Swedish vocals, English vocals, other languages, instrumental
International relevance: **
Certainly
one of the most curious entries here, Britta Lindell's music defies
any easy categorization. If there was one artist worthy of the buzz
phrase 'thinking outside the box', then it might as well be her. It's
definitely not jazz, it's not folk, it's not classical, I don't even know if
it's prog or progg but it's definitely progressive in the sense it
doesn't sound quite like anything else.
Lindell was born in
Lisbon in 1943 and moved around Europe, and as a trained alto
violinist she had played with several European symphony orchestras
before settling down in 1970 in a cottage in Västmanland, an area
west of Uppsala and Stockholm. She mastered more than 50 instruments
of different kinds including the piembalo, a prepared piano she came
up with herself. Over the years, she worked as teacher, and briefly
as a choreographer for the Swedish national television, wrote music
for the stage and even a contribution the Eurovision Song Contest in
1986 that never got as far as to the actual competition.
Her
debut album appeared already in 1973, with ”How I Would Like” on
the independent label Prophone. A curious mix of folk music from
around the world, baroque and renaissance music, and something that
was simply Britta Lindell's own mind, with some lyrics from Swedish
poet Nils Ferlin and William Shakespeare. At times she reminds me of
both Iva Bittová and Dagmar Krause but with more of a playful
tongue-in-cheek humour. Although she draws from a plethora of
'high-brow' influences, she never fell prey to pretentiousness. The
album is fun, and Lindell's approach is almost that of a child
discovering the world through magical thinking. Through charm she
tunes you gently to her wavelength; she makes you not listen to
her music, but to listen to it with her.
It took until
1981 before she released her next album, ”Waiting For The Next
Sunrise” on Caprice Records. It pretty much follows along the lines
of ”How I Would Like”, but it sounds a bit more elaborate, more
developed and with a greater emphasis on the renaissance strain. It's
still a good album, and still clearly original, but it feels a bit
more contained and therefore lacks some of the wide-eyed freshness of
the debut. The best track on ”Waiting For The Next Sunrise” might
be the last one, the strangely eerie and suite-like ”The Next
Sunrise”.
Britta Lindell released one further album called ”Lights” plus a single of her rejected ESC song ”Simsalabim”, both on the Siljum label in 1986.
Lindell passed away in 2000, leaving a
slim but highly original and often intriguing recorded legacy
behind.
How Would I Like full album
Waiting For The Next Sunrise full album playlist
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