LEE SCHIPPER – Phunky Physicist (CAM, 1975)

Instrumental
International relevance: **

Now here are some peculiar turn of events! Lee Schipper was an American physicist specializing in energy efficency research and considered something of a pioneer on climate issues. He was also a vibraphonist and recorded an album in 1973 with Swedish musicians Stefan Brolund, Ola Brunkert, Christer Eklund, and thick-as-thieves couple Schaffer & J:son, plus Americans Art Lande on piano and Ted Curson on trumpet, and produced by Swedish big band leader Lasse Samuelsson. The album, appropriately entitled ”Phunky Physicist” was originally only released on Italian library music label CAM in 1975 before eventually getting a Swedish reissue on Four Leaf Clover two years later with new title ”Jazz Meeting 1”. Later yet it appeared as a digital release expanded with two bonus tracks, one with the eyebrow raising title ”LSD Takes A Holiday”.

I'm not a fan of the vibraphone; it's too close in sound to steel pans and there's something about it that makes me restless. A personal thing for sure, but even without the vibraphone, the album isn't too thrilling. It's all very competent but also very dutiful, going through the motions without much excitement. It leans towards fusion jazz but without becoming a fully fledged fusion album of the most formulaic kind. The track ”Still Life” moves in a silent way (if you get the drift) and is one of the best ones on the album. Apart from that, it's Jan Schaffer who gets to shine the most here, going crazy in opening number ”Phunky Physicist” and ”Harvest Machine” (also found on Schaffer's debut LP in a tamer version). ”LSD Takes A Holiday” is unfortunately not as strange as the title might lead you to believe.

So the album has some OK moments, but the somewhat odd story behind it is much more interesting than the album itself.

Full album playlist with bonus tracks

JOHNNY 'MBIZO' DYANI – Witchdoctor's Son 'Together' (Cadillac, 1987; rec. 1979-80)

Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: *

Not to be confused with the ”Witchdoctor's Son” album from 1978, this album was recorded in Stockholm winter 1979/80 with Kenny Håkansson, Bosse Skoglund, Hassan Bah (of Kebnekajse) and Dudu Pukwana. It wears Johnny Dyani's South African heritage proudly, and despite Dyani being best known as a jazz pianist and bassist, there's very little actual jazz here. It's much closer to Soweto's township music. A huge exception is the track ”Kalahari” clocking in at almost nine minutes with Kenny Håkansson really letting it loose, firing off psychedelic fireworks almost as if it was Baby Grandmothers all over again. It comes a real surprise as there's nothing else on the album even close to that. The rest of the album isn't too interesting from a progg perspective, but that track alone is worth the price of admission.

Together
Johnny's Kwela
Marabi Soweto
High Priest
Kalahari
Crossroads
Tula Tula

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Ljud från Friberga (Bröderna Surf, 1978)

Chilly Chimes / Fifth Avenue / Overdoze / High Voltage / Santa Luzia / Superstition 
Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: *

A case of 'progg by association', as the main motive for including ”Ljud från Friberga” is that it has two exclusive tracks by Chilly Chimes that eventually developed into Mörbyligan. Two bad tracks at that, sounding like revved-up singalong second rate rhythm & blues. Santa Luzia has vague progg credentials too sounding like an electrified youth recreation center version of Röda Bönor. The album's often classified as punk, and while some of the six bands on this short disc have a punky edge, some of them sound more like garage rock bands lost in time. One of those is also the best of the lot, Fifth Avenue which comes off as a lingonberry version of British band The Cannibals.

The album was released in two versions, the first (in 400 copies) had a yellow background and brown picture, the second edition had a brown background with a yellow picture. The first edition seems rarer but the second edition is rather scarce too these days, but the album's not really worth looking for.

Full album

PETER NORDSTRÖM – Ensam och fri (Bastun, 1980)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Little known rock singer/songwriter that worked hard on his Ulf Lundell look on the album cover but sounding more like a lesser version of Swedish country/soft rock singer Lalla Hansson.

Peter Nordström debuted in 1978 with one-off single ”Det kommer nya tider”/”Salongsbolsjeviken” featuring Björn J:son Lindh on piano. He appears on the ”Ensam och fri” album too, plus Kebnekajse's Mats Glenngård, Berndt Egerbladh and a number of seasoned studio musicians such as Jan Bandel, Ola Brunkert and Peter Lundblad.

The album is insignificant and Nordström's lyrics are full of ”lonely man drifting restless through the world” clichés that are quite irritating as he doesn't sound at all like somebody with a romantic hobo lifestyle. Rather like a perfectly ordinary bloke who sends his kids to school in the morning and walks the family dog named Fluffy when he comes home from his boring work at the local insurance agency xeroxing papers no-one really needs.

The best track is ”Det här är mitt liv” but that's a Swedish cover of Danish band Gasolin's hit ”This Is My Life” from a few years earlier. In short, this is a redundant album and the only one Nordström made.

Full album

SALIH BAYSAL – The Myth (Sonet, 1978)

Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: **

Imagine a Sevda album where the spotlight is almost exclusively on their deft violin player Salih Baysal and you'd get ”The Myth”. It's a solo album of his to all intents and purposes, but with Maffy Falay and Okay Temiz appearing on various drums and percussion, it's still something of a lost Sevda album, or at least a Sevda stripped to the basics. Especially the second side where Temiz really have a go at it on the drums.

But the focus is really on Baysal's violin and, on several tracks, his throaty, experienced voice. The material is all Turkish folk tunes, collected and arranged by Falay. If you enjoy the Turkish melodics, you'll probably love both sides of the disc equally. If not, the B side is still worthy of many spins as it's always such a rousing pleasure hearing the multifaceted rhythms of Okay Temiz. A little gem from the outskirts of progg!

