MERIT HEMMINGSON OCH BEPPE WOLGERS MED FOLKLIGA - Det for två vita duvor... - Folkton i Vikens kapell (EMI, 1973)

  
Swedish vocals, spoken word, instrumental
International relevance: **

Merit Hemmingson made a great splash in the 70s with her groove heavy Hammond organ interpretations of Swedish folk tunes, and her popularity has grown in later years after being largely neglected inbetween. Her career started out already in the 60s with a couple of pop soul jazz albums, but it's her first two folk inspired albums ”Huvva!” and ”Trollskog” (1971-1972) that garner most interest. ”Det for två vita duvor...” from 1973 is a bit of an oddity in her discography, being recorded with Beppe Wolgers. Wolgers is very well known to a certain age group of Swedes, having made absurdist television series in the 60s before breaking through to a younger audience with a couple of highly beloved children's shows in the 70s, now considered almost canonical.

Wolgers was a multifaceted character; a writer and a poet, a TV personality, a humorist... He's known for his softspoken voice and warm personality, but he was also a troubled thinker with a melancholy side. Those two sides of his soul came through on ”Det for två vita duvor...” where he recites poems to Hemmingson's musical backdrop. Not only Hemmingson's actually, because the temporary constellation Folkliga consists of four Splash members plus folk fiddlers Kalle Almlöf and Roland Keijser/Arbete & Fritid collaborator Anders Rosén. Also Staffan Sjöholm from Keijser's early jazz quartet.

Being recorded in the Viken chapel in Merit Hemmingson's home county of Jämtland, the sound is heavy on mystical atmosphere which fits like a glove with the acoustic instrumentation. However, it takes a certain listener to appreciate the spoken word portions. That especially goes for foreign listeners as the words are in Swedish. The poetry readings may seem distracting to those not familiar with the language. Then again, some tracks have no readings, and are either instrumental or have vocals by Hemmingson herself (and she has a really beautiful voice, all too seldom heard). Few of the tracks are that easy to remember afterwards; they work together as a mood piece, like aural incense. As a whole, this double album is definitely overlong but in smaller doses, it creates an archaic mood that is quite captivating.

Full album playlist

LILLEMOR LIND – Hjortronblom och kärleksört (Proprius, 1978)

 

Swedish vocals, a capella
International relevance: **

Lillemor Lind is a Dalecarlian singer who made her debut on record on the ”Tjejclown” album in 1974. She wrote one of the songs on Lena Ekman's second album in 1980 and also contributed some recordings to a couple of folk albums around the same time. Her full length solo debut came with ”Så draga vi upp till Dalom igen”, with songs from her native Dalarna region, something she passionately researched beside her singing. Lind also had a thorough interest in foreign musics, particularly from Latin America, the Near East and the Balkans as reflected by the two Macedonian songs on ”Hjortronblom and kärleksört”. Both her albums were released through Proprius, known to blog readers from Leif Strands Kammarkör, Lena Granhagen and Elisabet Hermodsson, meaning they have a very particular ambience.

”Hjortronblom och kärleksört” is Lind's most interesting album thanks to the musicians involved. It features Arbete & Fritid key members Roland Keijser and Ove Karlsson, as well as fiddler Anders Rosén who made several albums with Keijser plus took a leading role on ”Sen dansar vi ut”. (A further Arbete & Fritid connection is Rolf Lundqvist who took the group photo on the album cover.) Also present are members from jazz outfit Opposite Corner.

The sound and the arrangements are wonderfully moody and the songs– both traditional and original – are beautiful and melancholy with a prominent archaic character. The main problem is Lillemor Lind herself. Her vocal style has a kind of preciosity to it, as if she was classically trained and had lost some touch with the vernacularity of the songs. It's not a constantly up front problem, but you can always sense it under the surface and now and then it comes through. That spoils it somewhat for me and I can't help but imagining what this would have been like had Marie Selander or Lena Ekman been in Lind's place. As it stands now, it's an intrinsically great album that never reaches its full potential.

Full album playlist

KALLE ALMLÖF – Kalle Almlöf (Amigo, 1980)

Instrumental
International relevance: *

Kalle Almlöf's claim to blog inclusion stems from his co-operation with Arbete & Fritid/Roland Keijser associate Anders Rosén; Almlöf's first album was ”Västerdalton” which prominently featured Rosén's fiddle, and so did 1975's ”Stamp, tramp och långkut”. The eponymous 1980 album at hand marks the third time they united on disc, and it also features some further noted fiddlers, namely Pers Hans Olsson, Jonny Soling and Björn Ståbi. 

As expected, it's Swedish folk fiddling through and through with an emphasis on polskas (a particular type of dance tunes highly popular among Swedish folk musicians). The perfoming duties are split in solos and duos, and while there's nothing wrong with any of it (the skills displayed here are impeccable, needless to say), it's a collection of tunes clearly aimed at the folk music audience and not at all recorded with any progg listeners in mind. The best tracks are the most melancholic ones, particularly the two that round off the first side, ”Bakmes” (a variation on well-known Swedish folk song ”Vårvindar friska”) with Anders Rosén, and Almlöf's solo execution in ”Polska från Älvdalen”. The high point of side B is the Kalle Almlöf original ”Åreskutan”, a tribute to a Swedish mountain by the same name.

