HANSSON & KARLSSON WITH BENGAN DAHLÉN – Crescendo 1968 Volume 1 & Volume 2 (Mellotronen, 2023; rec. 1968)

 

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

It's surprising that Hansson & Karlsson archival releases amount to only two, ”For People In Love” released in 2010, and this live recording spread across two limited edition vinyl volumes. There must be piles of unreleased Hansson & Karlsson tapes collecting dust somewhere, and since they were known to be a dazzling live act, it would be great having more documents like this officially released. (One thing's for sure: as long as Jimi Hendrix's estate refuses a release of his mythical Club Filips live jam with the Swedes being, most of us will only ever hear the chopped up lo-fi snippets that circulate.) So having access to a release such as this is much appreciated.

To put it short: This is the best representation of Hansson & Karlsson available, and that includes their original albums. Especially since this sees the duo expanded with soon-to-be Fläsket Brinner guitarist Bengan Dahlén on violin! Some have compared this unusual line-up to Zappa's ”Hot Rats” with Sugarcane Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty, but that's lackadaisical. There's no Zappa here to keep a tight rein on the musicians. What we have here is three musicians working as a collective mind, with all them being leaders improvising either entirely freely or wihin the framework of a song such as ”Tax Free”, ”Triplets” or ”Richard Lionheart”. Some tracks stretch out to 10, 13, 17 minutes but almost never feel overlong. All three players are on fire and Dahlén really brings a lot to the table with his violin. In him they get another person to bounce ideas off allowing the music to find new paths. He doesn't feel at all like an extra but a completely natural musical ingredient in a tight unit always ready to work up an improvisational frenzy. 

The stereo recording is surprisingly good with a rich and warm reel-to-reel sound that retains enough nuances to warrant a pleasurable listening session. Unearthing these tapes and presenting them to the public is an act of love and care, and it's shame only they're a limited edition release. This is the kind of stuff that should be kept available forever in a proper, physical format and I say that even though I'm not a die-hard Hansson & Karlsson fan. I am, however, a massive fan of Hansson, Karlsson & Dahlén.

Crescendo 1968 Volume 1 full album playlist
Crescendo 1968 Volume 2 full album playlist