MATS ÖBERG TRIO - HERMETO'S CHEESE

Mats Öberg Trio - Hermeto's cheese

To be found on their "So Very Mats" album.

Here's a live version:

 

A NEW (LIVE) ALBUM BY MATS/MORGAN

• Mats & Morgan: Make Mats/Morgan Great Again
      (2025, download/streaming, --, bandcamp)

“Make Mats/Morgan Great Again” presents the recordings of the Mats Öberg and Morgan Ågren concert at Fasching, Stockholm on November 24, 2023. Next to Mats on keyboard, harmonica and vocals, and Morgan on drums, the band featured Dan Berglund on double bass.

The album title sets the tone. I need a red baseball cap that says MMMGA.

This is a joy to listen to. From the first seconds of 'Propellerhäst', you enter another universe.
The rhythm, the phrasing, the melodies,...
AMAZING !

For those of you who keep track of this:
The album included ‘Sylox’, a piece with a reference to an unreleased Frank Zappa riff that had previously been used by Steve Vai on his “Flex-Able” and his “Passion And Warfare” records.

But even more important, the show will be released on video as well !!
Can't wait to see it.

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MATS ÖBERG - VISA FRÅN INNERÖRA

• mats öberg: visa från inneröra
      (2023, cd, sweden, mcbuddha records)

Eight tracks.

Eight beautiful tracks.
Eight beautiful, original tracks that display Mats Öberg's unmistakable sound.

I imagine that this is what contemporary Swedish folk music must sound like in Mats' head. I'm glad we can enjoy it with him.

Morgan Agren can be heard on the drums on a couple of tracks, and Mike Keneally plays the lead guitar in 'Dream Loops'...

I'm glad that this album got released on CD. There's nothing wrong with Bandcamp, but nothing can beat listening to a CD while browsing the booklet and fully enjoying the album artwork.

"Visa fr​å​n Inner​ö​ra", "View From The Inner Ear".

MATS ÖBERG - VISA FRÅN INNERÖRA

Earlier this year, Mats Öberg released "Visa fr​å​n Inner​ö​ra" as a digital download / streaming album on Bandcamp.
More recently, it was also made available on CD !!

Rather painful for those who bought the download and now also want to order the CD...

Anyway, a new album by Mats, so that's excellent news !!

NEW ALBUM BY MATS ÖBERG

"Visa fr​å​n Inner​ö​ra"
by Mats Öberg

MUSIC ACROSS

Every first Monday of the month, a new podcast of the Music Across radio show gets aired.

The next one, due on Monday, April 3, 2023, will focus on last year's Zappa Spielt Für Bach concert.

Hosted, edited and produced by Gernot Friedbacher.

Gernot adds:

In July 2022, as part of my trip to the Zappanale in Bad Doberan on the Baltic Sea, I also took the time to make a short detour to Hamburg to experience the concert "Zappa Plays for Bach" live in the main church of St. Katharinen, which has always taken place in the run-up to the Zappanale for several years. On 13 July 2022, this concert featured the brilliant blind Swedish musician Mats Öberg and the legendary Zappa singer and saxophonist Napoleon Murphy Brock as a duo under the name Colour Flash, and they received a standing ovation for their performance in a packed church.

In this programme, listen to music from this concert and interviews with the artists Mats Öberg and Napoleon Murphy Brock, as well as the host, Pastor Anne Wehrmann, the organiser of the concert series "Zappa Plays for Bach", Sebastian Knauer, and a concertgoer I spoke to before and after the concert.

Among other things, I talk with my interview partners about what the devout Johann Sebastian Bach, who dedicated all his works to God, and Frank Zappa, who has often expressed criticism of religion in interviews, have in common, and whether Frank Zappa would be happy about his music being played in a church...Quote Napoleon Murphy Brock: "He would not be happy, he would be thrilled...". And the pastor, Anne Wehrmann, on the question of Zappa music in church ?: "Of course, this touches on the fundamental question is God only in it where God is written on it...".

Listen to extraordinary interviews with extraordinary music!

Additional details:
https://o94.at/programm/sendung/id/2130259

Check out the podcast at:
https://cba.fro.at/podcast/music-across

MATS ÖBERG & NAPOLEON MURPHY BROCK - ZAPPA SPIELT FÜR BACH

• mats öberg & napoleon murphy brock: zappa spielt für bach
      (2022, cd, Germany, stiftung johann Sebastian)

July 13, 2022, Mats Öberg and Napoleon Murphy Brock performed at the St. Katharinenkirche in Hamburg, Germany.
The first set featured Mats solo on the grand piano, performing pieces from his “Frankful” album.
The second set saw Napoleon Murphy Brock joining Mats. The duo (also known as Colour Flash performed standards, including several Frank Zappa compositions.

 
The “Zappa Spielt Für Bach” album captured some of the highlights of this concert.
The setlist also included Lionel Hampton’s ‘Midnight Sun’, a piece from which Frank Zappa borrowed the marimba riff.
Post-production by Ralph Kessler.

