SKÄGGMANSLAGET – Kniviga låtar tillägnade länsman i Delsbo (Sonet, 1973)

 
Instrumental
International relevance: **

It's hard for a progg fan not cross paths with Skäggmanslaget as they were one of the most popular traditional folk outfits in the 70s whose popularity was only elevated by their collaboration with Contact on most notably ”Hon kom över mon” which remains a celebrated progg chestnut to this very day. Contact, of course, also appeared on Skäggmanslaget's debut album ”Pjål, gnäll och ämmel” to great effect on the track ”Gråtlåten”.

”Kniviga låtar tillägnade länsman i Delsbo” is their third album and it's a straight-up folk effort with no rock music involved. Unless you count their fiery playing that is that was rock'n'roll enough compared to many other traditional fiddle constellations of the time. The album consists of fifteen tracks from their native Hälsingland, an area in the southern part of Northern Sweden known for its rich musical history. Skäggmanslaget is smack dab in the middle of tradition, and born and raised straight into it, they are as credible as they are engaging. The liner notes declare ”it sounds genuine, and fun it is, and rocks it does”, and that description is as good anything I could come up with to describe the album. Having an interest in Swedish folk fiddling of course helps, but the Skäggmanlaget's contagious enthusiasm should be obvious to anyone. This is one pretty great album in its field.

Full album playlist

ELD & LÅGOR – Mot ljuset (A-Disc, 1978)

 
Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Few A-Disc releases are worthwhile, but this has got to be one of the worst, if not the worst, with the typical to A-Disc political lyrics, presented in a way that sounds like any Christian group which never got beyond their own local church fanbase of three. The metronomical backing is so stiff that no-one could possibly find ”Mot ljuset” stirring in the slightest bit. The 'sing it everybody' ethos is irritating from the first track, a cover of Swedish visa singer Thorstein Bergman's ”Alla tillsammans” which, as it happens, means ”everybody together”, to the last one ”Du stora värld”, a completely passionless take on ”Amazing Grace”. In-between you get an endless string of equally dead Swedish takes on ”La Marseillaise”, Malvina Reynold's ”Little Boxes” and a couple of songs made famous by Joe Hill. And of course, the regular slew of labourers' anthems.

I don't expect any high-grade masterpieces to appear out of nowhere thus late in this blog's history, but a part of me hoped that the worst musical mishaps were out of the way just the same. Not so, as proven by this twelve inch slab of pure Valium.

Comes with a lyric inner sleeve if you want to sing along but I know you don't.

Alla tillsammans
Arbetes söner
Internationalen

A PROGG BLOG SPECIAL: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA KOKA FEM ÄGG JAG ÄR VÄRD I HUSET

 

Earlier this year, one of the most intriguing progg albums was graced with a much needed re-release:Anna Koka Fem Ägg Jag Är Värd I Huset's lone album, originally issued in 300 copies on their private label Flärrp-Skivor in 1975. (It was briefly available as a CD-r from the band, but that one had no wider distribution, and can hardly be considered a true reissue.) It's a most original work, vaguely reminiscent of Philemon Arthur & The Dung but darker in tone. The lyrics help setting the mood, being oddly twisted as if coming from a mirror reality where everything is familiar yet strangely skewed. Unfortunately for foreign listeners, they're in Swedish so that one dimension is lost on non-Swedes, but the general atmosphere is still so off-beat it's guaranteed to sneak into the mind of anyone not familiar with the Swedish language. Even the band name is one of the strangest in history, translating into ”Anna boil five eggs, I'm the host of the house”. At first it makes no sense to an outsider, but once you've heard their album, it somehow makes perfect sense in all its thought-provoking absurdity.

The reissue and the live performance that followed it brought national attention to the band when brothers and Anna Koka Fem Ägg core members Mats and Rolf Svensson were left alone on the stage to perform Philemon Arthur chestnut ”Om ni tycker jagundviker er”. Both Anna Koka Fem Ägg and Philemon Arthur hail from roughly the same region, in Skåne in the deep south of Sweden. The Svensson brothers indeed sounded like what an aged version of Philemon Arthur might sound like, which provoked speculations in national media: Are they really the original Philemon Arthur & The Dung? The Svensson brothers refuse to comment on the subject, and quite honestly, I couldn't care less. I'm intrigued by the Philemon mystery, and with too few mysteries in the world to tickle our imaginations, I'm more than happy to see Philemon Arthur & The Dung's true identity remain a secret for all times to come. Also, the brilliance of Anna Koka Fem Ägg is great enough to have them stand on their own. True originality and genuine brilliance need no excuses or references.