Full album

MATS GLENNGÅRD – Violin Race (Bastun, 1980)

Instrumental, English vocals
IRG: **

The expression ”don't be fooled by the name” has rarely been as appliable as here. If you expect anything close to Kebnekajse violinist Mats Glenngård's first solo album, the lovely ”Kosterläge” from 1972, then you'll be sorely disappointed. This is closer to Kebnekajse's last album ”Vi drar vidare” which had Glenngård at the helm as Kenny Håkansson had left the group by then. ”Vi drar vidare” is an insult to the band's once glorious name, with limp fusion jazz, and that goes for ”Violin Race” as well. This is an equally bloody awful piece of shit, with fretless basses (and ”funky” slap bass), appalling keyboards and even electronic disco handclaps, featuring members of EGBA, Häxmjölk, Wasa Express and Hörselmat. It's almost scary thinking that this is what an ex-member of one of the greatest Swedish progg bands really had in him.

I hate this album so very much.

Full album playlist

MODERN SOUND QUINTET – OTINKU (Odeon, 1971)

Instrumental
International relevance: **

A real oddity, this. The music itself is rather straight ahead jazz funk but what sets it apart from other jazz funk albums is that the main instrument is steel pans! Pannist Rudy Smith left Trinidad for Sweden in the late 1960's and played with plenty of Swedish musicians including Bernt Rosengren, Ingemar Olsson and Ewert Ljusberg. His Modern Sound outfit went through several changes, from quartet to quintet before becoming Modern Sound Corporation in the late 70's. While steel pans produce a sound that's extremely annoying to me, Smith uses them more like a piano making them fit surprisingly well into the music. The pans work particularly well on the African flavoured title track, Joe Zawinul penned ”Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”, the modal ”Ursia” and their take on Herbie Mann's ”Memphis Underground”.

Internationally sounding as it is, the album had an international becoming as well. Recorded with musicians from Finland, Ghana, Triniad, Barbados and Surinam, it was recorded in Stockholm and produced by arranger, trumpeter etc Lasse Samulesson and released only in Finland! It will never be a favourite album of mine, but I must admit it's much better than I ever expected it to be, with some rather appealing moments.

A revamped band released one further album in 1978 (as Modern Sound Corporation) through the Swedish branch of low budget label K-Tel.

Full album playlist

TOTTA'S BLUESBAND – Live At Renströmska (Nacksving, 1981)

English vocals
International relevance: *

Totta's – or Tottas to use the Swedish possessive form – Bluesband began life as a side project to the other two bands Torsten ”Totta” Näslund was part of in the 70's, Nynningen and Nationalteatern. This side project was even called Nynningens och Nationalteaterns Fritidsorkester ("fritidsorkester" meaning something like ”hobby orchestra”), before eventually evolving into Tottas Bluesband with several members from the old Nynningen and Nacksving label coterie. With the blues always close to Totta Näslund's heart, this was a chance for him to fully immerse himself in songs by the likes of J.B. Lenoir, Otis Rush, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and Jimmy Rogers. They became a popular outfit during the 80's, and also had a weekly spot every Monday on Näslund's and bassist Nikke Ström's own restaurant C Von in hometown Gothenburg. This particular album, the band's debut, was taped live during two consecutive evenings at the Renströmska jazz club in the late summer of 1981.

A lot of people will disagree with me, but I don't think Totta Näslund was a good blues singer. His voice is dull and and colourless and while I'd never question his love for the blues was serious and honest, Tottas Bluesband still sound just like a band playing pubs to beer burping buddybuddies and the occasional married couple with the husband touching his wife in more appropriate ways the later the hour and the drunker he gets. To me, this simply sounds as any old bores with hats and sunglasses on and think they're ”bloooooze, man”. They go through every well-rehearsed move in the book but they never get the blues down for real. It's all form and very little real content. Put on a proper Howlin' Wolf track and this album will run home crying for mum. And if you want straight pub rock go for the real British stuff instead – any early Dr. Feelgood album with Wilko Johnson grinds this album to tiny shards between the teeth.

An equally uninteresting single coupling ”Ain't Your Business” with ”Too Bad” appeared in 1982, and a few more albums followed sporadically during the rest of the 80's. Totta Näslund later had several solo albums before passing away in 2005. His very last regular album was a tribute album to Bob Dylan together with Mikael Wiehe.

Full album playlist

RENA RAMA – Live (Organic Music, 1983; rec. 1975)

 
Instrumental
International relevance: ***

Recorded with the second Rena Rama line-up with American Leroy Lowe on drums instead of Bengt Berger who left after their first album. Not released until 1983 on Urspår's sublabel Organic Music, but taped live at Stockholm's premiere jazz club Fasching one winter's evening in 1975. The other Rena Rama albums are mostly OK but not really top shelf material to my ears; it always sounds to me as if they hold something back. That's not the case here. Housed in a beautiful cover, ”Live” bursts with free jazz energy, especially Lennart Åberg who blows his saxophone harder than I think I've ever heard him blow before while Bobo Stenson attacks his piano with a fervour that from time to time makes me think of Cecil Taylor. Leroy Lowe is everywhere but bassist Palle Danielsson follows his every step. There's a sizzling energy even in the softer passages, as if they just wait for the next blowout that will come any moment. Some might think ”Live” is just a complement to the regular Rena Rama albums, but I think this is their absolutely finest moment on record. Essential!

