DUNDER – Dunder (Mercury, 1978)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

Today, five-piece Dunder is a little known outfit. Originally called Dunder Å Snus when they started out in 1976, they hailed from the small industrial community of Hallstahammar with a population of no more than 10,000. Although they might not be well known today, their sole album was well recieved by critics and the audience upon its release in 1978. Wrote Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's leading daily paper: ”A tight, massive and intense kind of rock music pours out of this band”, and another magazine called ”Dunder” a ”thundering debut album”, alluding to the group's name which means ”Thunder” in English. ”The album actually puts Dunder in the frontline of Swedish rock,” the writer continues. And true is they're heavier than many a band in Sweden at the time. The native tongue lyrics are only vaguely political, which had leading progg mag Musikens Makt asking how Dunder had the nerve to dub their music progressive. It probably didn't help the band getting the orthodox progg movement grace that the album was released through major label Mercury Records. Also, the music is more straightforward than their peers', which had the band facing troubles getting gigs. ”There are almost no places for a progressive band like us, without a political message,” the band complained to an interviewer. Still, they managed to in neighbouring cities, and also scored a tour up north in Sweden. They also proved very successful in European radio show competition ”Europatoppen”, in which they got more votes than the well established and beloved Pugh Rogefeldt.

All material on the album is original, eleven well crafted tracks with prominent guitars and a tight, driving sound. Good vocals too, courtesy of Franco Mavica. ”Dunder” is a consistent effort, relying on the heaviness and thankfully keeping the ballads to a minimum. Closing track ”Medan tiden flyr” is an exception, laced with a string arrangement and a pseudo baroque melody line that I suspect would have fitted noted Swedish singer Tommy Körberg just nicely. ”Varje låt har sin egen tid” on the other hand sees the band at its most hard rocking, while ”Ge mig liv” adds a tasteful dash of gospel in the vocal harmonies. ”Dunder” is a group effort; no member gets a single songwriter's acknowledgement as all tracks are credited to the band collectively.

I haven't been able to confirm any live recordings by the band which is a pity since the album's style suggests they must have been a blazing stage act. They did however plan for a second album, but before those plans materialized, Dunder's break-up was announced by a local paper in June 1979. A single with English versions of album tracks "Strul" and "Stormvarning", retitled "Struggle" and "Dreams" respectively was about to be released but never got beyond the test pressing stage. They did a (one-off?) reunion in 1982 when they performed a local show, gracing the setlist with old Dunder chestnuts along with a couple of new songs. Unfortunately, these were never commited to vinyl.

Curiously enough, Dunder was offered the song "Skateboard", a translated version of The Carvells' "L.A. Run", but rejected it why it was given to disco pop band Magnum Bonum instead. Magnum Bonum scored a huge hit with the track, thereby annoying every Swede with a functioning brain in 1978.

Drummer Carl Moser later joined heavy metal band Pegasus which later evolved into Lynx, as such releasing a full length album in 1985 along with a self-released 45 and a bunch of tracks on a various artists compilation.

Full album playlist

MIKLAGÅRD – Miklagård (Edge, 1979)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***  

Miklagård (the old Norse name for Istanbul) were an obscure Gotland based symphonic trio without a guitar player. It's tempting to call them keyboard led, but due to an oddly diffuse production, no instrument seems to take the place up front. Not even the vocals, but regardless of the vague production, they are surprisingly weak for a symphonic album anyway. The line-up is fleshed out by some violin and trumpet, but they too fail to make the music distinct enough.

As suggested by the album cover, Miklagård moves in the territory mapped out by the likes of Genesis, Le Orme, perhaps even Klaatu. Then, throw in a bit of Kaipa and a tad Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Thankfully, Miklagård steer clear of the most annoying quasi-classical moves, focusing on mellow songs and not very complex arrangements. This is symphonic prog at its simplest, for both good and bad. The longest track is ”Soldaten”, almost reaching the 13 minute mark, but that is just more of the same albeit over a longer time.

