FERNE – Ferne (Bellatrix, 1978) / Clown på allvar (Bellatrix, 1980)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Ferne, or if you prefer his real name: Lars Fernebring, was one half of Risken Finns along with Gunnar Danielsson, releasing two satirical albums in the early 70s. When the duo split, Danielsson moved to Gothenburg to start Ensamma Hjärtan while Ferne remained in the southern city of Lund where he launched his solo career some years later.

One could expect his first albums of his own after the demise of Risken Finns to be, well, if not masterpieces so at least better than they actually are. Well, they're not particularly bad but not particularly good either. His self-titled first one from 1978 is the better of the two reviewed here. Falling somewhere between Thomas Wiehe (who also appears on the album) and – shudder! – Björn Afzelius musically, it has a more serious vibe than Risken Finns. But at the same time, it's as if Ferne can't fully let go of the past, and it ends up being something of a half-measure. And as with all half-measures, it ends up being unsatisfying.

The title of his second album ”Clown på allvar” means, roughly, ”clown for real” or ”serious clown”, and that's explanatory enough. In some ways it's closer to Risken Finns than his solo debut (even referencing back to Risken Finns song titles), but whereas they were fresh and funny, ”Clown på allvar” feels stale. As always, The greatest thing here is Jan Gerfast who shines on guitar (as he did on the first album), but the songs are simply not good enough on neither of the albums.

Ferne made one more album, the concept album ”Snapphanar”, in 1982 before dropping out of record making. He worked for the southern department of Swedish Radio for many years, and held lectures on local history. He suddenly return to music in 2003 with an album of Dylan covers in Swedish, followed by two further solo albums in 2006 and 2013 respectively, the latter one being another Swedish Dylan tribute.

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