Full album playlist

MOTVIND – Hjärta av stål (Affection, 1981)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Their second to last album (followed by ”Kamikaze” in 1983) not counting reunions. They were never a good band to begin with, but this is even worse. The radio friendly hard rock production makes them sound like a second rate Jerusalem, and singer/guitarist Juris Salmins machoisms are even more grating than before.

Full album playlist

BRUNO WINTZELL – Debut (Polydor, 1971)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

I really don't know what to do with this album. It's actually not very strange, but I pick up some weird vibe in it I can't quite identify. I don't know if I'm just creeped out by the unnerving album cover where Wintzell seems a little bit to friendly with a piglet on the front and where he appears to seduce a cow on the back. If this is supposed to allude to Beach Boys' ”Pet Sounds” cover, this has a much darker and unpleasant aura. Especially for coming from someone who in his time was considered a sex symbol. (Decades later, in the 90's, he was also a host for a TV show called ”Tutti Frutti” styled after Italian entertainment shows with prominent display of female breasts. The show inspired to a new Swedish expression translating to ”tit television”.)

There are many bizarre turns in Wintzell's career which extends beyond the purely musical, but he later became an opera singer and he was also in the Swedish stage version of musical "Hair" along with Baby Grandmothers, Mecki Bodemark (Mecki Mark Men), Hawkey Franzén and Bill Öhrström (Fläsket Brinner, Ramlösa Kvällar, Tillsammans and others). ”Debut” is just that, his solo debut album. It's short on information who plays on it. The thorough arrangements are credited to John ”Rabbit” Bundrick, Björn J:son Lindh, and Sven-Olof Walldoff, and I suspect that it's Walldoff's orchestra and backing singers performing. Walldoff's gang was an oft-used lot in those days when a lavish and proficient backing was needed, as in Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton 1974 when ABBA won. A lot points in his direction as ”Debut” is heavily orchestrated.

The songs are all Swedish covers of Elton John, Leonard Cohen and Lennon/McCartney, three of them translated by Hawkey Franzén. They're all very well executed, but there's something in Wintzell's voice that suggests something else is going on here, a weird strain of something unknown that worries me. Like I said, I can't put my finger on what exactly it is but it runs through the entire album. Or maybe it's just me. Or the album cover. Who knows?

There is however one track that really stands out. ”The Fool On The Hill” is one of McCartney's dullest songs in the Beatles catalogue, but Wintzell and whoever accompanies him brings something entirely new out of it. Have you ever wondered what happens after a song fades out? Does the song just end cold, or do the musicians go on for several more minutes, freaking out completely as they know nobody will hear it anyway since the track will fade early on the record? Well, ”När solen går ner” may be the answer to that. The track could end at around four minutes but goes on for another two as the whole song jumps in at the deep end and becomes crazed-out psychedelic. There's nothing on the album with its slightly high-brow presentation of contemporary singer/songwriter material to prepare you for this final blow-out. You may not like the rest, but that track alone is certainly worth hearing!

Full album playlist

SABU MARTINEZ – The Dalecarlia Recordings (Mellotronen, 2009; rec. 1971-72) / Burned Sugar (Mellotronen, 2008; rec. 1973-74) / Maldito Primitivo (Mellotronen, 2009; rec. 1977) / SABU MARTINEZ & SAHIB SHIHAB – Winds & Skins (Mellotronen, 2008; rec. 1967/1978)

Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: **

Sabu Martinez's 1971 album ”Afro Temple” is obviously some kind of classic, but I find most of it dull percussion excesses with some spoken word over and some dashes of Latin jazz. So I was less than thrilled approaching a full set of four albums released on Mellotronen, covering Martinez's Swedish years.

Martinez moved here in 1967, and the earliest disc in the Mellotronen lot features recordings from that year, with saxophonist/flautist Sahib Shihad and made for the Swedish Radio. One of '67 tracks is only a spoken word piece on 'the theme of good and bad service'. The other one is an OK but unspectacular five minute jazz piece with Palle Danielsson on bass. The 1978 session, also for the Swedish Radio is slightly better with the half-bizarre ”The Distorted Sioux Indian” being an at least interesting little piece next two boring percussion solos.

Stemming from four different sessions, "The Dalecarlia Recordings" opens with thirteen very long minutes of another percussion workout, "The Latin Percussion People", which isn't a good start, but it picks up the steam soon after that. A selection of tracks from the 1971 album "Aurora Borealis" with Björnbobandet works up a great groove, and although I'm not too keen on big band stuff, these tracks are quite good. My favourite track however is "Puertorican Beans And Rice". The sound is murky but it reeks with so much vitality not even the quesionable fidelity can take anything from the contagious vivacity of the moment.

”Burned Sugar” features another Swedish Radio session, this time fron 1973, with the CD being expanded with three tracks recorded in the Polyvox Studio in Stockholm the following year. Not only the best volume of these four, but also the best Martinez album I've heard! It's an incredibly lively document with sweaty, funky, organic tracks. Clearly moving in the fusion jazz direction, but this is fusion that's meaty, beaty, big and bouncy and pretty damn irresistable. The Polyvox takes detracts a bit (especially the "Education" track which is only a minute and a half of the band working out a beat) but I can live with that.

The title track from ”Maldito Primitivo” picks up where "Burned Sugar" left off and would have fit nicely on that collection, and is by far the best track on this disc.The remainder of the disc is jazzy salsa galore, and while it's pretty good, it isn't nearly on the same level as the tremendous "Burned Sugar". 

Taken together, these four volumes are a varied presentation of Sabu Martinez's musicianship. They have their ups and downs, depending on your personal preferences. All in all, they're much better than "Afro Temple", with "Burned Sugar" being my obvious pick of the bunch.