Truth is, they weren't a very skilled or talented band, and the music seems to lack ambition. The lyrics are often silly, something that will hardly bother any foreign listener as all songs are sung in Swedish.

Sweden had several gifted symphonic bands in the 70's, but Miklagård weren't one of them. As there seem to be no other albums released on the Edge label, I assume that Miklagård's sole album, recorded during three months in 1979, was a private release. It's said to have had an original run of 1500 copies, but it's still fairly easy to find pretty cheap. There is also a Japanese CD reissue from a few years back on the Tachika label.

Full album

ERIK ASCHAN – Så länge ni vägrar att lyssna (E. Aschan, 1979)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: **

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone any more egomaniacal than Erik Aschan (pronunced Askhan). I doubt any other artist has ever managed to mention his own name as many times on an album than Aschan. But then again, Erik Aschan is no ordinary guy. He's a true outsider.

Child of a Dutch father and a mother working as a teacher and an actor, Erik Aschan (later Zürcher) was born in Stockholm in 1953. He moved to Västerås (the town made forever famous for being Pugh Rogefeldt's hometown) at an early age. He spent a great deal of his youth in foster care, socialized with biker gangs, before eventually attending art school in Västerås. After a stint in Lund in the south of Sweden, he ends up in Linköping. In the early 70's he started writing his own songs, and after being turned down by several record companies, he put out his debut album by himself in 1973.

His music has always had a strange, offbeat feel, portraying Aschan as someone who never quite fits in with society, always slightly incapable in terms of relations with other people. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but there's something eerie about a lot of his songs, something so alienated that you can't help but feel uneasy listening to them. Actually, I've never been able to quite get my head around the Aschan character. Sometimes it's hard to take him seriously, but as he sings: ”You might think I'm ridiculous, but I'm dead serious, I mean every word I say”. 

His first two albums are four years apart, whereas ”Så länge ni vägrar att lyssna”, his third, appeared two years after his second, in 1979. The lyrics, all sung in Swedish, range from the pathetic and downright untalented to the poetically sensitive. The arrangements are sparse with Aschan's acoustic guitar at the core, laced with a soft electric bass and the occasional fragile electric guitar. 

Aschan is certainly progg in feel and execution (maening, it's more important to express yourself than to do it perfect), yet he's so far removed from anything typical to progg. He's far removed from just about everything. He's a rare bird, seemingly completely unaware of what's actually ”appropriate” to sing about. Or how to write a lyric. I doubt there's ever been anyone coming up with a song title like ”Du går fram som en slåttermaskin” - ”You go on like a mower”. Erik Aschan simply doesn't look upon the world as most others do. A lost soul in a cold world.

Of his original albums, ”Så länge ni vägrar lyssna” is the best. It was originally released in 300 copies, but had a second pressing of a further 5-600 copies, making it his best distributed album. You can occassionally find it in thrift stories and second hand shops, but as interest in outsider music and Swedish progg continue to grow, it's getting harder and harder to come by. However, some songs from ”Så länge ni vägrar lyssna” (along with selections from his other albums) are available for download from Aschan's website. Unfortunately, the best track off the album isn't there, the decidedly creepy and Bobb Trimble-like "Det liv du stal ifrån mig (Black Mother)".

"Sedan länge"
"Jag har en vän"

KULTIVATOR – Barndomens stigar (Bauta, 1981)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

Often lumped in with the Zeuhl bands, I still think Kultivator has a lot more to do with the British art rock style somewhere in-between King Crimson, Henry Cow and even Soft Machine, than with Magma or later generation Zeuhl act Kōenji Hyakkei. Kultivator's sole album ”Barndomens stigar” stands up well to any international comparisons, with tight and intelligent compositions, excellently executed with the nothing short of amazing Johan Svärd on drums and bass player Stefan Carlsson. Kultivator had a connection with the legendary Ur Kaos as keyboard player Johan Hedrén were in both bands for a while. Together they formed the core of the highly active art rock scene in Linköping, a city otherwise best known for its university and the vanguard hospital. With Lars ”Lach'n” Jonsson, highly talented musician and owner of the Bauta Records label, the scene had an obvious centre. Bauta Records is still active, providing the world with top notch Swedish progressive rock with a striking arty edge.

