ENERGIOPERANS KÖR & ORKESTER – Den femte naturkraften (Lilla Räven, 1980)

 
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

This is the most unusual anti-nuclear album I've heard. A real one-off thing on a private, one-off label. The music were made for a street theatre performance in 1980 called "Energioperan" and involved 23 musicians and 46 singers, collectively known as ”The Energy Opera's Choir & Orchestra” in translation. The best known names are probably Anita Livstrand (Vargavinter, Bitter Funeral Beer Band, solo), Margareta Söderberg (Arbete & Fritid) and Catarina Abelli (Hot Boys, and Torbjörn Abelli's half sister -- she also did the cover art for this album).

It ought to be a well established fact that I have serious problems with political albums where a thousand singers insist on singing their slogans all at once, and true that ”Den femte naturkraften” (=”the fifth force”) has its share of appalling tracks. But a fair bit of it is actually rather captivating. The choir provides an ethereal feel to some of the numbers, and a few selections are really toned down with Oriental and Balkan folk shadings. Especially the bewitching ”Siarens sång”, sung and co-written by Anita Livstrand with a snaky melody framed by flute, tablas and 'acid folk' acoustic guitars. (I don't like that term, but it's highly applicable here.)

So if you navigate past the odd rock track and one or two dreadful political shouties, there's quite a few moments well worth investigating here. And with an Anita Livstrand runaway track like ”Siarens sång”, it's definitely worth spending some loose change on it. 

No links found

STENBLOMMA – Alla träd har samma rot (Silence, 1973)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

The story goes that trio Stenblomma's main woman Hélène Bohman (now Hélène Bohman Blomqvist) quit playing after getting a bad review in the music movement's periodical Musikens Makt. (And in case you wonder, it was not some kind of patriarchal slag off – the review was written by Mia Gerdin who later hosted feminist radio show Spinnrock on Swedish Radio.) Bohman has since taken up playing again, and ”Alla träd har samma rot” has earned a greater appreciation over time, which might have something to do with the Träd, Gräs & Stenar connection; Torbjörn Abelli, Thomas Mera Gartz and Jakob Sjöholm all appear on it. The use of tablas and sitar on some tracks probably helps its reputation too.

But it's most of all down to this being a great album, with a loose and slightly stoned feel emphasized by Gregory Johnson-King's bubbly wah wah guitar slithering its way through several songs. (Johnson-King was also in Folk Blues, Inc.) The songwriting's fine and while Bohman is only a so-so singer, she's a hundred times more enjoyable than Turid, a parallell not entirely off the mark. But the great Lena Ekman is probably an even better comparison.

The track that usually gets the most praise is the nine minute ”Skeppet” which indeed is the album's high point with its slow burning melancholy enhanced by Johan Runeberg's recorder, like a haunting wind on the dark open sea. But there are more great stuff here – actually, the only two inferior tracks are ”Åh pappa, ormarna ringlar” and the annoyingly shouty ”Christiana”.

It's a real shame this has yet to be reissued. It deserves it, a lot more than many other albums reissued over and over again.

Full album playlist

THOMAS MERA GARTZ – Sånger (Silence, 1976)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

 

As with Thomas Tidholm, Thomas Mera Gartz was much better when he was in charge of his own album and not only a part of Träd, Gräs Och Stenar. Only two Träd, Gräs Och Stenar members appear prominently on ”Sånger”, guitarist Jakob Sjöholm and bassist Torbjörn Abelli. Instead, Gartz wisely opted for a set of musicians with a good instrumental grasp; Bo Skoglund, Roland Keijser, Bengt Berger, Anita Livstrand and Nikke Ström to name most of the participants.

Gartz may not have been the world's greatest singer, but ”Sånger's” intimacy, melancholy and the musicians' interplay are so much more important to the outcome. The entire album has a tender delicacy to it, it's both fragile and frail, heartfelt and sincere, with an openendedness inviting the listener to come closer and closer until you can't help embracing the music. The stellar cast of performers helps immensely of course. They listen with in the songs and within themselves, enter musical openings, bring elusive spiritual overtones to the songs, move the music and their fellow players forward. Gartz leads but ”Sånger” is a collective effort, an example of what might happen if vision and skills meet.