Winds & Skins full album playlist
The Dalecarlia Reordings 1971-72 full album playlist
Burned Sugar full album playlist
Maldito Primitivo full album playlist

KAIPA – Händer (Polar, 1980) / Nattdjurstid (Piglet, 1982)

Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: */*

Few albums have represented such a sharp turn in style as these. When guitarist Roine Stolt left the band in 1979, he took the original Kaipa style with him and left the band with something that's closer to a poppish, synth inflicted post punk with very, very little left of what characterized Kaipa's first three albums. Only instrumentals ”Regn” and ”Elgrandi” on ”Händer” show traces of their past, but those traces are so small they almost don't count.

I've never been a Kaipa fan but these albums are definitely inferior to anything they originally became known for. The early albums had a vision whereas these two sound like a band lost. Especially ”Händer” sounds exactly like it is, a band struggling to come up with something after one important member left. I almost feel sorry for them clutching for the weakest straws; stiff playing, ill-fitting production, and worst of all: bad songwriting.

”Händer” was released on ABBA:s label Polar and they were obviously not pleased, so for the next album ”Nattdjurstid” 1982, Kaipa geared down to Uppsala imprint Piglet. Maybe the decreased production values were to their advantage, since ”Nattdjurstid” is a slightly better album. Kaipa seems to have a better comprehension of their new style, the songs are tighter and more effective, and the smaller sound suits the new material better. The band simply sounds more self-assured. There are even moments of true inspiration, as on ”Zepapo” where Stolt replacement Max Åhman goes into full Robert Fripp mode. It's still not a good album though, and they probably realized that going further down this path that really wasn't theirs would only lead to further humiliation. By the end of the year, Kaipa disbanded.

Händer full album
Nattdjurstid full album

RALPH LUNDSTEN & THE ANDROMEDA ALL STARS – Complete albums 1977-1982

A curious character, this Ralph Lundsten guy. His career somehow parallels that of Ragnar Grippe, as Lundsten started out as an electro-acoustic composer and then gradually moved towards more commercially accessible music. A wider attention came in the mid 70's with his series of so called nature symphonies taking inspiration from Swedish nature and folklore. Lundsten became something of a new age music pioneer, recording many of his albums in his Andromeda studio in a house painted pink. He was on a massive ego trip, seemingly only liking his own music. Most of his many many albums are cheesy and aimed at the crystal healers market. To be fair, a lot of his un-commercial early stuff (from the late 60's and early 70's) is quite superficial too but at least somewhat more interesting to listen to.

With the 70's drawing to a close, Lundsten assembled an amorphous band called The Andromeda All Stars and rarely has the term ”all stars” been more to the point. Plenty of name performers passed through, too numerous to mention in all, but a few would be Bernt Rosengren, Ahmadu Jarr, Tommy Körberg, Jojje Wadenius, Monica Dominique, Wlodek Gulgowski, Björn Inge (November et al), Björn J:son Lindh, Janne Schaffer, Tomas Ledin, and renaissance music flag-bearer Sven Berger. This massive lot of people helps the four Andromeda All Stars albums into the progg realm.

Universe (Harvest, 1977)
Instrumental, wordless vocals
International relevance: **

The first All Stars album (housed in a truly eye-catching cover) is one of Lundsten's best, although I hesitate to use superlatives when talking about Lundsten's albums, no matter what line-up they flash. It's uneven and still very cheesy, but it has some entertaining moments of gurgling and bubbling sounds where Lundsten probably just fools around with the crazy sound effects because he enjoys it. As typical to his post-EAM albums, there are plenty of synth washes. The best tracks are those that have a rhythmic structure, like ”Harvest In Heaven”, ”Space Funeral”, and the space rock sounding ”The Planet Of Winds”.

Discophrenia (Harvest, 1978)
Instrumental
International relevance: **

With the disco wave sweeping the world in the late 70's, plenty of musicians jumped the danceable bandwagon. Even the self-loving Ralph Lundsten got bit by the bug, but his interpretation of disco is of course different to others. He either mess with it deliberatly, or he misunderstands everything. The title track is in fact rather interesting as Lundsten seems to predict the synth pop still a few years away from public recognition. It actually reminds me a bit of the early Human League albums (those before the girls joined the group and they became MTV darlings with ”Don't You Want Me”) and they hadn't been released yet when ”Discophrenia” came out. The album even spawned a single (with an extended remix of the title track), a rather rare thing in Lundsten's discography.

Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (Harvest, 1979)
Instrumental, English vocals
International relevance: **

The third Andromeda All Stars album falls somewhere between the first two, with characteristics spilling over from both. ”Rendezvous With A Washing-Machine”, ”Ego Love Song” (appropriate title for Lundsten!) and ”Horrorscope” are still discophrenic, while other chunks stick to the wishy-washy synth layers. The album is very inconsistent, and it sounds as if it's cooked up from leftovers from the previous two discs. The all stars concept is beginning to wear thin.

The New Age (Harvest, 1982)
Instrumental
International relevance: **

After a couple of electronic/symphonic works in the beginning of the 80's, Lundsten returned in 1982 with the final album credited to The Andromeda All Stars. Largely new-agey as the title lets you know, but a more coherent work than ”Alpha Ralpha Boulevard”. But it does sound as if the steam had run out altogether of the All Stars project. It's less colourful and crazy than the initial trio, there's no real push to it.

