VARIOUS ARTISTS – JAZZ- OCH ROCKSTIPENDIATER 1976 (Caprice, 1976)

 

Featured artists: Text & Musik / Krokus / Sonant Space
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, other languages
International relevance: **

These three bands were all awarded a Swedish Concert Institute grant that included a nationwide live tour, sessions for the Tonkraft live radio series; and an LP release split between the bands. The concert institute's own label Caprice Records were responsible for the album release.

Krokus were improvisation jazz, Sonant Space fusion, and Gothenburgers Text & Musik had rock leanings. Of the three grant holders, only Text & Musik went on to a recording career, including two albums for the Nacksving imprint. Krokus however had a trombone player that later became very famous in both the national and international fields of soul, pop, funk and jazz, namely Nils Landgren. Krokus appear with one long track that moves from spiritual jazz to 'organized free jazz' before ending in an almost folkish, lyrical fashion slightly reminiscent of Arbete & Fritid. Their portion is the best on the disc.

Sonant Space (later known as just Sonant) played a complex mix of prog rock and funk, and clearly ambitious, they were a bit too ambitious. Their two tracks are unnecessary complicated, and Sonant Space sounds like a young band (which they were) that really wants to prove something. Obviously technically skilled but like too many bands in that ilk, they go so hard at it the results become messy and unfocused. Some sections are just fine, but with so much nervously going on, their contributions sound more like exercises in high level mathematics than focused music. (A third track from the same Tonkraft session as these selections is available on Youtube.)

The three songs by Text & Musik are very different to each other. ”Ibo-Le-Le” is a Haitian voodoo song, ”Ljusen har slocknat i Shanghai” (co-written by Andreas Aarflot) is like a mini-play featuring spoken bits, fusion jazz and Latin infused cocktail jazz, while ”Det måste gå” features lyrics by poet Göran Sonnevi. They're not very smooth to sing. But while the lyrics are too unweildy for vocals, the track features some nice, fluent guitar work from Thomas Carlsson. All three tracks were recycled for the band's debut album "Jaguaren".

With two otherwise undocumented bands, ”Jazz- och rockstipendiater 1976” is all in all more interesting from an academic perspective than a musical one.

Sonant Space
Nogleckt (from bassist Tommy Riboe's website)
Tapto (from bassist Tommy Riboe's website) 

A SEVEN INCH SPECIAL, VOL. 1: 3 POLITICAL SINGLES

Three political various artists singles with a strong local flavor.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Historien går igen (Manifest, EP 1977)
Featured artists: Ted Ström / Thores Trio / Magnus Nilsson
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

A four-track EP released on Manifest – the premier label of Northern Sweden – to raise money for a feature length documentary on the fate of small town Karlsvik, directed by Kerstin Wixe and Ylva Mårtens. The subtitle for ”Historien går igen” is ”Stöd filmen om Karlsvik!” (=”support the Karlsvik movie!”). An early example of fundraising.

Karlsvik is a very small town, a village really, just outside of Luleå (home of the Manifest label), with a population of then only 280, and once dependent on the local ironworks before it was blown-up in the early 20th century which almost forced the village to shut down completely. The same thing was about to happen again in the late 70s (hence the title ”Historien går igen”, ”history repeats itself”) when the local grocery store was about to shut down. According to the EP's liner notes. a municipal commissioner says in the movie that they'd prefer if they just could let Karlsvik cease and desist altogether. This was actually not uncommon in Sweden during the 70s when many a rural area bled both financially and populationwise to the bigger cities in the South. Several artists, especially from the affected regions, dealt with it in their songs, most notably Bernt Staf and Ted Ström. Not surprisingly, Ted Ström contributes to the lead-off title track to this EP, an acoustic number also included on his ”Kärva lägen” album.

The remaining three tracks are shared between obscure band Thores Trio (who had one full album out in 1981), and Magnus Nilsson who gets two songs. Nilsson was actually a member of Gothenburgians Text & Musik, and although none of the tracks on this EP is any good, Nilsson's ”Den första butiken” is the best. The style of all four selections is rather typical political songs, and if I am to point out any certain value of this release, it would be exclusively historical.

If the movie and its accompanying EP had anything to do with it is beyond my knowledge, but the village of Karlsvik still exists; population 232 in 2020. 