After decades in obscurity to all but the most seasones collectors, Anna Koka Fem Ägg Jag Är Värd I Huset have taken one step further into the limelight, which is a great opportunity to approach Rolf Svensson with a a little set of questions. With longtime progg and progg blog fan Lars Holmquist supplying some further questions, this interview was conducted over Facebook in May 2022.

How did the band come about?
At first we were only two people. Then from 1973 and on, several others teamed up with us, and even more members joined in time for the album sessions, so in the end we were eleven people in the band.

How did you come up with the name for the band?
The band's name is the end of a true story from the village where I grew up. Algot'sa John (i.e. John son of Algot) lived on a family farm with his sister Anna. Those who knew them both knew that Anna had a mind of her own and the one in command in the house. One day in his younger years, John came home with a bunch of buddies and wanted to show off to his friends, to appear a little cocky and bossy. As the guys stepped through the door, John yelled, ”Anna! Boil up five eggs, I'm the host of the house!” What happened to John after that, one could only imagine... Really, the story is only fun to those who knew the villagers.

Did you play live a lot? Any gigs outside of Skåne?
We did about ten shows between 1973 and 1975. Most of them were low-profile shows, but the one we did with Nationalteatern and Norrbottens Järn was a larger event. One of the shows were in Växjö while the others were in the Lund-Lomma-Malmö-Ängelholm region.

How and where was the album recorded?

In former big band leader Leif Uvemark's studio in Malmö during a weekend in May 1975.

Did you choose to put it out yourself to begin with, or did you approach any major labels first?
Yes, and nope.

Was the album ever reviewed in Musikens Makt [the music movement's own in-house journal]?It was, in Musikens Makt issue no. 7 in 1975.

Are there any unreleased recordings?
Only a few in my own private archive.

Were there any plans for a second album?
Nope.

Your lyrics are very special with a touch of the absurd, not without a dark edge. Can you tell me a little bit about how you wrote them? What were your inspirations?
Several of the songs were inspired by growing up in a little village in the northwest part of Skåne in the 1950s and '60s. It was me, my brother, my cousin and a friend of my brother's who wrote most of them.

To what extent were Anna Koka Fem Ägg an actual band, as opposed to a project of sorts? Did members come and go?
A few members came and went in the very beginning. It's fair to say we were a band, a pretty obscure one, who showed up every now and then at small scale concerts. Almost always at the request of various concert organizers.

Were there some kind of D.I.Y. scene that you were part of in Skåne at the time?
No.

Are there any other unknown gems from that area worth looking for?
No idea, but I wouldn't think so.

How did you get along with the rest of Skåne's progg scene, with bands such as Radiomöbel, Ferne from Risken Finns and even later bands like Kabbala Kitsch and Blago Bung?
We had no contact whatsoever with the rest of Skåne's progg scene.

What prompted you to reissue your album now?
We had no intention to re-release our album at all. It was a sheer coincidence that Jörgen Nilsson, a record dealer and a concert organizer in Kristiansand, happened to see our original album in a crate of albums he happened to come by. He thought it sounded very good and different. As the album is hard to find and several of his customers liked it when he played it in the shop, he asked us if we were interested in re-releasing it. Then he asked us if perhaps a few of us would even like to play a show. I thought it sounded like a fun idea, and I managed to get in touch with almost every one of our original members. I hadn't met several of them since we did the album 47 years ago!

Remaining copies of the reissue can be ordered from Kompakt Disk in Kristianstad,

info@kompaktdisk.se. But hurry up! Not many are left! It's also available for streaming on Spotify.

PEPS PERSSON IN MEMORIAM

The sadness is unfathomable. Not long ago, Bosse Skoglund, noted drummer with a plethora of bands, artists and constellations left us for the otherworld. And now, his long standing friend and collaborator in excellent music has followed suit – Peps Persson. Peps, who pretty much helped raise awareness of American blues and, perhaps even more important, basically singlehandedly brought Jamaican reggae to Sweden just passed away at the age of 74 after a long period of illness. His impact on Swedish music cannot be overrated. He was an everpresent spirit touching the hearts of not only progg lovers but casual listeners for decades. And more amazingly, always a bit from the side of the progg movement and the mainstream. He carved out his own niche where he was free to do whatever he wanted, to immerse himself in music that really mattered; i.e. music that grew in the hearts of those who endured hardships and had the gift to express them and touch others again. He will be sorely missed like few others. His passing away has left a hole in my heart that no other Swedish musician will be able to mend. So much more could be said, but words fail me at this time. Blessings Peps, wherever you went!