From "Universe"
Universe Calling / The Space Sneaker / In The Shade Of The Purple Moon / The Hot Andromedary / The Blue Planet / Harvest In Heaven / In The Erotosphere / The Celestial Pilgrim / Rhapzodiac / The Planet Of Winds / Lunatic Safari / Space Funeral / Cosmic Song

From "Discophrenia"
Andromedan Nights / Discophrenia / Luna Lolita / Robot Amoroso

From "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard"
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard / Rendezvous With A Washing-Machine / Space Flower Dance / Ego Love Song / Happy Earthday / Horrorscope / Computerful Love / Dancing In A Dream / Lifetide

From "The New Age"
Morning Of Creation / Time Storm / Future Carnival / Trance-Action / The Remembering Castle / Garden Of Delight

OKAY TEMIZ TRIO – Turkish Folk Jazz (Sonet, 1975) / ORIENTAL WIND – Zikir (Sun, 1979) ORIENTAL WIND – Live In Bremen (JARO, 1982) / OKAY TEMIZ'S ORIENTAL WIND – Live At Montreux Jazz Festival 1982 (Caz Plak, 2022)

Okay Temiz's albums are sprinkled all over this blog, but this post fills in the gaps in his discography up to 1982. It's a rather voluminous body of work, and if you count the albums with him only as a sideman, it becomes unfathomable. But I always take a closer look on an album with his name on it. His name is a stamp of approval. If he's there, it can't be all that bad.

OKAY TEMIZ TRIO – Turkish Folk Jazz (Sonet, 1975)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***

What could possibly go wrong with a title like that? Nothing, and nothing does either. It's recorded as a trio with Swedish jazz legend Björn Alke on bass and Temiz's fellow countryman Saffet Gündeger on clarinet (plus multiple arrangements signed Maffy Falay although he doesn't appear on the album in person). Temiz's Turkish roots have an even stronger emphasis here than on several of his other albums, and the melodies and harmonies get to fly high and free within the smaller trio format. It also means there's more room for Temiz's drumming, and he's really going for it here. He plays in all directions at once, wide and deep, high and low, and right at you. Truly musical drumming, and Gündeger finds his way around the drummer's thunderous tumble. He blows his instrument so hard as if his life depended on it, making wild runs like the clarinet's Coltrane. Even Björn Alke, anything but a bass bungler, gets overshadowed by the Turkish typhoon of sound. It's as if he knows he better stay out of the way and keep the pulse going elaborately but without trying to show off. A one hundred percent stunning album.

ORIENTAL WIND – Zikir (Sun, 1979)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***

The release history of ”Zikir” is a bit complicated and I'm not going to get all tangled up in trying to explain which release is which and what songs are on which edition, as the CD reissue on Ada Müzik sets everything straight in terms of songs included. The picture above shows the album cover used for most early European releases.

This is a very different beast to ”Turkish Folk Jazz”. With more musicians involved, the arrangements are more rigid. There are still room for improvisation of course, but there's nothing here that can match the fury of ”Turkish Folk Jazz”. There's also something about the sound that breathes jazz fusion air, a sort of smoothness that I think is too much out of place for this music. I can just imagine what a smaller band and a more sympathetic production would have done to the outcome. Still there are entertaining moments, such as the wacky ”Kabak Tatlısı” which sounds as if they played a jew's harp through a wah-wah and then added drunken ducks on top of it. But as a whole, ”Zikir” stands as one of the weaker Temiz efforts.

ORIENTAL WIND – Live In Bremen (JARO, 1982)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***

This 1981 recording from the Packhaus Theater in Bremen opens with ”Batum”, a throwback to Temiz's Sevda days although Lelle Kullgrens electric guitar gives it a very different vibe. I don't like his playing at all. But to be honest, I don't think Oriental Wind had a good evening back then in late October 1981. The music sounds strained (very unusual for a Temiz album!) and tense in a bad way. It's almost as if there was something worrying them, as is they had something else on their mind and tried to make up for the missing spark with force. Some moments here are better than others, but I miss the natural flow and telepathy between the musicians most of the time. And flow and telepathy are crucial for this music to work.

OKAY TEMIZ'S ORIENTAL WIND – Live At Montreux Jazz Festival 1982 (Caz Plak, 2022)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***

Ah, now we're talking! Forty minutes of top range Turk jazz action! Still guitar in the mix, but Lelle Kullgren is out and Stefan Osterberg is in and he's much more responsive to the moment, firing off some almost Terje Rypdal-like salvos that hit exactly where they should, But everybody's on the same page here, effortlessly striving in the same direction, thinking with one unified mind. This Montreux show, left in the vaults for a baffling forty years, is the exact opposite of the stifled Bremen date. It's all about the collective efforts, but every musician needs to be mentioned by name as they all play on their absolut top. Lennart Åberg moves like a panther in his death defying guerilla sax solos. Palle Danielsson is freaking insane on the bass, playing stuff that I thought was humanly impossible. He's almost like an orchestra in itself! Bobo Stenson's piano and keyboards might seem a bit tame in comparison, but although he fires away some dazzling keyboard runs, his main role is being the glue that keeps it all together, filling out whatever musical spaces need to be filled The ensemble play is out of this world, it's more than telepathy – they're tight as siamese quintuplets. No need to hold it back: Of every album I've written about here – and we're talking thousands of albums – this album is among the very, very, very best.

