BENGT BERGER / ROLAND KEIJSER / KJELL WESTLING – The Vedbod Tapes / More Vedbod Tapes (Country & Eastern, 2012; rec. 1977)

  

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

This is such a beauty of a record! Beautiful for so many reasons. A unique document of a candid process reserved for the involved musicians only, secret to outsiders. A truthful representation of the naked creativity and mental interplay between a few select performers.

The select performers in question are three close friends that all have (or had, with two of them now sadly gone) a thorough track record. If you want to oversimplify it, you could conveniently express it as: Arbete & Fritid. Drummer/percussionist Bengt Berger, reed player Roland Keijser and multi-instrumentalist Kjell Westling were all part of the line-up for the first two Arbete & Fritid albums. It's fair to see them as a crucial co-founders of Swedish progg even in its narrowest sense.

The recordings on ”The Vedbod Tapes” were never made with an official release in mind. They were more of a memento for the three longtime buddies, a documentation of a friendly get-together in Roland Keijser woodshed. ”Vedbod” means ”woodshed” in English, and apart from the literal meaning, ”woodshedding” is an old jazz term for jamming. Keijser sheds (some) light on the origins of the recordings in his liner notes: ”We usually refer to this unique document as 'the Vedbod tapes'. The circumstances are not crystal clear, but the fact is that all of the music was recorded in a woodshed in south-west Dalarna in 1977. /.../ The 'archaeological digs' for the Vedbod tapes recently acquired a new urgency, and were further intensified after the sudden – too, too soon! – death in the autumn of 2010 of Kjell Westling. /.../ The music, in general, sounded good. a little sound-technique polishing but no real editing was done to these findings, we kept the documentary approach preferring to keep too much rather than too little. Ah, this is how it could sound, once upon a time, in certain Swedish realities. /.../ What do we play? Apparently free from the heart, memory and imagination. Mostly collective improvisations. But also a couple of Ornette Coleman tunes, some popular songs, the odd polska, waltz and halling, a few tango bars… But, above all, sundry lengthy chunks of unidentifiable inventions, the names of which are known only to the woodshed.”

Key words: ”free from the heart”. The trio had no rules to follow; it's like a free-flowing heart-to-heart conversation that needed no restrictions but relied on perfect equality. That's part of what makes these tapes so fascinating and rare. It's free music but on even deeper levels than as in for example ”free jazz” because it refers to more than just musical characteristics. It's the unfettered sound of a deep friendship.

Although all three of these master musicians contribute democratically to the process, the greatest triumphs belong to Kjell Westling. Although he was always happy to adapt to the prerequisites of circumstances known to the studio musician and did so with ease, here he really threw himself into the open-ended expression. If it came out as a folk fiddle or a wide open jazz jam didn't matter; he was free to follow his fancies without narrow considerations, and it's wonderful to hear. In many ways, I find this to be his grandest moments on tape because you can really hear him for all that he was – and that was a lot.

The CD features 70 minutes selected from hours of tapes, but Country & Eastern released another half an hour of digital extras in conjunction with the CD. The main portion of ”More Vedbod Tapes” is made up by the 26 minute jam ”Woodshedding 3” which in many ways is the distillate of everything that was going on during those days in Keijser's secret garden shed. Without a pre-set plan, Keijser, Westling and Berger move effortlessly between jazz, folk melodies and unprejudiced jamming, led only by their hearts, souls and deep understanding for each other. Like I said before: this is what a true friendship sounds like. 

The Vedbod Tapes full album playlist 
More Vedbod Tapes full album playlist 

NORRTELJE ELITKAPELL – Oskapliga låtar (Oktober, 1978)

  
Instrumental, Swedish vocals, other languages
International relevance: *

Second album by a largely unsatisfactory folk group with an emphasis on fiddling. ”Oskapliga låtar” sounds like a mix of Norrlåtar and Skäggmanslaget but much more lightweight and less finesse than any of those. The best track in this lot is ”En gång i min ungdom” which sounds a lot like Folk & Rackare's mid-period albums with crumhorns added.
 

”Oskapliga låtar” was originally released by Oktober but reissued in the mid 80s by Sonet. The reissue has a different cover (see above), confusingly enough similar to the one used for the band's first album ”Luffarschottis” from the previous year.

Noteworthy guest appearance: Malanda Gassama on percussion. Per ”Puma” Hedlund is now a fairly wellknown key harpist.

Full album playlist 

KNOA – Tvära kast och vändningar (Opus 3, 1978) / Inside Out (Opus 3, 1980)

Instrumental
International relevance: **

Opus 3 is an audiophile label having operated since the late 70s and is still in business. Their back catalogue is diverse but with an emphasis on jazz and classical. Among their releases is an album by Eric Bibb.

