Sunday, July 8, 2018

RUNESON – Runeson (Polar, 1974)

Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: **

On the surface, this is a pretty surprising entry, much like Claes af Geijerstam's ”Out of My Hair”. As it happens, Geijerstam produced this album by commercially minded Nils-Åke Runeson, released through Polar – yes, ABBA's label. But like Tobias Petterson points in his progg encyclopedia, it sports more progressive moves than expected, and features contributions from several progg and progg related performers, including Wlodek Gulgowski, Janne Schaffer and Blond guitarist Björn Linder. High energy track ”Fredag kväll” and ”Her Seventh Floor” (probably more daring in the time signature department than any other Polar album, for what it's worth) have the best progg credentials. Schaffer also goes guitar wild on ”I'm Not a Poet”.

Not essential by any stretch and not even half the semi-rarity some want you to believe it is, it's still a fairly entertaining reminder that progg(ish) music can appear in the least expected places.

Full album playlist

2 comments:

  1. Just listening to thison original vinyl and it's a great production, mayby a little to clean... Howerver, I wonder why you claim the "guitar wild" part on "I'm Not a Poet" to Linder when it it is Schaffer who's credited for guitar on that track on the backcover.

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  2. Oops! I blame it on my confusion and not reading the credits properly. Thanks for pointing it out - I've changed it now.

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