Full album playlist

ELEKTRISKA LINDEN – Torbjörns dansskola (Avanti, 1978)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: **

A later era progg album that features a massive cast of progg eminences such as Blå Tåget's Leif Nylén and Carl-Johan de Geer, Torbjörn Abelli of Träd Gräs Och Stenar, Anders Linder (Kapten Zoom, Ville & Valle & Viktor) and Mikael Katzeff (later of the revived Gudibrallan). The Torbjörn of the title and album cover is Sweden's right wing prime minister Torbjörn Fälldin, just elected when the album came out. The rich instrumentation of violin, sax, trombone, clarinet, harmonica and string synthesizer makes for a rich timbre palette but the playing is somewhat over-enthusiastic and messy at times, as on opening track ”Uppmuntran” and ”(Äntligen) Tillbaks i stan”. ”Tystnadens kultur” is a bit similar to Anders F. Rönnblom, while ”Bränna Highway 20 med stereo på” and the title track almost sound like a slightly jazzier version of Gudibrallan if you can picture that. Unfortunately, it's a pretty dull album overall.

Elektriska Linden spin-off band Torvmossegossarna released an EP in 1979, the anti nuclear 7” ”Atomkraft? Nej tack” on their own label Skivbolaget EKO. The 45 includes a cover of Knäckebröderna's ”R.R.R.”. Stylistically similar to Elektriska Linden but with a less dry production. Elektriska Linden also had a track on Avanti's 1978 ”Samlade krafter” compilation, and one on ”Vi kan leva utan kärnkraft” on Silence in 1975.

No links found

ARBETE & FRITID – Se upp för livet (MNW, 1977) / Håll andan (MNW, 1979)

Se upp för livet (MNW, 1977)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

 

One of Arbete & Fritid's weakest. Roland Keijser had left the band at this point, taking most of the jazz with him, and leaving the leadership to cellist Ove Karlsson under whose direction the band took a step closer to rock, or at least rock related music.

The music on ”Se upp för livet” is pretty diverse though, ranging from the plain bizarre (”Knoga och knega” and ”Avdelning - indelning” ) to the downright spooky (”Jag är inte som andra”), from the eerie opening drone of ”Födelsemusik” to the hard rock of ”Lev hårt - dö ung” (sounding like a crossbreed of Nationalteatern and Gudibrallan). A lot of the album sounds like a Thomas Mera Gartz solo album on one hand and a Träd, Gräs & Stenar album on the other (Gartz and Torbjörn Abelli appear on ”Se upp för livet”). The atypicalities of the album might be explained by the fact the music were made for an exhibition at Kulturhuset in Stockholm 1976, and probably had to fit in with the exposition's concept. It would probably have been a better album had it been trimmed down to a single disc, but it's still worth having for the good bits.

Håll andan (MNW, 1979)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevamce: ***

The last album to be released by Arbete & Fritid is still stylistically sprawling but nevertheless a more cohesive effort than ”Se upp för livet”. Here you find the almost-punk burst of ”Jag föddes en dag”, the dreamy ”Dorisk dron”, the elevated jamming of ”Thulcandra”, and the experimental and slightly creepy ”Kalvdans”. I've always had a soft spot for this album and although it's not really comparable to the early Arbete & Fritid albums, it's certainly a recommended effort.

The ”1969-1979” CD comp, later retitled ”Deep Woods”, features three good and otherwise unavailable tracks from 1978. There's also a unique (albeit not very good) and still unreleased Tonkraft show from December 1979 worth snooping around for by Arbete & Fritid and Archimedes Badkar joining forces.

 

Se upp för livet full album playlist

Håll andan full album playlist

PÄRSON SOUND / INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER / HARVESTER / TRÄD GRÄS OCH STENAR – 1966-1973

What can be said about Träd Gräs Och Stenar (hereafter referred to as TG&S) that hasn't been said before? They're one of the most renowned progg bands, both domestically and internationally. Their career is well documented, from the earliest days to their more recent activities as a recording outfit, so there's no real reason for dwelling upon any detailed biographical facts. Just a quick background check: Their original 1967 line-up consisted of Bo Anders Persson (guitar), Thomas Tidholm (vocals, sax, flute), Torbjörn Abelli (bass), Thomas Mera Gartz (drums), Urban Yman (violin) and Arne Ericsson (cello). Bo Anders Persson was already a noted avantgarde composer, and his idea was to fuse the minimalism of Terry Riley and La Monte Young with the rock'n'roll of The Rolling Stones. Initially operating as Pärson Sound, they changed their name to International Harvester in 1968.