Knoa were Växjö ensemble spanning several genres and thus a bit hard to describe. Imagine a mix of renaissance and baroque music, folk and a dash of Penguin Café Orchestra and you get a rough idea of what they sounded like. The title of their first album means ”sudden twists and turns” and that is as a description as good as any. I assume they all came from the classical field and while they're technically proficient their music never gets bone dry. On the contrary, it's warm and vivid, and with such a stylistic range, it's full of surprises and fun to listen to. The second album was technically released as Knoa II and saw the group with an expanded line-up, but it's similar in style to their first. The main difference apart from the personnel changes is that the songs – always originals – are longer but equally well-crafted as on ”Tvära kast och vändningar”. The arrangements are a real pleasure and the instruments sound rich and present. Opus 3 knew their sound stuff for sure!

Knoa's two albums may not be the first thing you think about when you hear the word 'progg' (although they are mentioned in the 'further listening' section of Tobias Peterson's progg encyclopedia), but Knoa's approach to music was definitely progressive, unafraid and explorative. They're well worth hearing, and you can rest assured you're in good musical hands.

A compilation CD appeared in 1994, simply titled "A Selection of Knoa".

No links found

THORES TRIO – Thores Trio (Kulturföreningen Källan, 1981)

  
Swedish vocals, other languages, instrumental, a cappella
International relevance: -

Vastly ignorable late era album on obscure label Kulturföreningen Källan which as far as I know only had one 7” in their catalogue outside of this Tomas Forssell produced LP. Thores Trio weren't particularly prolific on record either – they're featured on two various artists EP's on Manifest. Which is not to say they didn't have a long history because they did. As a matter of fact, they're most likely the longest running band ever to be featured on this blog.

Starting out in the tiny Northern town of Båtskärsnäs in 1933 (!) as Thor-Allans Trio, they changed their name to Thores Trio in 1936. Originally specializing in foxtrot, tango and various Swedish dance types, they stayed true to their style until the very end in 1996 when original member and accordeonist and fiddler Tore Allan Nilsson passed away at the age of 82. Singer Nanna Helin and her husband bass player Erik continued playing as a duo afterwards.

They might seem like an unlikely band to be embraced by the progressive movement, but as self-confessed communists, their politically charged lyrics with a strong local connection fell in well with the progg alumni. The Swedish version of Hanns Eisler's ”Einheitsfrontlied” speaks volumes, less so the puzzling inclusion of German schlager "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön". 

This album's probably charming to the immediate family, a limited number of the remaining 200 inhabitants of Båtskärsnäs, or Tomas Forssell completists, but assumably of very little interest to anyone else. 

"Thores Trio" was re-released with a slightly altered cover in 2021.

Full album playlist

AMERINDIOS – Ditt skrik är min sång – Tu grito es mi canto (Amalthea, 1978)

Other languages
International relevance: *

Amerindios was a Chilean duo consisting of Julio Numhauser and Mario Salazar, the former a founding member of Quilapayún who also had a number of Swedish releases. ”Ditt skrik är min sång” was originally released in Chile in 1973 with full title ”Tu Sueño Es Mi Sueño, Tu Grito Es Mi Canto”. It is in the Nueva Cancion style -- protest songs with light dashes of sort-of-but-not-really folk rock. Often backed by acoustic guitar and a singer or two sounding both seriously pissed off (for good reasons) and at the same time curiously happy. 

Original Chilean cover

But there are moments of surprise here, such as the short organ-laced instrumental ”Valparaiso 4 A.M.” with a slightly hazy pseudo-psychedelic vibe, and the stinging fuzz guitar in ”Cueca Beat” like straight out of a primitive garage rock single from Nowhereburg, USA 1966. I didn't see that one coming! And whatever that bizarre instrument in ”La Cervecita” is I don't know, but it sounds like a zither recorded while the producer changed the speed of the tape while recording, making that cosmic zither go WHOOOP and WHEEESH. 

All in all, a pretty good album in its style.

Full album playlist

SJÖN SUGER – Complete albums 1974-1978

I kustbandet (Polydor, 1974)

Sjön Suger (Strike Of Sweden, 1976)

Värre än vanligt (Strike Of Sweden, 1977)

Fina fisken (Marianne, 1978)

Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental

International relevance: -

Mentioned in the "100 other artists to listen to" in ”The Encyclopedia Of Swedish Progressive Music”. Similar in style to Grus I Dojjan but better playing. Cheerful roots music, tongue-in-cheek trad jazz and interwar period goodtime songs with ”humourous” lyrics. There's no need to distinguish the albums, they all sound the same and they're all bad.