Recorded in 1980 but not released until the following year, ”Barndomens stigar” kicks off with the energetic ”Höga hästar”, one of the album's definite highlights, with Svärd going wild on the drums. Energy is like a code word for the album; even the title track which relies on a somewhat subdued folksy or baroque sounding themes has an inherent force that is anything but relaxing.

As mentioned above, Kultivator's compositional skills are proven again and again throughout the album. Some prog (and for that matter, progg) bands just don't seem to understand the cause-and-effect function of musical segments, haphazardly jumbling up a bunch of themes and time signatures, but Kultivator has a firm notion of structure.

The album has been released on CD twice. The first time around, two tracks were added to the original running order. ”Häxdans” connects well with the title track taking good use of baroque influences. ”Tunnelbanan” is a medley recorded live in their native Linköping two years prior to the release of the original album. Although not as focused as the remainder of the album, the track nevertheless shows they were on to something already in the 70's.

Some years ago, Mellotronen released a further enhanced version of the album, including not only a live version of album track ”Novarest”, but a bonus EP entitled ”Waiting Paths”, comprising four songs recorded by the re-united band in 2006. 

Johan Hedrén has been involved in several Bauta releases, and has also released a tranquil ambient styled solo album entitled ”Kretslopp” which also featured a set of paintings by Linköping born and bred artist Ola Freijd. Ingemo Rylander appears on J. Lachen's solo release ”Music for the Dying Forest”.

Full album playlist including bonus tracks

SPILLD MJÖLK – Svart mjölk (Spilld Mjölk, 1975)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

Spilld Mjölk is a curiousity that is completely unknown to most but in high demand among collectors. Privately released in 1975 on the band's own label, it is indeed amateurish but in a good sense. Their acoustic blend of psychedelia and folk-tinged music is oddly attracting, and might appeal to fans of UK folk rockers Stone Angel and Danish avant folkies Furekaaben. Lyrics are in Swedish and have a slight left wing touch. However, it isn't necessary to grasp the lyrics to enjoy the album as the strange mood of the music is the most striking thing about ”Svart mjölk”. The underground sound has a spooky vibe that gets to you on a deeper level.

The band members were pupils of Kalix Folkhögskola where the album was primitively recorded during a week in May 1975, but was founded in Luleå, a city in the Northern part of Sweden, by multi-instrumentalists Tommy Skotte and Erik Ahlstrand. Actually, almost all of the seven members play several instruments, such as flute, violin, cello, sitar and saxophone apart from the obvious guitars and percussion. None of them is a flashy player however; their strength is the collective sound fuelled by twisted improvisations and a dronelike flow, particularly prominent in the sitar driven track ”Till döden skiljer oss åt” (which, by the way, is not a cover of ”Norweigan Wood” as has been claimed). But ”Svart mjölk” is a state of mind perfectly illustrated by the evocative album cover, as much as a collection of distinct songs. Therefore, it's hard to pick any particular song as a favourite; the album works best as a whole. Once you get into it, it stays with you.

On the strength of the otherwordly mood and the fact that it was privately released in an tiny edition of 250 copies (distributed by Ahlstrand himself), ”Svart mjölk” has become a much sought after item, especially since a part of the edition was destroyed in a basement flooding. If you ever come across a copy of it, expect it to dig deep holes in your wallet.

Violinist and singer Lars Frykholm was also a member of the huge Luleå based rock band Anton Swedbergs Swängjäng (all in all they had 37 members!). Tommy Skotte later became the main man of Skottes Musikorkester who released two 45's in the late 70's. Spilld Mjölk however is their most original effort, and although a spiritual kinship with a few other international bands, ”Spilld mjölk” is very much an entity of its own. Anyone into 70's fringe folk should consider it a must-have, why a long overdue reissue is severely needed.

