a clear form or narratives. The longer pieces as «minst bland drumlar» and «ful röst» allow the trio to build  more nuanced and multifaceted improvisations. These piece suggest the seminal influence of innovative guitar improvisers on HALStER sonic searches and explorations – The minimalist, poetic free-improvisations of British Derek Bailey, the psychedelic-rock and fusion journeys of American Henry Kaiser or the brutal and noisy sonic sculpting of Japanese Otomo Yoshihide.

The last piece, «rättigenom himlakroppar; eller, tankarnas rosa kista», is exceptional in its minimalist, twisted bluesy temperament. Maybe this is the raison d’être of HALStER – twisting our conceptions about free, open-minded and improvisations again and again until we all reach the mindfulness state of mind.

Eyal Hareuveni

Anders Lindsjö (g), Adam Persson (g), Mattias Nihlén (g)