I kustbandet no links found
Sjön Suger full album playlist
Värre än vanligt full album playlist
Fina fisken full album playlist

MYGLARNA – Du liv (A-Disc, 1977)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

The great looking album cover with its folk rock private pressings vibe led me to believe that this perhaps would be something as uncommon as a decent A-Disc release. Well, it is a bit folkish, mostly covers with mainly acoustic instruments, and it isn't one of A-Disc's very worst. But good it's certainly not.

Some tracks are potentially OK, especially a couple on the first side, but what could have been better in the hands of some more spirited combo is effectively asphyxiated by annoyingly twee harmony vocals. Myglarna seem to have taken their cues from commercial harmony groups of the 60s and early 70s such as Marie Bergman's Family Four, a style that was hard to endure to begin with and definitely outdated by the time ”Du liv” was released. Some typical Social Democrat marching music find its way into the yawny blend of styles but even they sound weary.

Drummer Johan Dielemans was previously in Folk Blues Inc. 

No links found.

AMANDLA – Amandla (A-Disc, 1980)

Other languages, English vocals, instrumental, spoken word
International relevance: -

Man, does the A-Disc curse go deep! Not only did they release train loads of emotionally debilitated rock music and pseudo progg, they also managed to sneak out this entirely redundant slab of ANC themed South African music.

Now, I'll readily admit I'm not a fan of South African music in general (I very much prefer the hard-boiled grooves of Northern Africa), but I can nevertheless discern when South African music is passionate. And this just isn't. It's amazing really how A-Disc could turn everything they touched into cosmic dullness.

If I am to say one nice thing about it (although I'm certainly not obliged to), ”Ngwaba Wanga” (=”my child”) is a half-decent slightly jazzy thing that could have been released on a lesser Black Jazz Records disc. But don't take that as an excuse to check this album out. I just said it to look kind. 

Welele Mandela
Ngwana Wanga 

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Vad gör egentligen algerna på vintern? (Scam, 1974)

Featured artists: Stamp Från Kön / Di Sma Under Jårdi / Jan Ekedahl / Anders Peedu / Smaklösa / Olle Karlsson / Gotlands Jazzband / Pax Teatern / Gotlands Teater / Folklynnet / Ramlösa Cykelklubb / Peter Jankert / Lejonklösa / Unknown artist / Tranz
Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: *

A serious contender for strangest album title: ”What do algae actually do in the winter?”. The music within won't answer the question, it actually raises more questions, like ”Why does this album even exist?”. I assume it's an attempt to present the early 70s Gotland scene – Gotland being Sweden's biggest island well known for its unusual rock formations called rauks (and also the home of the godlike Cement).

The Scam label have an obvious place in progg history, having released 45s by acts such as Great Ad, Raunchy and 4 Ever, not to mention Solid Ground's sole album ”Made In Rock”. Although I'm not a fan of ”Made In Rock”, such a release schedule nevertheless raises the expectations a few notches. But almost the entire LP consists of various acoustic acts, several of them aspiring to comedy which isn't funny. A couple of them became rather famous years later, most notably Smaklösa and Di Sma Under Jårdi with the latter scoring a major hit with the appalling ”Snabbköpskassörskan” in 1985. Anders Peedu in turn had been in 60s freak rock band Friends who released a number of garage rock fuelled 45s of now legendary status. However, his contribution ”Rallarvisa” shows no traces of his noisy, ramshackle past – it's a traditional navvy song.

Everything on this album is bad with one striking exception. After sitting through terrible stabs at moronic humour, bad versions of trad songs, limp trad jazz and what might be the worst Bob Dylan cover ever recorded, the whole things goes out with a bang. ”Gamarnas sång” by Tranz is a riff heavy hard rock track mangling away for 7 minutes. If the vocals leave a bit to be desired, then the guitars fully make up for it. Thankfully, the track was salvaged from obscurity when it was included on the second volume of the marvellous ”Swedish Meathballs” comp in 2022, rendering ”Vad gör egentligen algerna på vintern” completely redundant.

Tranz - Gamarnas dans

JOHNNY 'MBIZO' DYANI – Witchdoctor's Son 'Together' (Cadillac, 1987; rec. 1979-80)

Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: *

Not to be confused with the ”Witchdoctor's Son” album from 1978, this album was recorded in Stockholm winter 1979/80 with Kenny Håkansson, Bosse Skoglund, Hassan Bah (of Kebnekajse) and Dudu Pukwana. It wears Johnny Dyani's South African heritage proudly, and despite Dyani being best known as a jazz pianist and bassist, there's very little actual jazz here. It's much closer to Soweto's township music. A huge exception is the track ”Kalahari” clocking in at almost nine minutes with Kenny Håkansson really letting it loose, firing off psychedelic fireworks almost as if it was Baby Grandmothers all over again. It comes a real surprise as there's nothing else on the album even close to that. The rest of the album isn't too interesting from a progg perspective, but that track alone is worth the price of admission.