Full album

CEMENT – Utmaningen (private release, 1977)

International relevance: ***

Swedish vocals

Ranked #6 on the blog's Top 25 list

The major part of this review was written before the album was reissued to great acclaim. Although some of it turned dated following the re-release, I've decided to keep it the way it was originally written as it sheds some light on the discovery of the album, adding information on the reissue to the end.

 

Everybody loves a good mystery, and mysteries rarely come any better, or more frustrating for that matter, than this.

For me, it all started that day when I was browsing Youtube for Swedish progg rarities. Most of the time, it's the well known stuff that gets repeated outings. People who remember their youth in the 70's share their favourite symph rock och leftwing rememberances from their youth, with sound pictures to boot. It's all very nice, and every once in a while you can add some tidbits of information from folks who experienced it first hand. But it's rare that something entirely unknown surfaces among the numerous Youtube channels. That day, when I was digging through crates of wellknown material, it suddenly happened.

Someone had uploaded a whole album's worth of material by a band called Slite Cement (pronunced slee-teh), The most amazing thing was that not only one or two tracks by this mysterious outfit were good. They were all mindblowlingly fantastic! One track after the other revealed a band that was better than November or Life, or any of your favourite heavy Swedish 70's band you care to mention. How on earth could a band such as this has remained completely unknown almost four decades? I immediately went on a research path.

Only to throw myself into a labyrinth of dead ends.

I began thinking that maybe this was a hoax. The vocals were great. The guitars soared like monsters. The sound quality was top-notch. Everything was in its perfect place. Could this be recent day put-on by some jokers with a need to fabrciate a myth and a ”rarity”?

The name of one of the band members was T. Harlevi. With Harlevi being a less than common name in Sweden, I began googling for the guy, without knowing his first name. I figured Slite Cement came from Gotland, Sweden's biggest island, since Slite is a small city on Gotland. Tracks lead to Visby, the main city of Gotland, and one Thomas Harlevi, now drummer in a band called Lampljussymfonikerna. Could it be I was on my way debunking the mystery) I got hold of an email adress to one of the other members in Lampljussymfonikerna. I wrote him, and waited for a reply. And waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing happened. Obviously, it was just another dead end.

 

 

 I kept googling, and in the mean time, I played Slite Cement to various people. All of them were surprised by the amazing quality of the music. Some of them are progg diehards themselves, but none of them had heard the name of the group, let alone the group itself.

Months go by, and all of a sudden, a short rather recent article comes my way, published in a local paper. I learnt that Slite Cement was quite popular locally, and that they had briefly reformed at one time. Could this be a breakthrough? I did another hunt for members on Facebook. I emailed one Anders Åström, but it seems that my message went unread. Given the information I found regarding Lampskensorkstern, Thomas Harlevi was ill, so I didn't want to bother him with his past, not knowing how he was doing.

I tried another Facebook-search for ”Slite Cement”, and since my last hunt for the truth, a Facebook group had been established, dedicated to the band; ”Cement (Slite)”! Despite the slightly anomalous

name for this Facebook group, it was obvious I had finally come to the right place. The group is administrated by Robin Johansson, the grandson of Cement member Björn Johansson, who sadly passed on years ago.

However, Robin couldn't help me with more specific details, but I learnt that ”Utmaningen” was recorded at local radio station Radio Gotland. Robin encouraged me to in fact email Thomas Harlevi, and I had a brief reply from him, telling me that he and bassist Stig Hjellström were the ones who released the recordings as a cassette tape. Then, our contact abruptly ended. According to an article published in the late 70's, also posted in the Facebook group, the original plan actually was releasing ”Utmaningen” on vinyl. Much later, they made CD-R copies of the recordings (possibly only to friends). No traces of a proper vinyl release, though. I haven't been able to confirm how many copies were made of the original release, but given that Slite Cement was a local act, not too many may have been made. Perhaps Hjellström and Harlevi made all the copies at home?

