We’re thrilled to welcome both Fire! (trio) and Fire! Orchestra to We Jazz Records. The mighty 19-piece Fire! Orchestra debuts on We Jazz with WORDS, their new album to be released 22nd January 2027. The orchestra performs at the We Jazz curated Väreet Festival in Helsinki 3rd Dec and at Warsaw’s Pardon Tu Tu 15th + 16th December.
A major work of 13 tracks, WORDS sees a new Fire! Orchestra lineup building around the core founder duo of Mats Gustafsson and Johan Berthling, featuring Mariá Portugal, Sofia Jernberg, David Sandström (of Refused), Alex Zethson, Julien Desprez, Mette Rasmussen, and many more. The total strength of the current orchestra is 19 musicians, making it one of the most impactful collectives in creative music today.
WORDS, as the name suggests, is largely a vocal album by Fire! Orchestra. Starting out with “DROWNED BEAST”, borrowed from the catalog of the US band Thee Oh Sees (OCS), the album pulls no punches and shows no shortage of emotion or variation. If you need proof, just match the monumental opener with the whisper-delicate closer “PLYWE KACZA”, a stunningly beautiful Ukrainian folk melody reimagined by the band and the track’s lead vocalist Sofia Jernberg.
For the first time, a large part of the band shares composing duties, in addition to the founding duo. Mette Rasmussen, Mats Äleklint, María Portugal, and more take their place in the composer community of WORDS, while the likes of free jazz legend Joe McPhee and environmental activist Greta Thunberg habituate the lyricists’ credit sheet. It’s all a genuinely collaborative effort, which is palpable in the joy and the energy of the music. Smaller group instrumental passages in between songs give the album it’s rhythm, contributing to a grand statement in the orchestra’s ever-evolving catalog, now 8 albums deep.