SOGMUSOBIL – Telefon (Gump, 1971)

Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: ***

Sogmusobil were one of the first generation progg bands along with Träd, Gräs & Stenar, Fläsket Brinner and Samla Mammas Manna, starting out as a six-piece curiously known as Telefon Paisa. Einar Heckscher, wild man poet and founding member told the Arkivet podcast/website that they got the name Telefon Paisa ”from the idea that if every person in the world had a telephone and some pocket money for the call there would be peace on Earth (paisa is a subdivision of the Indian rupee where a paisa equals 1/64 of a rupee)”. When three of the original members left the band shortly before recording ”Telefon”, they changed the name to the even more curious Sogmusobil (the origins of the name in question is well documented; it's an abbreviation of ”Stark och god musik utföres snabbt och billigt", roughly meaning ”strong and good music performed fast and cheap” in English).

Sogmusobil's live shows were famed – or infamous – for being shambolic happenings, as confirmed by a surviving live recording from Moderna Museet (the Museum of Modern Art) in Stockholm in August 1970. Noodling and rambling, they sometimes happen to make the music gel, but a lot of the time, they appear so out of it with Heckscher apparently freeforming lyrics over a untogether mess of group noise. Judging by that, it's pretty amazing that they even managed to get an album done.

”Telefon” is indeed an acquired taste. Approaching it for the first time, it helps being accustomed to Red Krayola's 1967 album ”The Parable of Arable Land”, ESP-Disk' act The Godz, and the stoned out freak jams of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat saved for posterity on their debut album. In short, ”Telefon” is very much a product of its time. It does have some appeal if you're in the right frame of mind, but if not and most often, it's merely a nerve-grating endurance test – ”psychedelic” at its worst. "Tjackvalsen" is pretty good but the stand-out track is the hard driving album opener ”Arabic in the Morning”, somewhat resembling Hawkwind and included on the 4CD box set alphabetically chronicling the evolution of progg, ”Pregnant Rainbows For Colourblind Dreamers” (released in 2007, but sadly long deleted).

Vastly overrated, ”Telefon” had an eagerly anticipated limited re-release a couple of years back, not affecting the value of original copies on the Gump imprint – prepare yourself for an asking price of at least €500 for a decent copy. Unless you're lucky enough to stumble across a copy priced based on musical value...

Two years after the release of Sogmusobil's sole album, Heckscher and Norweigan keyboard player Johnny Mowinckel (formerly of Atlantic Ocean and Fläsket Brinner) reformed Telefon Paisa, using yet a new name, Levande Livet. As such they recorded one album, the largely under-appreciated ”Strömmens pärla”.

Mowinckel kept playing music after the demise of Levande Livet but made only a few appearances in public, according to Wikipedia Sweden ”due to a rough life”. Unexpectedly, he released an album of electro-acoustic music in the mid 90's, ”Skisser från Flen”. Mowinckel passed away in 2015 after a period of illness. Colourful character Heckscher on the other hand established himself as a comparably successful author and translator of the works of Charles Bukowski, Jack Keuroac, Thomas Pynchon, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and the likes. In the early 00's, Swedish National Television produced a 47 minute documentary on Heckscher.

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LEVANDE LIVET – Strömmens pärla (Silence, 1973)

English and Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

Sometimes regarded as a continuation of Telefon Paisa (or if you prefer, Sogmusobil). Truth is that only two of the members had previously been in Telefon Paisa: Johnny Mowinckel, and the ever so illustrious character Einar Heckscher. There are also only a few musical similarities between the two bands, with Levande Livet being far more skilled than Telefon Paisa and their pathologically untogether, albeit strangely attractive, freak jams.

”Strömmens pärla” is all over the place, stylistically. They move from the scruffy blues of ”Bellman” and album opener ”Mänskolivet”, through some sort of jazz in ”Samma samba”, to a kind of singer/songwriter rock in ”Out of This Mess” and the slightly psychy ”Fri idrott”. The high points of the album however are the two final tracks, ”Hr. Drever & hr. Ströver” and ”Strömmens pärla”. The first one is the album's shortest track, but long enough to get into a stoned groove. (No wonder, since the band was excessively into a variety of stimulants...) The title track on the other hand is the longest piece, a loud, gritty workout with a prominent horn section including jazz trumpeter Maffy Falay – later of Sevda fame – blows it out, and some loudmouthed wah wah guitar.

It's a pity that the vocals are too low in the mix. Well, some might appreciate that they're are barely audible at times, as Einar Heckscher admittedly isn't the greatest singer in the world. He has a gruff, gravelly voice that sometimes hit the notes and sometimes not. I for one actually like his ”who gives a shit anyway” style of singing, but I know that some people find it brutally off-putting.

”Strömmens pärla” is by no means a masterpiece, but I'm quite fond of their dirty sound. Fans of Gudibrallan and Love Explosion will likely groove hard to it if you can find a copy. It's among the rarest LP's on the Silence label.

Those who want more Levande Livet in their lives ought to check out the recently released 40 CD box set ”Progglådan” which features a live recording, also from 1973 and made for Swedish Radio broadcasting corporation. Slightly heavier and noisier, that recording is a fine complement to their lone studio album.

Almost all of the members went on to other glories after Levande Livet disbanded. Gunnar Bergsten later brought his saxophone to Bo Hansson, Mikael Ramel and Xtra sessions. He had previously been in avant jazzers G.L. Unit, as well as in Fläsket Brinner and, along with Maffy Falay, in the aforementioned Sevda. Hans Berggren turned up many years later in an obscure band called Happy Boys Band who managed to release one single only in 1980. Bass player Lars Bergström and guitar slinger Tommy Broman eventually teamed up with the infamous Tom Zacharias on his equally infamous ”Belinda” albums. Broman also recorded one solo album for the YTF label in 1976. Peter Smoliansky is the son of renowned jazz singer Nannie Porres, and founded garage rhythm & blues band Rost in the late 70's before joining highly successful rock act Eldkvarn for several years in the 80's and early 90's. He plays darbouka on ”Strömmens pärla”, as he prior to that also did with Anita Livstrand. Einar Heckscher became a noted translator of predominantly American underground literature, and he's also the brother of Social Democrat Sten Heckscher who during several years was head Police Commissioner in Sweden.

Full album playlist