Together
Johnny's Kwela
Marabi Soweto
High Priest
Kalahari
Crossroads
Tula Tula

SALIH BAYSAL – The Myth (Sonet, 1978)

Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: **

Imagine a Sevda album where the spotlight is almost exclusively on their deft violin player Salih Baysal and you'd get ”The Myth”. It's a solo album of his to all intents and purposes, but with Maffy Falay and Okay Temiz appearing on various drums and percussion, it's still something of a lost Sevda album, or at least a Sevda stripped to the basics. Especially the second side where Temiz really have a go at it on the drums.

But the focus is really on Baysal's violin and, on several tracks, his throaty, experienced voice. The material is all Turkish folk tunes, collected and arranged by Falay. If you enjoy the Turkish melodics, you'll probably love both sides of the disc equally. If not, the B side is still worthy of many spins as it's always such a rousing pleasure hearing the multifaceted rhythms of Okay Temiz. A little gem from the outskirts of progg!

Full album

DIDDLERS – Is Good For You (Sonet, 1969)

English vocals, Swedish vocals, other languages
International relevance: *

An early incarnation of folk band Låt & Trall, and more interesting from a historical point of view than a musical one. Musicwise it's straight-laced folk music with a very strong Irish bent. This may be 1969, but these days you can go to any local fake 'Oyrish' pub and hear exactly the same thing you hear on this album, complete with a mock accent put on for 'authenticity'. It works best when the always genuine Marie Selander takes the lead, as on the best cut ”Go To Sea Once More”.

Selander is one of the participants who later got an artistically rewarding career. Add to that Urban Yman who went on to Blå Tåget and the various Träd, Gräs & Stenar incarnations. The ever present master musician Kjell Westling was also a member of Diddlers, as were Pyret Lindström and Slim Lidén who both joined Freedom Singers a few years later (along with Selander).

By the way, shouldn't it be "ARE" instead of "IS" in the title?

Full album playlist

BITTER FUNERAL BEER BAND WITH DON CHERRY & K. SRIDHAR – Live In Frankfurt 82 (Country & Eastern, 2007)

Instrumental, other languages
International relevance: ***

Recorded the same year as Bengt Berger's ”Bitter Funeral Beer” with basically the same people: only Kjell Westling is missing while Björn Hellström on bass clarinet and flute, and sarod player K. Sridhar are added. It's an all-star line-up with too many names to mention, but the individual efforts aren't as important anyway as the pan-continental collective outcome.

This live recording made by Frankfurter radio at the annual jazz festival at the Alte Oper in 1982 is more ragged and unkempt than the studio album. More on the edge, if you will. The nervous energy runs through the entire set, and comes through even in the slow ”Bitter Funeral Beer” which is given a particularly bluesy, mournful rendition.

While I really like the studio album, this recording is a more vivid document of the band. Even if you know you're in the safe hands of masterful musicians, they conjure up a loose spirit that keeps the music uncertain to the right degree. You never quite know exactly what will happen at what moment. It's a generally thrilling perfomance that grows in strength until the 25 minute jubilant ending (not counting the short afterthought "Gahu") with ”Funeral Dance”.

 

The album was later reissued on vinyl (minus "Gahu") in Italy with a different cover (as seen above).

Full album playlist

Also check out the TV broadcast of the show here!

MUSIKGRUPPEN RAA – Briggen Salta Anna (Piglet, 1981)

Swedish vocals, spoken word
International relevance: *

Musikgruppen RAA began in 1973 and disbanded ten years later after a plentiful of shows in Sweden and abroad. They did reunite in the early 90's however and is still active. During their first lifetime, they also released two albums on the bizarre label Piglet, the epononymous album in 1980, and ”Briggen Salta Anna” in the following year.

”Briggen Salta Anna” is a story album about the brig of the album title, full of short songs, the shortest being only 22 seconds. It reveals two fundamental things about Musikgruppen RAA: their love for children's music their love for UK folk in general and The Incredible String Band in particular. (The reformed RAA released a full ISB tribute album in 2010.) What makes ”Briggen Salta Anna” a hard listen though are the many spoken bits that carry the story. It sounds more like a radio play for kids than an album to actually listen to. And the proper musical portions are nowhere as good as the British/Scottish counterparts that so greatly influenced them. The album is a curiousity at best, and adds to Piglet being one of the weirdest record labels.