Turkish Folk Jazz full album
Zikir full album playlist (CD version)
Live In Bremen full album playlist
Live At Montreux full album playlist (Bandcamp)

MIKE CASTLE – Kaliyuga Express (Sonet, 1970)

English vocals
International relevance: *

Chicago born guitarist Mike Castle spent time in Sweden and teamed up with Peps Persson and his then backing band Blues Quality for one album 1970, seemingly the only one Castle ever did. An all-blues effort with the exception of Gordon Lightfoot's ”Early Morning Rain”. Only ”Stockholm Blues” and ”Eagle Blues” are Castle originals, the rest is rather pedestrian cover choices such as ”Sweet Home Chicago”, ”Death Letter Blues” and ”Walkin' Blues” (although the latter is only a digital bonus track). Castle is an adequate but unexceptional acoustic guitarist and an uninspiring singer with a voice better suited for American folk styles than blues. Therefore he sounds best on the Lightfoot track and Mississippi John Hurt's ”Casey Jones” than the gruffer songs of Son House or Robert Johnson. He's learned the moves but fails to infuse much personality into them. Blues Quality appears on two tracks, Peps on six.

Kaliyuga Express full album playlist

ROBERT ERWING – Betongänglar (Text O Bild, 1982)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

After releasing one single on the vehemently commercial label Mariann in 1981, he returned with a privately released full album the following year. A strange affair with symph rock aspirations, loaded with cheesy synths and Erwing's thin, slightly nasal and rather funny sounding voice. He's definitely not much of a singer, and not a lyric writer of note either. His observations, summed up in album sub-title ”En förortssymfoni” (”a suburbian symphony”), are banal and sometimes out of metre, and they only get more in your face when delivered with Erwing's shaky, occasionally off-key vocals. The musicianship is otherwise decent – especially for a private release – with plenty of unknown local Gothenburg performers. The only one I can spot that had a career in music after this album is co-songwriter Göran Ihrfeld who later was in Beatles tribute band Lenny Pane. Most famous name here is well-known actor Reine Brynolfsson who draw the record label!

”Betongänglar” is unbearable if taken seriously, but if you're into off-beat music devoid of self-awareness, this is a gem.

Betongänglar (suite)

EJE THELIN GROUP – Hypothesis (Musicians Record Co, 1979) / EJE THELIN – Bits & Pieces (Phono Suecia, 1980)

Instrumental
International relevance: **/**

Eje Thelin already had a long career as a trombone revitalizer when he recorded these albums, entering the live scene already in the mid 1950's and making his record debut in the early 60's. He went through many changes including a free jazz phase with Joachim Kühn resulting in a couple of early 70's albums of which I gladly recommend the very expressionistic ”Acoustic Space”. He made a gradual slip towards jazz fusion in the 70's, and these two albums from the turn of the decade 1979/80 are probably the furthest he got in that direction. By that time, jazz fusion in general had become a very stale genres lazily giving in to the conventions it had created for itself.

”Hypothesis” however is an unusually vital effort, displaying an openness that had been long lost. Allowing free form (”Duett”) and soul jazz (”Back-woods Song”) into the mix, as well as giving piano player Harald Svensson free reign over the self-explanatory track ”Piano”, and allowing dreamy moods into ”Curved Space” and the two versions of ”Here's That Rainy Day” certainly broadens the palette. Svensson might in fact be the real star here, adding a certain lyricism to the album.

”Bits & Pieces” was recorded with roughly the same line-up as ”Hypothesis”, but expanded with bassist Bronisław Suchanek, occasionally percussionist Malando Gassama and with Steve Dobrogosz on piano on some tracks. The album opens in a moody way with the beautiful ”Gloomy” which lives up to its title and followed by the almost ambient ”Islands”. The entire album is much more peaceful than its predecessor; only ”Castor And Pollux” and ”Carneval” heaten it up a bit. Which album you prefer at a given moment is a matter of mood. You could say that they are two sides of the same coin.

These are not my favourite Thelin albums – I still prefer the noisy Thelin of the early 70's – but regarded in the jazz fusion context where they belong, these two discs are head and shoulders above what the genre most often had to offer at this late date.

Hypothesis full album
Bits & Pieces full album playlist

KLARA EXPRESS – 1975 (no label, 1975) / WASA EXPRESS – Live At Jarlateatern 1976 (no label, 1976)

Instrumental
International relevance ***/***

The seeds of Wasa Express were already in the ground by 1975, although their debut album wasn't released until 1977. They recorded an LP's worth of material as Klara Express in 1975 in the legendary Decibel studio in Stockholm where myriads of albums have been recorded. If these recordings were made as demos or if they were in fact intended for release I don't know, but they remained locked away for decades before getting a digital-only release.

Klara Express was a very different-sounding band than when turning into Wasa Express, and this incarnation featured EGBA trumpeter Ulf Adåker and trombone player Nils Landgren who both left early on. They were obviously a balancing force in the band, as those Klara Express tapes top everything made after their departure. Instead of the daredevil gymnastics that make Wasa Express such an overbearing band, Klara Express focused on the groove. Åke Eriksson is a drummer well-known for his skills, and here he pulls out every funky trick in the book to great success. The syncopes blare away with precision but also all of the feel it takes to make it swing, groove and funk. It's fusion music alright, but it's in the higher legion of jazz funk, much better than most albums in the same mould. It's a pity these recordings weren't released back in the day, and even greater pity what the loss of Adåker and Landgren did to the band.

”Live at Jarlateatern 1976” is an early document of Wasa Express, and while it still has remnants from their early Klara characteristics, they were already heading for their typical style where it was more important to dazzle and baffle the audience with instrumental acrobatics than to present something with emotional substance. And even in those moments where they emphasize the funk bits left over from the Klara Express days, it sounds dull and calculated. ”Jarlateatern” isn't quite as terrible as their later properly released albums, but it's still dead boring and clinical.

None of these albums have been released physically. Both of them were originally available for free download from Åke Eriksson's website, but are now available for streaming on the regular platforms.