BENGT-ARNE WALLIN – Wallin/Wallin (Dux, 1971)

 
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Bengt-Arne Wallin was noted jazz musician and composer (he died in 2015) with a special love for Swedish folk music, and played with everybody from hugely popular easy listening icon Lill Lindfors to Polish jazz maverick Tomasz Stańko. His 1971 effort ”Wallin/Wallin” is centered around old Swedish chorales and psalms with words by poet and lyricist Johan Olov Wallin. The selected psalms make for a song cycle of sorts that straddles the lines between prog, fusion, third stream jazz, and progressive big band. Such an ambitious venture surely demands skill to pull through, and Wallin indeed managed to drum up a plethora of seasoned and in-demand players. Names such as the two Jans, Schaffer and Bandel are – needless to say – featured, as are Okay Temiz, Ola Brunkert, Stefan Brolund to name but a few. For the vocals, Wallin approached Ann-Kristin Hedmark and Tommy Körberg, Körberg then a member of newly formed genre-defying battleship Solar Plexus.

The ambition level is dazzling, but the ideas and efforts often get in the way of the music itself. Everyone involved do their best and you can hear they're pretty thrilled by the whole project, but in the end, the music gets too unwieldy and sometimes a bit too cerebrally sluggish to take off. It's interesting as a period piece, but the album is too long and can be fatiguing. Simply put, a little too eager for its own good.

Att bedja (Gud han skälv oss bjöd)
Så går en dag än från vår tid

SKROTBANDET – Afrocarib (Nacksving, 1980)

 
Swedish vocals, other languages

International relevance: *

For their second album, Skrotbandet recruited previous members of Göteborgs Visgrupp and GöteborgsBrechtensemble and changed their direction from a once avantgarde constellation (as represented on various artists compilation ”LIM – Levande improviserad musik från Göteborg”) to a band taking most of their cues from afro-Caribbean music. The album title alone gives away the stylistic switch.

”Afrocarib” almost plays like a catalogue of styles from the region. We get Cuban rhythms, a couple of reggae tracks, a little touch of calypso and several dashes of fashionable salsa – everything bereft of the respective styles' original weight and meaning. This is a textbook example of when putting style before content. It's all mathematically precise, well-studied and competently executed but the most important thing, the one you've got to have within you, is conspicuously lacking: the passion that comes with the circumstances the music is rooted in.

Ignore this album and check out Skrotbandet's sources instead for the real McCoy - the list of recommended albums printed on the album's lyric sheet provides suggestions for more fulfilling listening experiences than the album itself (even though my personal recommendations probably would have looked different). Nacksving's label honcho and album producer Tommy Rander probably loved it though, given his penchant for dogmatically correct but soulless statements.

Their first album is reviewed here.

No links found.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Gatumusik från Stockholm sommaren 76 (Caprice, 1977)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: *

While not a progg album proper, this one fits hand in glove with the progg zeitgeist and ethos. The title means ”street music from Stockholm, summer '76”, and that's exactly what it is, street musicians performing in their natural environment on the streets of Stockholm to unsuspecting passers-by. Few of them got beyond obscurity with the exception of Don Partridge who already had several albums under his belt, and even a 1968 hit song in ”Rosie” and another one, ”Blue Eyes” from the same year. He was a drifter, touring the streets of Europe and settled in Sweden where he lived for years in the 70s. He was a well known and colourful character with his one-man-band act that even I caught as a kid in those days when visiting Stockholm with my parents.

The music on the album ranges from The Salvation Army and old-timey to traditional fiddle tunes and organ grinders. None of it is very good; the best track being Andrés Daniel Spatola's fluent but redundant performance of old Neil Young chestnut ”Heart of Gold”, followed by Patridge's stomping take on ”Kansas City”. It's not an album you'd put on for musical enjoyment but it's fun as an aural snapshot of times gone by.

No links found.