Mats Gustafsson - 上低音薩克斯 Baritone Saxophone / 次中音薩克斯 Tenor Saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - 低音提琴 Double Bass / 貝斯 Bass
Paal Nilssen-Love - 鼓 Drums
Video：The Thing (Gustafsson, Nilssen-Love, Haker-Flaten) at the Vortex - part 2
「The Thing」是什麼意思？這是一個有趣又使人深思的名字。一些電影迷可能會知道這是一個難以形容又充滿科幻驚悚的名字（因同名電影《The Thing》）。Don Cherry就在爵士樂中找到了這個東西（「the thing」）。他從不滿足得到簡單或單一的答案，不追求物質上的回報或他人的敬仰，也不追求創造出什麼流派或運動。他所追求的，是用盡他的餘生，追尋他的音樂道路。我想The Thing樂隊也是如此。
當今「職業」已成為一個讓人懷疑的詞，被一些對主流品味的盲目崇拜框住，又被太古老、太正統的專業內容綁得太死。然而，如果音樂也是一種職業的話，坦白說，是一條漫長的道路。The Thing探索著。他們就在你身旁某處突然出現，從一個你可能知道但從未到訪過的世界，帶來最聒噪的資訊。的確，從另一個角度看，他們的音樂雖然充滿異域風情卻又讓人熟悉，雖然尖銳刺耳卻又讓人深思。的確，與那些知道如何取寵觀眾，主流的爵士樂隊相比，他們不需要跟隨潮流做音樂，且他們知道，在音樂的生活裡，只有過往紮實的累積，才有更好的未來。想必Don Cherry會為此十分自豪。
——Brian Morton
「他們從木頭、金屬、呼吸和肌肉中生成的純粹力量，令人震耳欲聾，神魂顛倒。」
——BBC
「《Shake!》是一張充滿了不安的律動、狂放的演奏，節奏強烈的專輯。這是專供處於前衛音樂中心的樂迷的一次自由爵士放克盛宴。The Thing是創造這一切的好手，也因此，他們能夠進一步觸及聲音與樂曲，引發一場令人翩翩起舞的集體對話。」
——Thom Jurek，Allmusic.com
「這也許是這個北歐三重奏最好的一張專輯。The Thing的聲音中包含的那種全然的力量與激情令人為之傾倒，在爵士的自由中卻帶著搖滾中克制的力量。當越來越多的主流爵士演奏者開始演奏、改編搖滾音樂時，The Thing則在旋律與和弦上下手專研，這讓他們的音樂聽起來有些不以為意，甚至不夠有勁道。另一方面，他們專注在重複樂節上，將此作為即興的基礎。」
——Stewart Smith，Thequietus.com
Credit - Petra Cvelbar
1999年，The Thing作為Don Cherry的一個錄音項目成立，這支來自斯堪地那維亞的車庫搖滾自由爵士三重奏不久便成為歐洲最重要的爵士樂隊之一。他們演奏的樂曲種類繁多，其中包括PJ Harvey、 Albert Ayler、The White Stripes、Steve Lacy、The Stooges、The Sonics、The Cramps、Lightning Bolt和The Ex的作品。他們將這些藝術家的作品放入當代語境重新演繹，自成一格。
The Thing已經成長為當今最成功且最勤奮的自由爵士三重奏之一。他們在世界各地巡演，與之有過合作的音樂人包括：Joe McPhee、Ken Vandermark、大友良英（Otomo Yoshihide）、Jim O』Rourke、Thurston Moore、Peter Evans和Neneh Cherry等。
在全球各地舉辦過超過600場音樂會，發行5張錄音室專輯（包括與Neneh Cherry的合作作品）、以及各類現場錄音唱片之後，The Thing在2013年發行了在自有的新廠牌The Thing Records旗下的首張專輯，也是他們第六張錄音室專輯——《Boot!》，並於接下來的兩年陸續在該廠牌發行了現場專輯《Thurston Moore - Live》和錄音室專輯《Shake》。
Credit - Ziga Koritnik
這些專輯把The Thing的音樂推向了全新的層次，展現了他們毫不妥協的態度，並進一步鞏固了他們在當代獨立音樂世界裡特殊而重要的地位，為他們贏得了一眾搖滾、噪音和爵士圈裡的忠實樂迷。
Mats Gustafsson是歐洲自由音樂圈裡最為知名的人物之一。經過Gush、AALY 三重奏、Fire!和Peter Brötzmann的Chicago十重奏的磨練，他已成為一位極具影響力的薩克斯手，並在某種程度上顛覆了傳統薩克斯的演奏方式。2011年，他獲得了北歐理事會音樂獎（ Nordic Council Music Prize），這是北歐國家給予音樂人的最高榮譽。
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten和Paal Nilssen-Love作為挪威國內最重型的節奏組為人所知。兩人自1992年起便開啟了長期的合作，作為搭檔參與過的組合包括：與Ken Vandermark合作的School Days、與Raoul Björkenheim合作的Scorch三重奏，以及瑞典/挪威爵士組合Atomic。
Video：The Thing at Artacts St Johann in Tirol, March 13, 2016
「What does 『The Thing』 mean? It’s an intriguing name. Fans of a certain genre of film will know it as a nameless and shifting horror. It’s the phrase we reach for – certainly once middle age looms – when the word for an everyday object deserts us for a moment: 『You know . . . the thing!』 It’s how we grudgingly start when we’re about to admit to some unpopular or controversial opinion or intention: 『The thing is, we’re going to have to let you go . . .』 But the best version of it is something close to vocation, when you discover the one big 『thing』 in life that is going to drive you. Don Cherry found it in jazz. He expected no simple or single answer, no great material award, no deference, no 『school』 or movement. He just expected to travel that line for the rest of his days. I sense it’s the same with The Thing. Vocation is a suspect word these days, too closely associated with religious commitment for some tastes, too bound up with the old, formal professions. And yet, music, if it matters at all, truly is a long road. The Thing travels. It pops up somewhere near you, bringing a noisy bulletin from a world you maybe recognize but haven’t visited. It is, by turns, exotic and very familiar, strident and thoughtful. It is, for all its dalliances, unmistakably a jazz group, one that doesn’t see the need to bring the music 『up to date』 with the latest fashionable tag or sound, but recognizes that in the music’s living past are the reasons for its future. Don Cherry would have been very proud.」