Love it.
And not just because we were at this concert but because this is one amazing album.
It doesn't get much better that this...

Essential listening.

• Lumpy Gravy
• Läther (= I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth)
• Zoot Allures
• Outside Now
• Toads Of The Short Forest / Inca Roads
• Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
• What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?
• Oh No
• Son Of Orange County
• More Trouble Every Day
• Somewhere Over The Rainbow (H. Arlen)
• Midnight Sun (L. Hampton)
• Uncle Remus (George Duke, Frank Zappa)
• My Ship (K. Weill)
• Yo' Mama

COLOUR FLASH

Colour Flash is Napoleon Murphy Brock and Mats Öberg.
The duo will be releasing a CD later this month.
Recordings will be taken from the concert Napoleon and Mats did in July in Hamburg.

-- info from Napoleon on Facebook

HAMBURG REVISITED

 Napoleon Murphy Brock & Mats Öberg at the St. Katharinenkirche in Hamburg...

ZAPPANALE 2022 - #2

Since 2009 (if I'm not mistaken), Sebastian Knauer has been organizing "Zappa Spielt Für Bach" concerts at the St.Katharinenkirche in Hamburg, In support of the restauration of the St.Katharinen pipe organ.

These concerts take place on the Wednesday prior to the Zappanale festival, so they're sort of a pre-Zappanale concerts. Perfect for those, who like me, have to pass Hamburg on their way to the Zappanale festival.

I've seen quite a number of impressive concerts over there: German bands Sheik Yerbouti and Frank Out, but also international groups like Bogus Pomp, Ambrosius Ensemble, Valentina Ciardelli and Inventionis Mater, often with artists that have recorded with Frank Zappa such as Napoleon Murphy Brock, Robert Martin and (Ensemble Modern cellist) Fried Dähn.

And although I'll be the first one to admit that churches do not have the best acoustics for amplified concerts (because of the ongoing echoes), the "Zappa Spielt Für Bach" concerts are something very special: the concerts are one of a kind, the atmosphere is amazing, and recordings of these concerts have resulted in a very impressive series of Frank Zappa tribute albums.

Expectations for this year's event were quite high: Napoleon Murphy Brock and Mats Öberg would perform a selection of tunes, including some Frank Zappa pieces.
And as if that would not be spectacular enough, the first part would be Mats Öberg performing music from his "Frankful" FZ-tribute album on the grand piano.

Mats Öberg's "Frankful" album is one of the finest FZ-tribute albums that I know of. It's not just a tribute. It's a celebration. It's Mats improvising on several Zappa pieces. Channeling them, if you like, in his own, typical way.

When I had first listened to the "Frankful" CD in 2019, I told my wife that if this was ever going to be performed in concert, we should be there. Anywhere. Anyplace. Anytime.
And now it was happening. In Hamburg. Our 2022 pre-Zappanale concert.

During his journey to Hamburg and during the concert, Mats was assisted by Hans Annéllsson (who had released the "Frankful" album on his Annellssongs label: CD in 2019 and as 2 LP set in 2020). Hans told me that it had not been an easy exercise due to cancelled flights and everything, but that they were very happy to have arrived.
The concert itself was an absolute highlight.

Mats played for about 45 minutes and even played his chromatic harmonica simultaneously with the grand piano at a certain moment. Truly amazing.

• Lumpy Gravy / Läther
• Toads Of The Short Forest / Inca Roads
• Zoot Allures
• Pound For A Brown
• Outside Now

The second concert of the evening added Napoleon Murphy Brock to the stage. Napoleon knows how to work / avoid the echo in the church and Mats and Napoleon are a great duo. Everybody could tell that they enjoyed it as well as we did.

A fine selection of songs resulting in a very nice concert.

The duo played for almost 90 minutes !

Mats Öberg: grand piano, keyboard, harmonica, vocals
Napoleon Murphy Brock: saxophone, flute, percussion, vocals

• Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (F.Zappa)
• What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? (F.Zappa)
• Oh No / Son Of Orange County (F.Zappa)
• Trouble Every Day (F.Zappa)
• Yeah, We Going (G.Duke)
• Somewhere Over The Rainbow (H.Arlen, Y.Harburg) = with pre-recorded orchestra
• How About You (H.Nilsson)
• flute solo / Aybe Sea (F.Zappa)
• Midnight Sun (L.Hampton) = with pre-recorded orchestra
• Uncle Remus (G.Duke, F.Zappa)
• My Ship (K.Weill, I.Gerswhin, arr.G.Evans)
• Yo' Mama (F.Zappa)

What a night.
Happy faces all around, with Till, Sybille, Angel, Steffen, Maggie, Christian, Mick, Noisy Peter, Hans, Wim, and many more.

