FINN ZETTERHOLM & MARIE SELANDER – Lillfar och Lillmor (SR, 1970)

  
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

I wouldn't say that Finn Zetterholm's and Marie Selander's voices and vocal styles are a perfect match, but it's no wonder Zetterholm chose Selander as a singing partner on this album. It's a collection of old short folk songs, some almost like children's rhymes, and with no better female folk singer in Sweden than Marie Selander, few could do this better than her. It's also Zetterholm's best 70s album, much thanks to Bengt-Arne Wallin's interesting arrangements quoting both jazz and renaissance music. No wonder, as jazz players such as Palle Danielsson, Egil Johansen and Rune Gustafsson appears, plus the nation's prime advocate for renaissance music. multi-instrumentalist Sven Berger on instruments like dulcian, hurdy gurdy and bassoon, and Eric-Gustaf Brilioth adding the colourful timbre of crumhorn. It's not one of my regular spins, but Folk & Rackare fans may be interested in hearing ”Lillfar och Lillmor” at least once.

Full album playlist

BENGT-ARNE WALLIN – Varmluft (Sonet, 1972)

Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: **

Bengt-Arne Wallin is surrounded by an interesting lot of performers on ”Varmluft”. Apart from the internationally renowned swing and bebop trumpeter Clark Terry, there's a number of domestic dignitaries here including Marie Selander, Lennart Åberg (of Rena Rama), Georg Riedel, Sabu Martinez, Anthony Reebop Kwaku Bah and Maffy Falay. And as always, Janne Schaffer. The music could be called progressive big band, but that doesn't quite say much about its variety. There are low-key, moody moments, funky sections, folksy moments – there's a little bit of everything working together as a kaleidoscopic whole. Wallin sometimes wanted too much at once which is the problem with for instance ”Wallin/Wallin”, but ”Varmluft” is a bit better sorted out. Not everything here is successful, but some of it is. And I do appreciate his approach even when it doesn't work out completely. He was a visionary and it's always heartwarming delving into a visionary's work.

The cover art is made by Lasse Åberg.

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BENGT-ARNE WALLIN – Wallin/Wallin (Dux, 1971)

 
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Bengt-Arne Wallin was noted jazz musician and composer (he died in 2015) with a special love for Swedish folk music, and played with everybody from hugely popular easy listening icon Lill Lindfors to Polish jazz maverick Tomasz Stańko. His 1971 effort ”Wallin/Wallin” is centered around old Swedish chorales and psalms with words by poet and lyricist Johan Olov Wallin. The selected psalms make for a song cycle of sorts that straddles the lines between prog, fusion, third stream jazz, and progressive big band. Such an ambitious venture surely demands skill to pull through, and Wallin indeed managed to drum up a plethora of seasoned and in-demand players. Names such as the two Jans, Schaffer and Bandel are – needless to say – featured, as are Okay Temiz, Ola Brunkert, Stefan Brolund to name but a few. For the vocals, Wallin approached Ann-Kristin Hedmark and Tommy Körberg, Körberg then a member of newly formed genre-defying battleship Solar Plexus.

The ambition level is dazzling, but the ideas and efforts often get in the way of the music itself. Everyone involved do their best and you can hear they're pretty thrilled by the whole project, but in the end, the music gets too unwieldy and sometimes a bit too cerebrally sluggish to take off. It's interesting as a period piece, but the album is too long and can be fatiguing. Simply put, a little too eager for its own good.

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