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.
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
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: *
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
När regnet dragit förbi no links found
I've always liked 'Plain Water' for its jazz-metal tracks and freshness. That said, there are some dull tracks.
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