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Norrbottenplattan 1 (Manifest, 1977)

Featured artists: Anton Swedbergs Swängjäng / Contraband / Thores Trio / Norrlåtar / Håkan Rudehäll
 Swedish vocals, other languages
International relevance: *

The second of the two volumes of ”Norrbottenplattan” is already on this blog. This first volume was released a year earlier than volume 2, in 1977. Featured on both releases are Anton Swedbergs Swängjäng, the nebulous musical collective who had different members on any given occasion. Their track here is one of their weakest – ”Playa Plannya” is several songs in one mixing show tunes with trad jazz, like a miniature cabaret.

Contraband is featured with a song named ”Euskefeurat” which soon also became the name of the band. As such they had a long career which earned their mix of folk sounds and comedy quite some popularity for reasons that will remain obscure with me.

Thores Trio is back again here with a track in the same sort of old timey folk vein and just as forgettable as the one on ”Historien går igen”.

Norrlåtar is the most credible band in this lot but their contribution is among their weakest tracks.

Håkan Rudehäll released at least one album on his own, and at one point contributed an essay on the lack of work in Northern Sweden to an anthology book published in 1973. His track on ”Norrbottenplattan” is a jolly ditty of which there are seemingly thousands in the field of political song. And none of them is worth hearing.

All in all, this is for local patriots only. Others should steer clear.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Livet i Kvarnbyn / Vi bygger landet (no label, 1982)

Featured artists: Pär Holmertz / Leif Moe / Maria Samuelsson / Mats Sköldberg / Stefan Sporsén 
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Quite possible one of the most obscure and secretive releases on the blog, this was a local release from Mölndal, a neighbouring town to Gothenburg. The two songs on the single was culled from a stage play about the labourers movement's development in the Mölndal region in the early 1900s. Info on this release is scarce to say the least; it's not even listed on Discogs and I don't recognize most of the names on the cover either, but it appears that Leif and Ole Moe (brothers, assumably) later had a couple of private releases out, and Pär Holmertz (guitar, bass, drums) could possibly be the Per Holmertz who later did some engineering work for bands in the Gothenburg area. Trumpeter Stefan Sporsén however has had a long career afterwards, playing with several of Sweden's best known artists in more recent times. Not that any of this really matters because it's nothing worth hunting down. ”Livet i Kvarnbyn” is an undistinguished track that reminds me of equally undistinguished Christian singer/songwriter rock from the same time (but without the Christian message). B side ”Vi bygger landet” sounds like any old laborers movement song, and without any proper songwriter's credit here it might very well be. The production is pretty good, especially for a release like this, so I assume somebody put a little cash into its realization.

from Historien går igen:
Ted Ström - Historien går igen
Thores Trio - Hit kom dom

from Norrbottenplattan 1:
Contraband - Euskefeurat
Anton Swedbergs Swängjäng - Playa Plannja
Thores Trio - Norrbottenssången
Norrlåtar - Lakkolaulu Pajalasta

Livet i Kvarnbyn:
No links found.

TEXT & MUSIK – Jaguaren (Nacksving, 1976) / Stäng inte dörren... (Nacksving, 1977)

Swedish vocals, other languages

International relevance: ** / **

Gothenburgers Text & Musik was a late period progg band who released two albums on Nacksving. They suffer from the lifelessness typical to Nacksving releases, with a dry and uninspired production even if the music itself is often varied with some interesting characteristics. ”Jaguaren” has some folk, jazz (i.e. fusion) and cabaret influences. The instrumental passages are the best simply because the vocals are unengaging with a political pathos.

Second album ”Stäng inte dörren...” saw some personnel changes within the band. Hannes Råstam (1955-2012, today best known as an investigative journalist but back then bass player for several acts including Blåkulla) joined the band. Although a better instrumentalist than Lars Magnus Larsson on the first album (who switched to guitar and trumpet for this album), and despite utlizing an even wider palette of musical influences, it didn't make the band much better. ”Höstleverne” is a vital Latin jazz inspired track, but the rest of ”Stäng inte dörren...” is one sleeping pill of an album.

Text & Musik also appeared on the various artists live album ”Jazz- och rockstipendiater 1976” released on Caprice.

Jaguaren full album playlist

Stäng inte dörren full album playlist