Klara Express full album playlist (Spotify)
Live At Jarlateatern full album playlist (Spotify)

JAN HAMMARLUND & KJERSTIN NORÉN – Några här, några där... (Amalthea, 1981)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

I've already written about Jan Hammarlund's entire 1970's catalogue here, but he continued making records long after that, with a discography reaching well into the 2010's. Never foreign to working and performing with other (predominantly female) artists, there are several releases co-credited to others. This is one of them, made together with Kjerstin Norén. She was one of the original members of Röda Bönor, and subsequently had another band called Kjerstin Norén & Damorkestern with members from Husmoderns Bröst.

”Några här, några där” – with the unweildy subtitle ”Jan Hammarlund Och Kjerstin Norén Sjunger Sånger Av Il Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano: Ivan Della Mea - Giovanna Marini - Paolo Pietrangeli” – consists of songs by contemporary Italian songwriters (as the subtitle says) translated to Swedish. The vocals are split rather evenly beteween the two singers, and although Norén might not be the greatest voice ever heard, her songs are still a welcome break from Hammarlund's always annoying warbles.

The album as a whole has a somewhat different feel than many other Hammarlund albums which has a lot to do not only with Norén's involvement but also the arrangements. The most different-sounding track is ”Balladen om Ardizzone” with its renaissance-styled framework. A well seasoned line-up surely helps too; how about Kjell Westling, Fred Lane, Lena Ekman, Ale Möller and his mate from various constellations Dan ”Gisen” Malmquist to name but a few? Recorded in Copenhagen, a couple of Danish musicians get on the payroll too.

But all in all, this remains too much of a Jan Hammarlund album, and unless you're a fan of his, you may just as well pass on it.

Full album playlist

UNOS KANONER - …Barm (Knäpp, 1982)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Hardcore fans of this blog know that I have a strong fascination with bands with one foot in progg and the other in punk. Something interesting just happens when the twain meet. It's particularly interesting as those bands – such as Kräldjursanstalten, Fiendens Musik, Elegi and even Dom Smutsiga Hundarna – contradict the widespread notion that progg and punk were incompatible and at odds with each other. I don't subscribe to that idea at all. As I've said before, I think that punk was progg's unbehaved child running wild in the streets, and much closer to its parents than what was admitted back in the day. What differs is the expression and method, not so much the ethos vis-à-vis society versus the freedom of the individual.

Unos Kanoner are just about emblematic of the merging of the genres. Founded in 1979 in Borås a few miles east of Gothenburg, they may not be a household name today, but they gained nationwide exposure when radio show Ny våg (dedicated to punk and skewed music in general) played their track ”Sätt benen i halsen på dom borgarjävlarna”. The title roughly means ”ram your leg down the throat of the bourgeoisie scum” which surely was enough to have sensitive listeners cough up their dinner. Not the most subtle piece of poetry, the message was indeed clear, but if someone still missed the point, the rest of the blood spattered lyrics would surely erase any doubts what Unos Kanoner were on about.

The track was so exaggerated it's hard to miss the satire and the humour. Some night not like the phrasings, but they're so overwrought it's hard not to laugh at the point blank directness. ”Sätt benen i halsen på dom borgarjävlarna” is the most blatant example of lyricist, guitarist and singer Pentti Salmenranta's sentiments, but not the only one. The whole album is like an absurdist play of cruel and unrefined jokes clad in a variety of musical styles ranging from cabaret, marches, vaudeville and jazz, even psychedelia and prog (with one 'g'). The effect is like a gang fight between Blå Tåget, Samla Mammas Manna and Frank Zappa. However, the most terrifying thing about ”Barm” isn't the lyrical frankness, but how some of the songs are alarmingly current. ”Stövlar som putsas på nytt” (”boots polished anew”) touches with an unnerving accuracy on the renewed rise of fascist politics in so many countries today including Sweden.

”Barm” isn't necessarily a good album but it's original, twisted and, yes, bizarrely funny. Its relevance may not lie with its musicial qualities (although it's not without such) as much as with its ability to confound the listener. It's hard not to relate to it with awkwardness but it's equally impossible to shrug it off. My emotions towards it are as conflictive as the album itself: I don't like it, but I like it.

Unos Kanoner released two more casette-only albums later in the 80's, and appear with one track on the 1987 various artists comp "Samma båt".

Full album playlist

FRED LANE – Vi smida (A Disc, 1977)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

U.K. born singer Fred Lane moved to Sweden in 1970 and is in possession of a wonderful folk voice heard on albums by Låt & Trall and Bella Ciao. A multi-instrumentalist, he also plays accordeon on the Tillsammans album. ”Vi smida” however isn't his finest hour. It's a concept album with the concept explained by the subheading ”Proletariatets visor före och under industrialismen” (”songs of the proletariat before and during the industrialism”), and it shouldn't take much imagination to figure out what these songs sound like. It's not surprising that it's on the Social Democrat house label A Disc, quite possible the dullest of all Swedish 70's imprints. Some skilled players appear alongside Lane though, such as Hans Alatalo (Norrlåtar), Lasse Englund and Kjell Westling, but it's not enough to save the album which is best left in the era that made it possible.

Vi smida Side 1
Vi smida Side 2

EGBA – Omen (MNW, 1981)

Instrumental
International relevance: **

EGBA's albums got gradually less interesting as their popularity grew. True they got more proficient, but it's the first album aura of their 1974 debut that appeals to me the most. By 1981 they were an enormously tight jazz fusion outfit clearly impressed with the likes of The Crusaders and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters with undertows of Latin and African rhythms as known from EGBA's earlier albums. ”Omen” also shares a few traits with the reborn Miles Davis's ”The Man With The Horn” released the very same year. Although I'm nowhere near a fan of fusion jazz, there are still the occassional 70's album that displays wit, joy of discovery and search for a new, vital expression, but by the early 80's, it had become a style for middle managers in television rimmed glasses and brown polyester suits. Very much like "Omen".