No links found.

ROLAND KEIJSER & ANDERS ROSÉN – Forsens låt (Hurv, 1975)

Instrumental

International relevance: **

One of the true masterworks to come out of the Swedish folk music scene of the 70's, and a pioneering work too when it came out in 1975 as the first release on the Hurv label: ”Forsens låt” was the first time ever than the soprano sax was used on a record with Swedish folk music. Handled by Arbete & Fritid illuminary Roland Keijser, it beautifully supports, chases and embraces Anders Rosén's fiddle in a number of traditional tunes augmented by a slew of carefully crafted Rosén originals. The music moves in a space of its own, familiar yet different. Explained Rosén in an interview I did with him and Keijser in 2014:

”'Forsens låt' is an obvious attempt at creating a 'fantasy dialect' within folk music. It sounds like a clearly defined style, but you can't really place it in time or geography.”

”We were careful not to sentimentalize the old folk music,” Keijser elaborated, ”and we didn't want to jazzify it or dress it up in nifty chord progressions or adapt it to God-knows-what. We just wanted to play the songs straight without any hidden intentions, only adding a new timbre through the soprano sax.”

The results are stunning, thick with rich textures of the intertwined timbres of the fiddle and the sax, and melodies dense with equal parts of pertinence and alluring ancient lore. It's Swedish blues without any stylistic evidence of American blues as we know it.

I realize that Swedish fiddle music isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if there's one album I'd like to recommend to listeners to the uninitiated, this is it. It's a masterpiece.

Springlek

ANDERS ROSÉN & OVE KARLSSON – Låtar med Anders Rosén och Ove Karlsson (Hurv, 1979)

Instrumental
International relevance: **

A rarely seen album with a tight Arbete & Fritid connection. Ove Karlsson was of course one of the most prominent members of Arbete & Fritid, while folk fiddler Anders Rosén joined them for their 1977 double album ”...sen dansar vi ut”, like this album released on Rosén's Hurv label. Here Karlsson provides cello, zither and guitar, while his compadre sticks to a fiddle with sympathetic strings. The combination of fiddle and cello in particular adds baroque sounding characteristics to these original Rosén pieces which is very pleasing to listen to. And both participants are of course class 'A' musicians with good ears for complementing interplay.

While not a surefire recommendation to people not used to music deeply rooted in traditional tunes and folk fiddling, the album has a fine atmosphere with plenty of droning qualities that might appeal to fans of ”...sen dansar vi ut”.

The front cover drawing is by Anders Rosén's daughter.

No links found.

ARBETE & FRITID – 3 collaborative albums

 

Slottsbergets hambo å andra valser (MNW, 1972)

as Rolf Lundqvist å Arbete Å Fritid

Swedish vocals, spoken word

International relevance: *

 

This is the first album of theirs co-credited to an external talent. Rolf Lundqvist was a poet and parts of ”Slottsbergets hambo å andra valser” are him reading pretty peculiar poems. He also sings to Arbete & Fritid's musical backgrounds of old timey dance music, rock paraphrases, tango, swing etc. It's more Lundqvist's album than Arbete & Fritid's and to be honest, it's not very good. But definitely one of the most puzzling entries in the band's catalogue.

Käringtand (YTF, 1976)
as Margareta Söderberg, Arbete Och Fritid/Pojkarna på Storholmen
Swedish vocals

International relevance: **

 

Margareta Söderberg is a folk singer who has appeared on several albums, mostly various artists compilations such as ”Alternativ festival”, ”Röd 1:a maj-fest” and ”Jordljus – Befria marken”. Pojkarna på Storholmen were a folk constellation who took their name from a Swedish 1930's movie and who, to my knowledge, never appeared on any other album than ”Käringtand”

Like ”Slottsbergets hambo” mainly is Rolf Lundqvist's album, ”Käringtand” is Margareta Söderberg's. Some songs are performed a capella in a traditional style that fit the album's folk concept, and Arbete & Fritid appears on only six of the thirteen tracks, and while Söderberg is a fine singer, it's Arbete & Fritid's participation that lifts the album. Particularly good is the last track ”Sången om Moldau” written by Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler and features some very fine sax from Roland Keijser. 

A live recording of the Söderberg/Arbete & Fritid coupling can be found in "Progglådan", including the wonderful "Höstvisa" (made famous by Swedish/Finnish band Cumulus) not on the original album.

…Sen dansar vi ut (Hurv, 1977)

Instrumental

International relevance: **

With folk fiddler Anders Rosén at the helm of this double album (released on his Hurv label but released as Arbete & Fritid only), it's sometimes overlooked and dismissed as an inferior work of theirs, but is in fact very good. With the tunes presented in the same way they were recorded it follows a logical flow, getting more and more intense as it goes. The band's efforts are excellent and with Rosén being perhaps the best living fiddler in Sweden, it's an album so enjoyable it certainly should be counted among their regular releases and accordingly appreciated.

Slottsbergets hambo å andra valser full album playlist
Sen dansar vi ut full album

från Käringtand

"Lärandets lov"

Margareta Söderberg & Arbete Och Fritid Tonkraft
"Den bortsålda"
"Barn"
"Lärandets lov"
"Höstvisa"