The Facebook page isn't that rich with information on the band, but reading an old paper clipping published in the Facebook group, the band came to life in 1973. The same article mentions 1977, the date of the recordings, as the band's high point, but they also say that the tracks recorded are ”tight, but rather uneven”. (I couldn't disagree more!) Members mentioned are Thomas Harlevi, drums; Stig Hjellström, bas; Tomas Jönsson, congas, and Björn Jansson vocals and guitar. The articles also says that Jansson could have used some better vocal technique, and they also slag him for writing lyrics that are too universal. Furthermore, the article do acknowledge Jansson's guitar playing, but adds that his solos are too long. Anyone who listens to the album can prove the writer wrong on all accounts.

Instrumentally, ”Utmaningen” is a tour de force, every bit as excellent as any of the better known heavy rock album from the Swedish 70's. Jansson is, at that, a better singer than many of his peers, with a powerful yet not overwrought delivery. As far as the songs go, there's not one single weak track in this collection. Had ”Utmaningen” been released as an LP in 1977, it would have fetched four digit sums today, counting in euros and dollars. This album is a true masterpiece!

In September 2017, German label Shadoks graced "Utmaningen" with its first ever vinyl edition (400 copies). The reissue comes in a heavy duty sleeve with new cover art shown below, and is pressed in thick vinyl. The reissue is very well done, and most important true to the sound of the original 1977 recording. It also comes with an insert with pics of the band and mewly written liner notes by Tobias Petterson, author of progg bible "The Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music". Petterson sheds some biographical light on the band, tracing their origins back to 1973 when the fledgling band (with a different line-up) rehearsed in an abandoned girls' school in Visby, ”capital” of the Gotland island. It wasn't until 1975 that the band took it a higher level of seriousity, with singer and lead guitarist Björn Jonsson began showing his extraordinary songwriting skills, coming up with songs that easily outdid the cover songs they started out with. They played several gigs locally, including one in support of Samla Mammas Manna. ”Utmaningen” was recorded and mixed over a weekend, with tapes of the sessions sent to mainland record companies. Failing to secure a proper label deal, the band issued the MC themselves in an edition of 100 copies. The self-produced tape was sold in grocery stores and gas stations, and cost 600 SEK to make, a hefty sum back in the day. While the recordings were made in 1977, the cassette wasn't released until 1980. When creative force Jonsson decided to leave, Cement disbanded soon after.

Special thanks to drummer Thomas Harlevi for providing photos of the original tape!

Full album playlist

MIKAEL RAMEL – Till dej (Sonet, 1972)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***

 
Ranked #5 on the blog's Top 25 list

Any creator with a famous parent or two must have known it at some point in his or her career: the pressure of history heavy on the shoulders. Ask the Lennon kids, Jakob Dylan, or the entire clan of Wainwright siblings.

Mikael Ramel felt it too, being the son of Povel Ramel, the genius of words and music and a Swedish national treasure. Just about everyone in Sweden knows who Povel Ramel is. Most Swedes can hum a Povel tune. Povel entertained listeners, viewers and readers for an astonishing 70 years!

Mikael himself made his vinyl debut as a 16 year old in 1965, releasing a seven inch together with his dad, the elusive ”En ren familjeprodukt”. The following year, the equally rare ”Förvånansvärt” EP appeared. Around this time, Mikael became a member of Steampacket, an outfit that released a handful of singles, including the evocative ”Bara ett par dar” and the freakbeat classic ”Take Her Anytime”, as Steampacket II. Steampacket faced a bit of a hassle in the UK, as there was another band with the very same name active in Great Britain. A band that included, among others, a young Rod Stewart, why our beloved Swedes had to change their name to The Longboatmen before eventually settling for Steampacket II.

