Swedish vocals, spoken word, instrumental
International relevance: **
Merit Hemmingson made a great splash in the 70s with her groove heavy Hammond organ interpretations of Swedish folk tunes, and her popularity has grown in later years after being largely neglected inbetween. Her career started out already in the 60s with a couple of pop soul jazz albums, but it's her first two folk inspired albums ”Huvva!” and ”Trollskog” (1971-1972) that garner most interest. ”Det for två vita duvor...” from 1973 is a bit of an oddity in her discography, being recorded with Beppe Wolgers. Wolgers is very well known to a certain age group of Swedes, having made absurdist television series in the 60s before breaking through to a younger audience with a couple of highly beloved children's shows in the 70s, now considered almost canonical.
Wolgers was a multifaceted character; a writer and a poet, a TV personality, a humorist... He's known for his softspoken voice and warm personality, but he was also a troubled thinker with a melancholy side. Those two sides of his soul came through on ”Det for två vita duvor...” where he recites poems to Hemmingson's musical backdrop. Not only Hemmingson's actually, because the temporary constellation Folkliga consists of four Splash members plus folk fiddlers Kalle Almlöf and Roland Keijser/Arbete & Fritid collaborator Anders Rosén. Also Staffan Sjöholm from Keijser's early jazz quartet.
Being recorded in the Viken chapel in Merit Hemmingson's home county of Jämtland, the sound is heavy on mystical atmosphere which fits like a glove with the acoustic instrumentation. However, it takes a certain listener to appreciate the spoken word portions. That especially goes for foreign listeners as the words are in Swedish. The poetry readings may seem distracting to those not familiar with the language. Then again, some tracks have no readings, and are either instrumental or have vocals by Hemmingson herself (and she has a really beautiful voice, all too seldom heard). Few of the tracks are that easy to remember afterwards; they work together as a mood piece, like aural incense. As a whole, this double album is definitely overlong but in smaller doses, it creates an archaic mood that is quite captivating.
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