Swedish vocals
International relevance: -
To understand this record, we first have to take a look at who M.A. Numminen is.
Mauri Antero Numminen was born in Somero, a very small town in southern Finland. He began writing songs in the mid 60s, putting music to selections from other people's books, something he never quite gave up on – as late as in 1989, he set music to philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's ”Tractatus logico-philosophicus”! Numminen was involved in the late 60s/early 70s Finnish radical underground scene that included avantgarde groups such as The Sperm, Nalle Puh Big Band and Numminen's own constellation Suomen Talvisota 1939–1940. While most of his discography is in Finnish (with the occasional foray into German, English and Latin), he released several albums in Swedish. He became an anti-hero of sorts in Sweden, well-known for his deliberately bad singing in a dislocated, squeaky voice. He gained unlikely hits with a Swedish version of teenybopper Bobby Vee's early 60s hit ”Rubber Ball” as ”Som en gummiboll kommer jag tillbaks till dej” in 1977, and an equally warped version of Ian Dury's ”Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” as ”Slå mej med din rytmenpinne” together with Aston Reymers Rivaler in 1983. His vocals are incredibly annoying, but it's hard to criticize him for it as that was his very raison d'être and a reflection of his contrarian avantgarde past. He collaborated with several different artists over the years, but the most improbable co-operation has to be with Turid.
Known for her high, clear voice, it's hard to imagine Turid appearing alongside Numminen. There has rarely been any one more inconcordant pairing of voices than that. Nevertheless, that happened in 1978 when they shared vinyl space on ”Fårskallevisor”, released through the Swedish division of Love Records, famous for airing International Harvester's ”Sov gott Rose-Marie” ten years earlier. In all honesty, it has to be said that they don't actually sing together but appear roughly on every second track. Several tracks also have a children's choir, and that helps giving the album some kind of consistency even if it's an annoying feature. The songs themselves are cheerful and show no traces of Turid's thoughtful cuteness known to fans of her regular albums. As a matter of fact, hadn't it been for Turid's involvement, this album wouldn't have been here on the blog at all. It's not at all progg per se – ”Fårskallevisor” is basically children's album, very standard hadn't it been for Numminen's vocals. There's no denying it's a curiousity, but it's best left as such, untouched.
Some of Numminen's songs here were re-used on other albums of his.
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