Full album playlist

FLÄSKET BRINNER FEATURING BO HANSSON – LIVE AT PISTOLTEATERN 1972 (Mellotronen, 2023)

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

This is exactly the kind of stuff I want to see excavated from the dust-covered shelves of history's archives, by a band that needs more releases out! True there's the great box set of Swedish Radio tapes released in the early 00's, there simply can't be too much prime Fläsket Brinner in this world. At the same time, it's a Bo Hansson release, as this show taped at the legendary Pistolteatern in Stockholm in 1972 documents his short stint with the band.

It's a rare recording, and the copy that has circulated among collectors was really bad sounding, so the discovery of the first generation tape is a Holy Grail find. It remains an audicence recording with plenty of room ambience, but the sound has been cleaned up and the nuances brought out as much possible.

But the most important thing is of course the music. The performance is explosive. Fläsket Brinner provides the perfect backdrop to a particularly inspired Bo Hansson who travels the organways with equal parts of precision and curiousity. He sounds as if he discovers new melodies all the time, explore them, moves on, returns to them again, constantly pushed on by a band firing on all cylinders. I must especially point out Erik Dahlbäck here. Captain Dahlbäck is just about a flawless drummer in any given situation, but here he really shines like a supernova. His playing is incredibly intense, precise down to a molecular level, following every minimal shift in the music, creating new possibilities. What a powerhouse he is!

So I have no objections to the music pressed on this disc (500 copies in black vinyl, 500 in 'water blue' which more looks like glow-in-the-dark green if you ask me), but I do have a few towards the presentation. There's one ugly midtrack edit that breaks the flow brutally. Other tracks fade out early, others again fade in. It's like going to the loo amidst a concert and hear the music grow in volume as you return closer to the stage. It's actually pretty annoying. It's been decades since I heard the inferior tape dub of this show, so I can't remember whether the music was chopped up, and I can't vouch for what the source tape used for this release is like, but there was definitely more music recorded at Pistolteatern than what's on this disc. Why not make it a double album with the entire show, or at least how much of it was recorded? And why only make it a prefab raririty in limited edition vinyl? Skip the coloured vinyl kollektor skum nonsense and focus on a proper unlimited release instead. And if the songs are cut on the original tape, please let us know in the liners so we don't have to wonder where the rest of the show has gone.

One more Pistolteatern track can be found on the FINALLY reissued first Fläsket Brinner album. True to Silence Records' lazy treatment of their own massive back catalogue, there hasn't been a proper reissue of that monolithic album until now, 2024. Apart from being nicely remastered, the original album has almost doubled its length with three long tracks added as bonuses. ”Gulan” is from Pistolteatern and is to be honest a messier recording than anything on the Melltronen disc. ”Mr. Beautiful” has better in terms of focus and sound quality, but is only a so-so latin-inflected track. The real tour de force among the new stuff is ”Collage från Konserthuset” which is a complete ten minute monster, ending with variations on a theme by Bo Hansson. Those ten minutes would blow The Mothers Of Invention off the stage any given night from the same period. I promise that you've rarely heard Fläsket that dangerous, not even on the Pistolteatern album!

No links found

KAJ R. HANSSON – Till dom som bryr sig om (Metronome, 1980)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

There are quite a few illustrious characters featured on these pages, but few are as illustrious as Kaj Robert Hansson, known as Räven ('the fox') due to his hair colour. Often homeless sleeping in the parks of his native city Lund i Skåne, and a criminal since early age. He was a friend of Clark Olofsson, the infamous criminal 'superstar' of the Norrmalmstorg bank robbery which coined the phrase the Stockholm syndrome. Hansson was initially a suspect too, but soon freed from suspicions when he phoned the police and said something along the lines, ”I readin the papers that I've supposedly robbed a bank but that seems unlikely since I'm in Hawaii right now”. 

Besides his criminal career he had artistic ambitions, ambitions that were crowned by an LP release in 1980. It's impossible to imagine a well known crook getting a record deal – let alone with a major label like Metronome! – in those days when deplatforming for the flimsiest of reasons is the order the day. Those were other times, indeed. For better or for worse. The prison care was heavily debated and questioned in Sweden during the 70's, resulting in such albums as ”Kåklåtar” and Konvaljen's solo album. There was a strong opinion against the treatment of prisoners, which might explain why an album such as this wasn't considered as controversial as it would be today.

Metronome put a lot of effort into making Kaj R. Hansson's only album as good as possible. ”Till dom som bryr sig om” (' to those who cares') has a thorough list of studio musicians. Mats Ronander and Finn Sjöberg appear on guitars, and an entire lot of three drummers offer their services, Ola Brunkert, Rolf Alex and Per Lindholm, all respected studio workers. Hector Bingert in turn was a seasoned jazz saxophonist. And so on.

All songs were written by Hansson, all autobiographical in nature, delivered with his soft Southern nasal drawl. He's a pretty OK lyric writer, not nauseously self-pitying over his fate but rather matter-of-fact about his life gone wrong. The songs are pretty straightforward singer/songwriter rock, not hugely imaginative but sometimes quite catchy such as semi-Stonesy kick-off track ”Ta ett tag”. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch, but habile enough rock music from the dark side of society.

Full album playlist