Instrumental
International relevance: **
Jazz
guitarist Anders Karlén had previously been in Birka with
saxophonist Nisse Sandström; Birka were awarded with the 1978
installment in Caprice Records' ”Jazz i Sverige” series. He also
appeared as a session musician on albums by a number of rock acts, but
managed to release only two albums under his own name, ”Way Out”
in 1981 and ”Nuance Stances” in 1985.
”Way Out” is not
an enjoyable experience. I'm not a fan of jazz guitar in general
(jazz guitarists can get so bloody smug and self-important), but if
you also add synth and fretless bass to it, you can be sure you'll
get a particularly antiseptic fusion jazz album. And trying to drown in it that much reverb is a very bad idea. . While
there are the occasional moment here when it sounds as if there are,
in fact, traces of life somewhere deep inside, the reverb makes it diffuse it's very hard to enjoy.
Producer (and Mistlur label co-founder) Stefan Glaumann was
experienced enough when he made this album, and I've never thought of
his work as especially ill-advised (actually, I've never thought of
it at all which is about the greatest compliment you can give to a
producer), so who knows what was slipped into his drink when he did
this.
If there in fact is a good album deep inside ”Way Out”, I can't tell. Probably not, but if somebody found it, let me know.
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