MADS VINDING GROUP - Danish Design (Sonet, 1974)

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

 

It's albums like this that makes me question my vocation. Why do I do this? How far am I willing to go with this blog? Is it really just a karmic punishment for mistakingly killing a squirrel in a previous life by sitting on it thinking it was a small cushion? Am I a bad person? Is it only right that I suffer?

For a long time, I've put off writing about "Danish Design". Yeah, you've already figured out why. It's Danish. The title already says so.

Or so I tried to convince myself, ignoring the cold, hard facts. And they are as follows: The album is recorded in Sweden. It's produced by a Swede, Rune Öfwerman. Engineered by another Swede, Lasse Gustavsson. All musicians except Mads Vinding himself are Swedish (he's, you know, Danish). Sabu Martinez, percussion. Ola Brunkert, drums. Jan Schaffer, guitar. Keyboards, they're played by Kjell Öhman -- very Swedish. Released by Sonet Records? Ah yes, a Swedish label.

You see where this is going, don't you?

I can run, but I can't hide. It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. Tough shit it had to be me.

[insert inappropriate word referring to sexual intercourse]

Let's put it this way: This album is so boring, so relentlessly tedious that I consider playing Coste Apetrea's "Nyspolat" seven times in a row while breathing inside a very small plastic bag.

This is fusion at its worst. Soulless. Impotent. Clinical. There's more life in a lab grown bacterial culture than on this album.

I hate the album cover too.

Full album playlist

NORDVISION – Nordvision (Artist, 1975)

 

Instrumental

International relevance: **

Out of the depths of obscurity come Nordvision, a virtually unknown four-piece with members from Sweden and Denmark. They recorded their debut – the only album they released – in Malmö in early 1975. A highly competent effort, it offers eleven instrumental tracks, all of them arrangements of traditional folk songs from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

The music has been compared to Björn J:son Lindh's early albums, and it's a pretty accurate description although ”Nordvision” has no flute. Bass player Mads Vinding actually played on J:son Lindh's ”Boogie Woogie”the year before. Guitarist Christer Karlberg and drummer/percussionist Peter Winberg was also in Storm with Swedish poet Jacques Werup. The band's other guitar player Mikael Neumann is the son of well known guitarist Ulrik Neumann. He was also an actor, has worked for Swedish television and written several stage revues for Swedish comedienne Eva Rydberg.

”Nordvision” isn't a particularly good album. The musicians are skilled, but their flirtations with jazz and fusion are dull. At times it sounds like music used in a television documentary on the Northern wild life. Funky opener ”Å inte ska jag sörja” is decent and by far the best track on the album; it might appeal to fans of Made In Sweden or Janne Schaffer's early albums.

Released on the tiny (private?) Artist label, it's a rare album but nothing anyone should pay a lot for, unless you're an unreasonable fusion completist.

Full album

KJELL ÖHMAN – Misturada (Sonet, 1975)

 
Instrumental
International relevance: *

Kjell Öhman was a keyboard player who cut his teeth with lightweight instro band The Telstars in the mid 60s shortly before releasing his first solo album in 1966. He later turned to studio work including Robert Broberg, Nailband and Bengt-Arne Wallin, but kept releasing albums under his own name off and on on the side. ”Misturada” is from 1975 and a marginal inclusion here as the style is too diverse, ranging from solo piano jazz to samba inflected numbers and muzak fusion. It's the fusion tracks that pushed ”Misturada” over the blog edge. They're unfortunately not good with the possible exception of the Alphonse Mouzon penned ”The Funky Waltz” which is slightly reminiscent of a lighter pre-Headhunters Herbie Hancock. The album features Mads Vinding and Ed Thigpen among others, and has a sleeve design by Lasse Åberg.

Full album