It wasn't until 1972 that Mikael Ramel burst loose as a solo performer. ”Till dej” was his first album bearing his own name in large latters on the cover. An album which is a major achievement in every way. He finally demonstrated what a genius he was in his own right, after being a talented team worker for years. ”I never thought about it”, says Mikael when I ask him about the transition from a group member to a solo artist. ”It probably felt just natural, since Steampacket broke up,” he speculates.

”Till dej” is everything that retro-proggers Dungen tries to be. It's full of melodic twists, inventive arrangements, jammy portions and, most strikingly, lyrics pondering on man's place in society and in the world. That's not to say Mikael was, or is, a political writer in the same sense that many of his peers were. On the contrary, he's an unpolitical spectator of the world around him, reflecting on nature, drugs, the modern society and relations between people, often in a playful way. For instance, there are few songs with an anti-drug stance as rocking and captivating as ”Artificiell Prana”. On recording the album, Mikael says that ”I remember the sessions to be full of curiousity, endless joy of playing and joy in general, plus persistence and purpose.” As for the burgeoning progg movement, he says ”I didn't care. It's time that made the phenomenon.”

With a keen sense of words and word play, it was obvious that parallells were to be drawn between Mikael and his dad. ”Yes, the older generation in particular – perhaps not that surprising... Sometimes, it was bothering. 'The man himself' really liked my solo debut. That, of course, was a kick.”

I can't help but wonder if Mikael was pushed in a certain direction when he was a kid; if he and his siblings felt any pressure to develop a strain of language similar to his father. ”Not at all!” he states. ”We were fashioned by our environment just like anybody else. Language was something obvious and natural to us. Nothing strange.”

Unfortunately, with the lyrics being in Swedish, foreign listeners miss out on many of ”Till dej's” excellent shadings. True, the songs, the playing and the production are top notch so there's still a whole lot to enjoy, but it's a pity that the linguistical shine is lost on listeners not familiar with the Swedish language. However, the CD reissues of ”Till dej” and subsequent albums feature some translated versions of a couple of Mikael's best early solo songs. There were plans to launch Mikael Ramel on the international market, but those plans eventually fell through. Even if these translations might be useful to foreign fans, truth is that they lose some of Ramel's natural flow and excellence in Swedish. They simply sound better in his native language.

”Till dej” was in the making for a year and a half, an amount of time which, back in the day, were close to an eternity. The seeds of the album were sown in the late 60's, and – according to Mikael Ramel's website – a little time behind bars got in the way of the album's completion. So what seems like a big gap between the last Steampacket II single in 1968, and ”Till dej” in 1972 isn't that huge after all when you think about it.

The line-up features some prominent players, such as Bengan Dahlén, Eric Dahbäck and Per Bruun from Fläsket Brinner, as well as Mats Glenngård and Bella Linnarsson of Kebnekajse fame. Not to mention Turid Lindquist, Bobo Stenson and Slim Notini. A solid bunch, perfectly suited to match the songs themselves. Just about every track on the album is a winner. The songs are so thoroughly written, so meticulously executed, that it's no wonder that the album still is as fresh as a vernal breeze. This is music that simply can't grow old, or ever lose its grace. The efforts put into ”Till dej” still pay off. ”I know,” Mikael assures, ”that younger generations assimilate the product as a 'holy' thing. That is, to understand 'future' you need to look into the 'past', and 'Till dej' is part of that, as an example of 'teaching'. It's certainly a kick to me to know that my music has staying power. I sometimes listen to 'Till dej', to compare it to what others say and think about it... I know in my very nails exactly how the record was made. What an effort it was. And how long it took to make it!”

If you can ignore the fact that the lyrics are part of the excellence, then this album is, just like the title translates, for you. When all is said and done, it will remain one of the finest Swedish efforts of the 70's. One of the finest Swedish efforts in general, actually.

Many kind thanks to Mikael Ramel for taking my time to reply to my questions!

Full album playlist including bonus tracks