BJÖRN ARAHB – Björnspår (YTF, 1973) / Svantes visor (YTF, 1975) / Visor ur klyvnadens tid (YTF, 1980)

The remaining three Björn Arahb albums released under his own name up to 1980. His recorded output is fairly slim compared to others from the golden era of Swedish troubadours with only a handful of albums including a couple made with other artists. Feautured in ”The Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music”, although only one of his albums has progg bearings, the previously reviewed ”Jag är en bekymrad socialist”.

Björnspår (YTF, 1973)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: -

Starting out as short film maker in the 60s, Arahb turned to a musical career in the early 70s. His debut album appeared in 1973, a collection of thirteen fairly short songs revealing a clear inspiration from highbrow troubadour Olle Adolphson. Very dated.

Svantes visor (YTF, 1975)
Swedish vocals

International relevance: -

A full album of songs written by Danish poet/songwriter Benny Andersen translated by top troubadour Cornelis Vreeswijk. The songs were originally performed by Povl Dissing, best known internationally for working with fellow Danes Beefeaters and Burnin Red Ivanhoe. Dissing's similarily titled original album isn't too great, but it still has a lot more character than Arahb's sterile version of it.
 

Visor ur klyvnadens tid (YTF, 1980)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: -

Following a collaborative album with Monica Nielsen, ”Visor ur klyvnadens tid” was Arahb's last album in almost two decades. This time with lyrics by proletatian author Ivar Lo-Johansson, but there's really nothing to set it apart from Arahb's other albums. The tone has the same kind of preciosity as ever before, and it hasn't become any less grating. Arranged by Thomas Frykberg.

Björnspår full album playlist
Svantes visor full album playlist
Visor ur klyvnadens tid full album playlist

BJÖRN ARAHB & MONICA NIELSEN – Sjunger Ture Nerman (A-Disc, 1979)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Ture Nerman was a journalist, radical social democrat (sometimes communist), anti-militarist, dedicated teetotaller, and for his time something as unusual as a vegetarian (he was born in 1886 and died in 1969). He was also a poet, and harbouring such sentiments as the ones mentioned above, his poems were well equipped for being set to music in the progg era. Some of the songs use older melodies by for instance Joe Hill, while several were written specifically for this project by Björn Arahb.

Being released on the Social Democrats' in-house label A-Disc, this is every bit as boring as you can imagine. There's no doubting that the sentiments of Arahb and fellow singer (and actor) Monica Nielsen are honest and genuine, but once again, whatever emotional impact this could have had with less self-righteous performances, soulfulness is substituted with oversinging. The musical framework is also typical of the ilk; it's either semi-cabaret-like or it sounds like The Labour Day Marches Greatest Hits.

Full album playlist

BJÖRN ARAHB – Jag är en bekymrad socialist (YTF, 1974)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Björn Arahb was a visa singer (to remind you, visa is a certain kind of Swedish singer/songwriter music) that made handful of albums in the 70's and early 80's. 

Released in 1974, it's made up by songs written and released by the #1 visa singer Cornelis Vreeswijk. Several jazz and prog alumnis back him up, including Wlodek Gulgowski, Sabu Martinez, Jan Bandel and Luis Agudo (Energy). Lorne de Wolfe of Contact designed the album cover. Together they work up a funky groove on some tracks – try for instance ”Telegram for Lucidor”, ”En visa till Ellen när hon hade flyttat hemifrån” or ”Ågren”. Thing is, you can get it too from Vreeswijk's own albums around 1969/70, and better. And as Arahb tries hard to mimick Vreeswijk's special way of phrasing, ”Jag är en bekymrad socialist” comes off as a redudant work of a lesser copycat. The album is of course meant as a tribute but it falls flat compared to the original.

Full album playlist