Full album playlist

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Vi har rätt till jobb! (Slå Tillbaka!, 1978)

 
Featured artists: TBC / Checkpoint Charlie / Steve Roper Band / Rikets Affärer / Burträskar'a / Gnid Och Drag / Pertti Och Aimo / Paddy Perssons Grop / Ålidhems Nyfolkliga Dansorkester
Swedish vocals, other languages, instrumental
International relevance: **

Slå Tillbaka! (”fight back”) was apparently not a record label per se, but an organisation working against unemployment, racism and drugs but released this one album. ”Vi har rätt till jobb!” (”we have the right to work”) was recorded live in Umeå 1978 during a one day festival to support the cause of the organisation. It features ten acts, none of them particularily well-known outside of this album. The best known (or should I say the least unknown) bands make up the first side of the album: TBC, Steve Roper Band (performing a cover av Röda Ropet's ”Spring Lasse spring”, Checkpoint Charlie and Rikets Affärer. They all play straighforward rock with a slight hard rock bent and an even minor punk touch, and they're all decent for what they are. Side 2 is entirely different, focusing on folk music and singer/songwriter styled material that fail to impress. It's doubtful that the same person would appreciate both sides, but the heavy side might appeal to genre collectors. It's neither a very rare nor expensive album, so anyone possibly interested in it will be able to pick it up cheap.

No links found

BRITTA LINDELL – How Would I Like (Prophone, 1973) / Waiting For The Next Sunrise (Caprice, 1981)

Swedish vocals, English vocals, other languages, instrumental
International relevance: **

Certainly one of the most curious entries here, Britta Lindell's music defies any easy categorization. If there was one artist worthy of the buzz phrase 'thinking outside the box', then it might as well be her. It's definitely not jazz, it's not folk, it's not classical, I don't even know if it's prog or progg but it's definitely progressive in the sense it doesn't sound quite like anything else.

Lindell was born in Lisbon in 1943 and moved around Europe, and as a trained alto violinist she had played with several European symphony orchestras before settling down in 1970 in a cottage in Västmanland, an area west of Uppsala and Stockholm. She mastered more than 50 instruments of different kinds including the piembalo, a prepared piano she came up with herself. Over the years, she worked as teacher, and briefly as a choreographer for the Swedish national television, wrote music for the stage and even a contribution the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986 that never got as far as to the actual competition.

Her debut album appeared already in 1973, with ”How I Would Like” on the independent label Prophone. A curious mix of folk music from around the world, baroque and renaissance music, and something that was simply Britta Lindell's own mind, with some lyrics from Swedish poet Nils Ferlin and William Shakespeare. At times she reminds me of both Iva Bittová and Dagmar Krause but with more of a playful tongue-in-cheek humour. Although she draws from a plethora of 'high-brow' influences, she never fell prey to pretentiousness. The album is fun, and Lindell's approach is almost that of a child discovering the world through magical thinking. Through charm she tunes you gently to her wavelength; she makes you not listen to her music, but to listen to it with her.

It took until 1981 before she released her next album, ”Waiting For The Next Sunrise” on Caprice Records. It pretty much follows along the lines of ”How I Would Like”, but it sounds a bit more elaborate, more developed and with a greater emphasis on the renaissance strain. It's still a good album, and still clearly original, but it feels a bit more contained and therefore lacks some of the wide-eyed freshness of the debut. The best track on ”Waiting For The Next Sunrise” might be the last one, the strangely eerie and suite-like ”The Next Sunrise”.

Britta Lindell released one further album called ”Lights” plus a single of her rejected ESC song ”Simsalabim”, both on the Siljum label in 1986.

Lindell passed away in 2000, leaving a slim but highly original and often intriguing recorded legacy behind.

How Would I Like full album

Waiting For The Next Sunrise full album playlist

GRUS I DOJJAN – Slarvigt men säkert (Sonet, 1974) / Högt spel (Sonet, 1975)

Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: *

Third and fourth album by Grus I Dojjan, previously featured on the blog with their debut album. These albums are simply more of the same: cheerful mix of old-timey Western folk traditions including Great Britiain, America and Sweden, performed in a devil-may-care fashion. ”Slarvigt men säkert” translates to ”sloppy but surely” which is the best description of Grus I Dojjan you'll ever see. ”Högt spel” is a little more professional sounding which in a way contradicts Grus I Dojjan's homegrown nimbus. If you're one of the two last people (there can't be any more than that left) who still absolutely love this style, you'll love these albums too. 

Slarvigt men säkert full album
Högt spel full album playlist