Sov gott Rose-Marie (Love, 1968)

as International Harvester
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals 

International relevance: ***

 

Tracks like ”Klockan är mycket nu”, the pointlessly short ”It's Only Love”, the overlong ”How to Survive” and a couple of others should have been substituted by the 25 minute ”Skördetider” that was saved for bonus track on the 2001 CD reissue. But those tracks are massively overshadowed by, for instance, the punkish ”There Is No Other Place”, the imperative ”Ho Chi Minh” and the great ”I Mourn You”. Oddly enough, the classic ”Sommarlåten” fades out after only a couple of minutes while it could stretch out to a forever when performed live. My personal favourite however is the captivating title track, also way too short with its mere three and a half minutes. But despite a few weak spots, a very good album.

Hemåt (Decibel, 1969)
as Harvester
Instrumental, Swedish vocals 

International relevance: ***

 

With their name shortened to Harvester, the band released ”Hemåt” in 1969. A mess of good, underdeveloped and undevelopable ideas, in a sound quality that ranges from the wonderfully confrontative basement fidelity of ”Sov gott Rose-Marie” to the plain unlistenable. Sound and intent coincide fully only on ”Kristallen den fina”. TG&S's interest in Swedish folk music shines through on ”Kuk-polska”, an early but heavyhanded and rheumatic attempt at folk rock. All in all, ”Hemåt” is frustrating and inferior. And again, one of the best tracks were left to unreleased until the early 00's CD reissue – especially odd as it's the album's title track!

Träd, Gräs Och Stenar (Decibel, 1970)

Instrumental, English vocals, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

Harvester lost original member Thomas Tidholm already in 1968 (they would reunite briefly as Hot Boys for one lovely album in 1974), and the band reformed in 1969 as Träd, Gräs Och Stenar, releasing the first LP bearing that name in 1970. The first side is devoted in full to two tedious cover versions of Bob Dylan's ”All Along the Watchtower” and the Stones' ”Satisfaction”. The Dylan song in particular is too wrapped up in the 'everybody can play' ethos. Obviously, everybody can not play – Bo Anders Persson's guitar solo is way off at times. And no, I don't think it's charming. I cringe every time he fires off a bum note. And that happens a lot.

”Sanningens silverflod” is the album's high point (later bettered and immortalized by rock reggae band Dag Vag) but Persson proves that slide guitar isn't quite his thing either. Thomas Mera Gartz's ”Svarta pärla” is shaky but evocative enough to come in as the album's second best track. With ”Tegenborgsvalsen”, TG&S digs deeper into Swedish folk with as bad results as on ”Hemåt”. Sound quality is again down the drain. ”Allt makt åt folket” is six long minutes of people blowing whistles, clapping hands and chanting. Man, this communal trip is really getting on my nerves...

Rock för kropp och själ (Silence, 1972)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

TG&S may look like the archetypical Silence band, but the only album originally made for the label was ”Rock för kropp och själ”. Includes a studio version of TG&S's classic cover of Philemon Arthur & The Dung's ”In kommer Gösta”, premiered at the Gärdet festival two years earlier. Most of the album slides around in a mud pool of nothingness; the title track is a 24 minute jam that reaches its climax much too late, ”Våran vila” is lead-footed boogie, and ”Solen går upp, solen går ner” is two long minutes of audience chanting. The best track is ”I ljuset av din dag”, sung by Gartz.

Djungelns lag (Tall, 1972)

 Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

A live album recorded on tour in Sweden and Norway. The sound quality isn't quite as atrocious as one would expect but the music is a bit hit and miss. A powerful ”Sanningens silverflod” opens the album and ”Drammen export” closes it in a fine way. The acoustic ”Dibio” and ”Munfiol” are crap; ”Vår vila” suffers badly from lousy guitar soloing. Even worse guitar canbe heard on the drowsy ”Tidigt om morgonen” (the title means ”early in the morning” and these people obviously couldn't get out of bed at all). CD includes the 31+ minutes bonus track ”Amithaha” seguing into ”In kommer Gösta”, meaning a lot more fumbling guitar noodling.

Mors mors (Tall, 1973)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: ***

 

Another live album (decent sound), this time recorded in Sweden and Denmark in 1972. There's not much to set this one apart from their previous albums, with the possible exception of what might be the dullest Rolling Stones cover ever, ”The Last Time”. Other than that, it's the usual extended jamming, some OK, some of it sleep inducing. Best track: ”Dansa jord”. CD bonus: 26 breathing minutes of ”Sommarlåten” – should have been on the album.

