Friday, July 6, 2018

GÖTEBORGS VISGRUPP – Riv alla stängsel (Avanti, 1978) / GÖTEBORGS BRECHTENSEMBLE – Låt er inte förföras (Avanti, 1979)

Swedish vocals 
International relevance: */**

The conditions of progg changed rapidly towards the end of the 1970's. The Gothenburg faction grew stronger as their influence on the movement's periodical Musikens Makt (”the power of music”) increased at the expense of the Stockholm section. What the effects were depends on who you ask, but the way I see it, co-founder Tommy Rander pushed the magazine further and further towards a political pamphlet, setting the tone for the whole progg scene. He allowed very little space for politically agnostic and non-dogmatic artists, effectively draining the genereous versatily that previously made progg a beautifully unwieldly and diverse music scene. Rander increasingly became the overlord monitoring 'the apostates' – those who didn't adapt to the his stubborn leftist decrees were effectively ignored and discouraged. The fun in music was crushed under the weight of cult-like policies. If the dreadful term 'politically correct' has ever been appropriate, it was then. Thankfully, not everything released after Rander's 'takeover' was bad. Serious perhaps, but not necessarily inferior.

Göteborgs Visgrupp's lone album appeared at the tail end of the decade but they had been active since 1974 and is – needless to say – a very political album. It has a decidedly Latin American/Chilean influence which, thankfully, isn't too overbearing. It's a largely lowkey effort with a couple of good songs, most notably the title track ”Riv alla stängsel” and the mournful ”Santa Barbara”. However, the entire album suffers a bit from the vocal style typical to many acoustic and political records of the era. That said, I've heard worse, and if you're not as sensitive to such mannerisms as I am, then ”Riv alla stängsel” is worthy of a couple of spins. Especially since it's still fairly easy to find relatively cheap.

Three members of Göteborgs Visgrupp (singers Kicki Eldh, Britt Ling and Liliane Håkansson) went on to form Göteborgs BrechtEnsemble. Their only album was released in 1979 by Avanti who had already put out ”Riv alla stängsel”. The material is, as suggested by the band name, exclusively Bertolt Brecht numbers, but the album is very far removed from what you'd expect if Lotte Lenya or Gisela May are names that first leap to mind when Brecht is mentioned. Featuring members of Nynningen, ”Låt er inte förföras” is pretty heavy in parts, sometimes even displaying a contemporay jazz influence thanks to the use of saxophone, electric piano and fretless bass. It's a very different beast to ”Riv alla stängsel”, and despite a couple of lesser tracks it's also the better of the two. The vocals are a bit histrionic at times but nowhere near as complacent as on ”Riv alla stängsel”.

A previous incarnation of Göteborgs Brechtensemble can be heard on ”Internationalen och andra revolutionära arbetarsånger” by Knutna Nävar. Göteborgs Visgrupp is also on V/A: "Samlade krafter" (1978).

from Riv alla stängsel

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