SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA – Måltid (Silence, 1973) / Klossa knapitatet (Silence, 1974) / Snorungarnas symfoni (MNW, 1976)

It probably says more about me than about guitarist Coste Apetrea that the two Samla Mammas Manna albums I like the best don't have him in the line-up, the one they did before he joined the band, and ”Familjesprickor” by the Zamla Mammaz Manna incarnation. Most people would say that the 1972-1976 is their prime period and it's generally acknowledged as their most classic era.

Måltid (Silence, 1973)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

”Måltid” is the first album to feature Apetrea, and needless to say it's a much different album to the band's eponymous, guitarless debut. With Apetrea, the music lost most of the mysterious aura that surrounds their maiden work. Instead they developed their famed complexity and patented humour. Sometimes it's far too much of that make-a-funny-face sing-with-a-silly-voice thumbs-up tomfoolery. And sometimes, it's very good, as in "Folkvisa i morse". Often within the same song. And that's why I find ”Måltid” so frustrating to listen to.

Klossa knapitatet (Silence, 1974)

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

Coste Apetrea's influence on the band was really beginning to show here. A greater amount of fusion was beginning to creep into the slapstick music, with constant time changes (”heh heh, funny, eh?”) and over-complex compositions (”aren't we clever, eh?”). I can't shake off the feeling that they do it just because they can, to impress. It's peacock prog. Again, some good moments but on the whole, well, juvenile really.

Snorungarnas symfoni (MNW, 1976)

as Gregory Allan FitzPatrick/Samla Mammas Manna
Instrumental
International relevance: *** 

Greg FitzPatrick wrote ”Snorungarnas symfoni”, an extended work in four movements. Considering Samla Mammas Manna's considerable skills, it was a natural thing to let them perform it. Augmented by a horn section, they toured with ”Snorungarnas symfoni” and recorded it for MNW in 1976. Although it has parts that allow Samla Mammas Manna to show off and despite its grander scope, it's less overwrought and not as hysterical as Samla's regular albums. The downside is that it's not imaginative enough to warrant a 34 minutes playing time. Some parts could easily have been cut down to make for an overall more effective piece. 

After ”Snorungarnas symfoni”, Samla Mammas Manna took a break during which Coste Apetrea left the band (good riddance). Eino Haapala stepped in as his replacement, and the band officially reformed as Zamla Mammaz Manna.

Måltid full album playlist
Klossa knapitatet full album playlist
Snorungarnas symfoni full album playlist

DE GLADAS KAPELL – Spelar Nilsson (Svenska Love, 1978)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

With Kornet's Stefan Nilsson, Samla Mammas Manna's Coste Apetrea, Jojje Wadenius of Made In Sweden and Peter Sundell from new age synth guru Ralph Lundsten's Andromeda All Stars forming this super group, it's pretty obvious from the start what ”De Gladas Kapell spelar Nilsson” is about: über competent fusion with all tracks written by Stefan Nilsson. Those who want impeccable musicianship first and foremost will love it. And yes, it's better than anything Kornet ever released and yes, it's a little more lively than Coste Apetrea's devastatingly boring solo albums but I had low school grades in math so De Gladas Kapell's many intricate equations and complex calculations mean absolutely nothing to me.

Coste Apetrea made sure to include De Gladas Kapell when he compiled ”Progglådan”.

Cover art by Tage Åsén who painted several albums for the Samla Mammas Manna clan and others.

Full album playlist
Tonkraft 1978
Rio dejavu
Lösnäsor
Ockhams rakkniv

COSTE APETREA – Nyspolat (MNW, 1977) / COSTE APETREA & STEFAN NILSSON WITH JUKKA TOLONEN – Vänspel (Svenska Love, 1979)

Instrumental

International relevance: *** / ***

Of course there's a whole lot to be said about former Samla Mammas Manna member Coste Apetrea, He's been involved in so many things over the years. But I can't muster up enough enthusiasm for his solo work to bother. I can't think of many musicians as boring as him on his own.

”Nyspolat” was his first solo album and it's so dull it could bore the wallpapers off Carlos Santana's wall. This is guitar acrobatics ad nauseam, both acoustic and electric, set to a fusion backdrop that could bore the wallpapers off John McLaughlin's wall. I don't even understand why this music exists apart from satisfying Apetrea's inflated ego.

”Vänspel” was made with keyboard player Stefan Nilsson featuring ultrabore Jukka Tolonen. A tiny bit more exciting than ”Nyspolat”, thanks to Nilsson's piano, but it's still a pain to sit through. It's so cerebral and dull that it could bore the wallpapers off Al DiMeola's wall.

It's albums such as these that almost make me regret I started this blog.

By the way, Apetrea was responsible for the booklets accompanying the massive 40 CD ”Progglådan” release, with previously unreleased radio recordings by a large number of progg bands. Had he been as pedantic with his liner notes as he is with his music, then they wouldn't have been littered with so many spelling mistakes to make them more or less impossible to read without breaking something in frustration. Frankly the worst example of an insulting lack of proof reading I've ever seen in a published piece of writing I've ever seen. Sometimes he obviously just don't care when he should have, other times he cares way, way, way too much when he shouldn't.

Nyspolat full album playlist

Vänspel full album

RAMLÖSA KVÄLLAR – Ramlösa Kvällar (Silence, 1978)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

Recorded in 1977 and 1978, and a much appetizing entry to the vast Samla Mammas Manna related catalogue, featuring Coste Apetrea and centered around the maverick talent of Lars Hollmer. Their name translates into ”nights without frames”, and frameless the music certainly is, blending a wide array of musical traditions into one highly appealing mix that those who accepts today's terminology would call world music. 

”Ramlösa Kvällar” is one of those albums that not unlike Anita Livstrand's "Mötet" transcends musical borders and shrinks the world into one strong unit. In other words, an album to teach us that different traditions are basically only different expressions of the same thing and that people can co-exist perfectly fine if only we'd give it a serious try. (Yes, I'm naïve enough to believe that music can bring us at least a little closer together.)

The album cross-pollinates Klezmer, Balkan, Oriental and Romani music but the very best track in this collection is the slow but tense seven minute Swedish traditional ”Vallåten” that would have been a high point even on an Arbete & Fritid album. 

Selections from a show recorded at Gärdet in Stockholm in 1977 are included in ”Progglådan”, and a longer radio recording (from the same show?) circulates in great sound quality and should be released officially. ”Ramlösa Kvällar” was reissued on CD in 1993 with an uglier cover design.

Full album playlist

 

Tonkraft 1977 full album playlist (tracks 4-8)