——Brian Morton
"The sheer power they generate from wood, metal, breath and muscle is stunning."
——BBC
「The Thing’s Shake! might not quite offer the immediate pleasures of their great Neneh Cherry collaboration or their classic Lightning Bolt cover but it’s another beezer of an album from the Scandinavian trio – perhaps their finest to date. There’s always the worry that their punk-jazz shtick could become a stale gimmick, but Mats Gustaffson, Ingebrit Haker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love have a knack of bringing the noise every time. The sheer energy and physicality of The Thing’s sound is immensely satisfying, fusing the freedom of jazz with the controlled power of rock. When more mainstream jazzers cover rock songs, they tend to work from the melody and chord sequence, an approach that can sound a little glib and underpowered. The Thing, on the other hand, rightly focus on the riff, using it as the basis for improvisation.」
——Stewart Smith, Thequietus.com
「Mostly though, Shake! is full of nasty grooves, unhinged playing, and rhythmic intensity. This is free jazz-funk for those who insist on an identifiable center in avant music. The Thing are masters at this and, as a result, can always push further into sound and song and a nearly danceable collective conversation.」
——Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com
Credit - Peter Gannushkin
After forming in 1999 as a Don Cherry recording project, Scandinavian garage, free jazz trio The Thing soon established themselves as one of the most important European jazz groups, playing a variety of compositions, including material by PJ Harvey, Albert Ayler, The White Stripes, Steve Lacy, The Stooges, The Sonics, The Cramps, Lightning Bolt and The Ex. They transformed the music of these artists into a contemporary context, making it their own.
The Thing has grown into one of the most successful and hardest-working free jazz trios around, traveling all over the world. They have performed with guests like Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O』Rourke, Thurston Moore, Peter Evans and Neneh Cherry.
After more than 600 concerts around the globe, five studio albums including their collaborative release with Neneh Cherry and a variety of live releases over the years, in 2013 The Thing presented their sixth studio album 「Boot!」 as the first release on their new label, The Thing Records. In 2014 followed The Thing with 「Thurston Moore - Live」, and in 2015 「Shake」.
With dedicated fans in the rock, noise and jazz communities, these new albums take The Thing’s music to new, uncompromising levels and continue to solidify The Thing’s special and important position in the contemporary independent music world.
Mats Gustafsson is one of Europe's biggest names on the free music scene. Through groups like Gush, AALY Trio, Fire! and Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, he has established himself as a very powerful saxophonist, and has somewhat reinvented the way of playing the saxophone. In 2011 he received the Nordic Council Music Prize: the biggest prize for a musician in the Nordic countries.
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love have become known as Norway’s heaviest rhythm-section. Since their long-time collaboration started in 1992, they have been working together in several groups like School Days with Ken Vandermark, Scorch Trio with Raoul Björkenheim, and the Swedish/Norwegian jazz-group Atomic.
Credit - ZIGA KORITNIK
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