Christer Bothén
Trancedance
Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, h…
Ambrosia
Don Cherry collaborator and Bolon Bata founder Christer Bothén (b. 1941) delivers three CDs devoted to his highly personal expression on the bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet. To quote the artist himself: ”Those empty pipes have possibilities enough to cover several lives”. Sounds and silences are delicately carved out in different acoustic spaces, from a rainy soundscape in Spain to a peculiarly resonating church in Sweden. The album also includes a composition inspired by Tarkovskij’s mast…
Omen
I associate Christer Bothén with a Maestro. I look upon him as a Maestro. A true MAESTRO. Of music. Of Life. A Maestro needs pupils. And pupils need a Maestro. To be given perspectives on Music and Life. It works both ways. It is a sharing of ideas and previous experiences. In order to make music NOW and onwards. In order to live. This is old school. And this is the way it works. And HAS to work. The true mechanics of artistic work and a creative way of living. We learn from other people. From t…