ARCHIVAL RELEASES

PÄRSON SOUND (Subliminal Sounds, 2000; recorded 1966-1968)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

Ranked #18 on the blog's Top 25

The first official peak into the voluminous TG&S vaults is also the best, not only of their archival releases but thebest TG&S album of all, recorded as a fledgling band in various locations. Outdoors performances blend with recordings made for Swedish Radio. The sound quality differs between tracks, but the music is incredibly powerful and overwhelming. The impact is bone crushing! Their drone rock never worked better than in their early Pärson Sound days, and I'd be hard pressed to come up with an international band or artist in the same vein that can actually compete with Pärson Sound. TG&S themselves couldn't, that's for sure.

Gärdet 12.6.70 (Subliminal Sounds, 1996; recorded 1970)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

The TG&S performances at the two legendary Gärdet festivals – arranged by themselves in June and August 1970 – are progg landmarks, and it's surprising it took so long before anyone made them publicly available in full. (A track from the second festival was featured on the ”Festen på Gärdet” album.) Subliminal Sounds unearthed a recording from the first festival and released it on CD in 1996. The mono sound is a bit muddy and distorted but OK for a 1970 audience tape. The music is standard TG&S. Lots of jamming, sometimes propulsive, sometimes at a standstill, some notes shouldn't be there, and another version of ”Satisfaction” certainly shouldn't be there.

The album was re-released in 2011 on double vinyl and expanded with a previously unreleased sidelong water-treading jam entitled ”Låt oss tänka ett par dagar”, recorded some time in the winter of '69/'70.

 

Live 1972 (1/2 Special Skivor & Trams, 2001; recorded 1972) 

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

Recorded in February and March 1972, this basically sounds like a bonus disc to ”Mors mors” that was recorded around the same time, although this has a bit weaker sound and weaker performances. For completists only. (Reissued with bonus tracks by Anthology Recordings in 2016.)

Kom tillsammans (Anthology Recordings, 2016; recorded 1972)
Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

 

Released as part of the ”Träd, Gräs Och Stenar” 6LP/3CD box set only, i.e. not sold separately. (Picture above shows the box set front.) The main discs in the set are expanded double disc versions of ”Djungelns lag” and ”Mors mors”. and ”Kom tillsammans” consists of more live recordings from 1972, some of them with vocals. ”Medan vinden vänder sig” is OK and combines a reflective mood with a movement forward. The sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, it appears that reverb was added which emphasizes the distortion on several tracks, most likely prevalent on the original tapes. Unless you need more samey sounding TG&S in your life, this is something you can ignore.

Another box set was released by Silence in 2018, focusing on the two original (International) Harvester albums, adding three LP's of unreleased live material. A Tonkraft radio performance with TG&S trading off tracks with a group four folk fiddlers is included in ”Progglådan”. Numerous unofficial live tapes in varying quality circulate. There's also the very interesting ”Love Is Here to Stay” Subliminal Sounds comp of Bo Anders Persson's pre-Pärson Sound pieces 1965-1967, including the up until then only released example of his early experimental work, ”Proteinimperialism”.

No-one can deny that TG&S were instrumental to progg's emergence, through arranging the Gärdet festivals and through their pioneering and influential musical work. But 'influential' isn't necessarily synonymous with 'good' or 'consistent'. TG&S have become the holiest of all holy progg cows – if you like progg, you're expected to like them, almost obliged to. I frankly don't think they're that good. ”Pärson Sound” is utterly brilliant, ”Sov gott Rose-Marie” is a very fine album, but a lot of the Harvester/TG&S ouevre is way overrated to my ears. Every album has its moments, but none of them holds up in its entirety. (A compilation of their best tracks would be more to the point.) Their jams drag on and get one-dimensional and predictable too often. Somebody once described their music as a journey, but to me a journey is a lot more than sitting on a train that doesn't leave on time and then suddenly derails at full speed.

TG&S's attempts to vary the style are usually not very successful and further reveal their ineptitude. You have accept the 'everybody can play' premises as fundamental, and if you don't their approach doesn't work as often as I wish it would. And the thing is, I always get the feeling that TG&S's ineptude is an end in itself, as if they're being bad on purpose, which live recordings by the reincarnated band suggest as well. That, to me, is a kind of pretentiousness which isn't better than any other kind of pretentiousness.

Sov gott Rose-Marie full album playlist with bonus tracks

Hemåt full album playlist

Träd Gräs Och Stenar full album playlist

Rock för kropp och själ full album playlist

Box set including Djungelns lag, Mors mors + Kom tillsammans

Gärdet 12.6.70 full album playlist

Pärson Sound full album playlist

Live 1972 no links found