KENTA – Complete albums 1979-1981

You don't have to be a coldblooded cynic to say that hadn't it been for ”They Call Us Misfits” and ”A Respectable Life”, Edgar Froese lookalike Kenta would never have gotten a recording career.

Kenneth ”Kenta” Gustafsson was born in Stockholm in 1948 to a rough upbringing. Both his parents were alcoholics and Kenta was left to take care of himself. When the Swedish mod scene grew in the mid/late 60s, Kenta was drawn into it. Swedish mods had very little in common with UK mods, with a completely different dressing style and dissimilar values. Most people only knew about the mod subculture from the newspaper headlines of 1965 when mods and raggare (another youth subculture, centered around American cars and music from the 50s) clashed in the city centre of Stockholm. The tumult came to be known as the Hötorget riots after the location where the it happened. Stefan Jarl's 1968 semi-documentary ”They Call Us Misfits”, original title ”Dom kallar oss mods”, portrays the drink and drug-fuelled mod lifestyle with greater compassion and depth, and brought buddies Kenta and Gustav ”Stoffe” Svensson to the public eye. The movie had a follow-up in 1978 with ”Ett anständigt liv” (English title ”A Respectable Life”), a much darker and grittier work than its predecessor. Ulf Dageby's relentlessly bleak soundtrack reflects the the movie with scary accurance, and marks the vocal debut of Kenta who sings on four of the tracks.

Kenta (Metronome, 1979)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: *

Kenta's co-writing partner Aapo Sääsk brought Kenta to ABBA manager and Polar Records owner Stikkan Andersson's attention, but when Andersson got cold feed, Kenta ended up with Anders Burman's Metronome. A much better choice to begin with considering Burman's penchant for odd voices and self-styled songwriters. Production work was delegated to Finn Sjöberg (Kvartetten Som Sprängde) who also plays guitar on a few tracks. As do Kenny Håkansson among several other weathered studio musicians. The instrumental backing is much more lavish and polished than Kenta himself. He sings with great conviction in a slight post-Ulf Lundell fashion, but his barky, gruff voice is certainly an acquired taste. But it serves the lyrical purpose; the words are monochromatic snapshots from life's other side and it's impossible imagining a better singer deliver them with equal confidence. The album may be a minor Swedish classic but truth is it really isn't very good. It's more of a statement entirely dependent on Kenta's persona.

In a strange turn of events, Kenta found himself competing in the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest in 1980. His contribution ”Utan att fråga” ended up as #6 – imagine that happening now! – but what many people were far more concerned with was the T-shirt Kenta wore. Depicting a couple in the sex position popularly known as 69 with the words ”try it you'll like it” had the moral majority choking in front of their TV sets. Despite, or most likely thanks to that, ”Utan att fråga” reached number 2 in the singles charts and was added to later editions of ”Kenta”.

Kan det va' fel på systemet? (Metronome, 1980)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

”Kenta” could very well have ended up as a one-off novelty thing, but after his ESC success, he returned with another LP. ”Kan det va' fel på systemet?” (=”could it be that the system's wrong?”) is basically more from the same stock, only a wee bit heavier with a somewhat tighter sound. Again produced by Finn Sjöberg but no Kenny Håkansson this time. More uneven than the debut but with a few better songs including ”Vi behöver hjälp”, a rather heavy track unfortunately spoiled by the vocals. Also featured is ”Bajen”, Kenta's tribute song to his favourite football team Hammarby IF.

August & Kenta (Metronome, 1981)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Third time around and Kenta makes an unexpected move setting music to poems by Sweden's major author August Strindberg. It's also a step away from the large number of studio musicians to a smaller ensemble consisting of for instance Nynningen cohorts Nikke Ström and Bernt Andersson, with electric guitar provided by Ulf Dageby who also stepped in as an arranger. With Stefan Jarl in the rare position of record producer, this is almost a throwback to the ”Ett anständigt liv” soundtrack. ”Esplanadsystemet” even sounds like an outtake from it (which it isn't). At any rate, ”August & Kenta” is probably the Kenta's most focused album. The smaller line-up proves beneficial to the songs, and Kenta the singer sounds more relaxed here than on any of his previous albums. Still not great, but it showed that Kenta had more to give than just his personality.

But as fate had it, this was to be his last album. He appeared in the third installment in Stefan Jarl's Misfits series in 1993, and he popped out as for guest vocals on an album by commercial keyed fiddle player Åsa Jinder in 2002. He provided one track to a V/A tribute album to Hammarby football club in 2001. Kenta Gustafsson died from cancer two years later at the age of 54. Two posthumous albums of previously unreleased songs and demos appeared in 2022/23 in strictly limited vinyl editions.

Kenta full album playlist including "Utan att fråga"
Kan det va' fel på systemet full album playlist
August & Kenta full album playlist