TOMAS ERNVIK / VATTEN – Albums 1972-1980

With rise of the Swedish Jesus people movement in the late 60's and 70's, several Christian bands and artists rose to fame, some even reaching outside the religious circuits. Some albums sold exceptionally well in Sweden such as Jesus crooner Pelle Karlsson, (formerly of New Creation responsible for the marvellous ”He Is There”) who scored a surprise hit in 1973 with ”Han är min sång och min glädje” (a translation of Elvis Presley's ”There Goes My Everything” with a hard Jesus twist). Heavy rock outfit Jerusalem, semi-funky Salt and piano man/singer Per-Erik Hallin were also well known Christian artists at the time, and many of them were TV and radio regulars. Less known to most at the time was Tomas Ernvik's band Vatten.

Ernvik was born in Kristinehamn but later relocated to Gothenburg (and later still, to Stockholm). His debut came in 1971 with album ”Små låtar av och med Tomas Ernvik”, followed by his 'rock oratory' ”Brinnande” in 1972 with lyrics by Gert Gustaffson.

TOMAS ERNVIK & GERT GUSTAFFSON

Rockoratoriet Brinnande (Prophone, 1972)

Swedish lyrics

International relevance: *

From the Swedish liner notes: ”'Brinnande' was born at Easter '71 when we discussed different musical interpretations of the life and history of Jesus. It occured to us that a lot of focus was on Easter and that it was harder to find any musical adaptions of Pentecost.

The story begins right after the Crucifixion of Christ, and continues up until what happened on the day of Pentecost, which we consider very important.

The music is multifaceted and you can trace influences from hard rocking blues and pop as well as High Baroque. The music is performed entirely by amateurs.”

Using the oratory format, the music wasn't intended to be performed on stage, but it nevertheless very much sounds like a musical. ”Rockoratoriet Brinnande” does indeed span several genres but it's still obvious that the music is subordinated to the plot. ”Petrus predikan” is a blues with plenty of Ernvik's guitar soloing, and thus the track here that most clearly points towards his future Vatten albums. Sometimes hyped but not recommended.

VATTEN - Tungt vatten (Prophone, 1975)
Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

 

The best three tracks here are ”Jag är trött” (also included on the ”Pregnant Rainbows For Colourblind Dreamers” 4CD comp), ”Du kämpar”, and the freakout feast ”Glädjesprutan” with Tomas Ernvik's imaginative guitar work to the fore. These are the kind of tracks that earned Vatten their reputation as a good power trio with an appeal far beyond the Christian circuits. November leaps to mind, but Vatten has a less prominent Cream vibe and, of course, Jesus lyrics. Mood track ”När du...” might appeal to psych heads also, with an otherwordly atmosphere and Leslie vocals. But it should be noted that while ”Tungt vatten” has its share of enjoyable moments, it is an uneven effort. A couple of songs drag the album down, such as the tardy blues track ”Egoismen”, instrumental piano piece ”Tempora Mutantur” and Latin flavoured ”Förtröstan”.

VATTEN - Plain Water (Gutta, 1980)

English vocals

International relevance: **

It took Vatten five years to return with a full length album adter ”Tungt vatten”. In the meantime, Ernvik did some production work for other Christian bands like Absolut and Tillsammans (not the Greg FitzPatrick led band), and did session work for Södertälje band Friskt Vatten (that had nothing to do with Vatten despite a similar band name). A pilot single from ”Plain Water” was released in 1979 on Ernvik's own Gutta label, ”The Hunter” backed with ”Rely Back”. As suggested by the two titles, Ernvik had switched to English lyrics for ”Plain Water”. Unfortunately, the album doesn't fulfill the promises made by ”Tungt vatten”. It's a more cohesive album for sure, but the production is lacklustre and the songs just aren't very good, with too many standard blues rock and AOR moves, and even strains of funk fusion in ”Irving” and formulaic jazz in ”Rely Back”. ”Tungt vatten” wasn't perfect, but ”Plain Water” is disappointing.

TOMAS ERNVIK & AGNETA GILSTIG

När regnet dragit förbi... (Gutta, 1980)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Agneta Gilstig was a singer often hired as a backing vocalist for a plethora of artists, both from the Christian and the secular scene. She made a 45 in 1971 with Per-Erik Hallin, but ”När regnet dragit förbi...” was her first album. Ernvik was deeply involved in it (hence the co-credit) – he wrote the songs (with others providing lyrics), sangs and played several instruments. Still it's really Gilstig's album. She takes the vocal lead on all tracks which isn't a very good idea, unless you happen to like her non-descript soprano and the equally lame songs. ”Tåglåten” is pretty cool though.

VATTEN - Smältvatten (Gutta, 1981)

International relevance: **

Swedish vocals

”Smältvatten” is a little bit more inspired than its predecessor and so, marginally better – that's marginally. Still too much stiff blues rock, with some anemic funk and a horrendous reggae track to really ruin it.

Vatten did another album in 1984, ”Vattendrag”, and one futher in 1992, ”Diggin' the Roots” with several covers of classic blues songs. Ernvik died on New Year's Eve 2016.

från Rockoratoriet Brinnande

"Konfrontationsblues"

"Jesu slutord I & II"

"Pingstdagen" 

Tungt vatten full album playlist
Plain Water full album playlist

Smältvatten full album

När regnet dragit förbi no links found