Selfie with Angel

If you haven't done so already, check out Mats Öberg's "Frankful" album, also on Bandcamp :

MATS & MORGAN - LIVE 40! - THE VIDEO

What better way to come home from the Zappa festivities in London than to find a Mats & Morgen concert waiting on your hard disc. Especially since I had a nice chat with Hans Annéllsson about this Swedish dynamic duo.

Is this what they call decompressing? Or am I recompressing after the dull train ride?

The audio album was released earlier this month and the video streaming followed last week.
As I wasn't home to catch the stream, I was glad to learn that the video would be made available for download afterwards.
The link arrived in my mailbox on Friday.
Quite a surprise as it was a total of 9 Gigabyte (!!) as a zip file. Good of Morgan to mention it in the message as I needed twice the space as to unzip this monster. Had to move some stuff to an eternal hard drive but it was worth it.

Beautiful!  BEAUTIFUL!!

'Sylox' !!  'Akash' !!  Breathtaking.
I guess I'll be listening to 'Akash' first thing every morning the coming week. What an amazing piece of music.
And I haven't even mentioned the guest appearances by Kriter Jonsson (guitar!!), Tommy Tordsson and Henrik Linder (both on bass) during 'Palstug' and again during the 'Baaderpuf' encore. 

Recommended listening. (of viewing if you go for the video).

THE RETURN OF MATS ÖBERG'S BANDCAMP UPDATE

Next to "Only Live" and "So Very Mats", Mats Öbergs "In The Moment" is also being released on Bandcamp.
Originally released (CD) in 2006.

MATS ÖBERG'S BANDCAMP PAGE

 Mats Öberg's Bandcamp page is getting updates.

Both the 2010 "So Very Mats" and the 2013 "Only Live" albums (originally issued on CD on the Moserobie label) are now available for streaming / as digital download on Bandcamp.

Two excellent albums, if I may say so.
Check them out.

-

MATS & MORGAN - LIVE 40!

I received the following message from Morgan Ågren's Bandcamp page :

MORGAN ÅGREN just released Live 40! by Mats/Morgan, check it out.

“Dear all, here is the album download of Mats/Morgan "Live 40!" - The upcoming livestream of the same content will be aired MARCH 16 at: CET22:00 on bandcamp. Stream-link here:

morganagren.bandcamp.com/merch/mats-morgan-live-40?

And again; the livestream ticket will include the album download, and the album download will include the livestream video in case you miss the livestream date. You will receive a download link shortly after the livestream. ($9 in total) I forgot to mention that we had some cool guests that joined us at the end of this concert, our original magical bass player Tommy Tordsson, another great bassist: Henrik Linder and guitar hero Krister Jonsson. - D I G ! !

Peace please // Mats & Morgan”

MATS ÖBERG UPDATE

Mats Öberg's excellent "Only Life" album got released on CD in 2013.
The ditigal download has now become available on Bandcamp.

MATS & MORGAN UPDATE

The Japanese edition of Mats & Morgan's "40th Anniversary Box Set" presents 7 CD's.
That's one more than the European version.
The Japanese box sets that can be ordered from Morgan Ågren's Bandcamp page, will also include the bonus disc that came with the Japanese edition of the "35th Anniversay Colletion" set. So that's 8 CD's in total...

The bonus discs:

MATS & MORGAN

Mats & Morgan's "40th Anniversary Box Set" came with a bonus disc in Japan.
Morgan has now made these recordings (demos from 1987-1989) available through Bandcamp.

MATS / MORGAN - PUT ANOTHER QUARTER IN!

October 2016, Mats & Morgan released their "35th Anniversary Collection", a 2 CD remastered compilation album.

The Japanese edition of "35th Anniversary Collection" was a 3 CD set. The bonus disc was entitled "Put Another Quarter In!" and presented 16 tracks.

Previously, the "Put Another Quarter In!" had been made available through Bandcamp as a 17 track compilation !!
For obvious reasons, the CD version did not include the 10-minute live version of 'Watch Me Pleasure'.

This CD is included in the 9 CD package that is being offered through Morgan's Bandcamp site.

https://morganagren.bandcamp.com/merch/hard-copy-bundle-9-discs

MATS AND MORGAN UPDATE

 Morgan Agren's bandcamp page is offering a "Hard Copy Bundle (9 discs)" of his previous albums.

In case you don't have these, or if you want to get someone a nice gift, here's the info:

https://morganagren.bandcamp.com/merch/hard-copy-bundle-9-discs

NEW RELEASES FROM MATS / MORGAN BAND

Morgan Ågren's bandcamp page is offering the digital download version of their 40th anniversary box set.
I'm assuming that there will also be a physical set released soon.

• CD1: RADIO LIVE STREAM
• CD2: TRUM
• CD3: SCHACK TATI
• CD4: TRENDS AND OTHER DISEASES
• CD5: THANKS FOR FLYING WITH US
• CD6: LIVE WITH NORRLANDSOPERAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA