VARIOUS ARTISTS – Sånger och musik från Kvinnokulturfestivalen (Silence, 1977)

Rut Hermansson / Eva Blomqvist / Sabina Kristensen / Monika Lundin / Frankie Armstrong / Lena Ekman / Jan Hammarlund / Marie Selander / Lena Granhagen / Monica Törnell / Andra Bullar / Lava / Ulla Bendrik-Johansson / Turid / Margareta Söderberg / Monica Törnell / Cyndee Peters / Röda Bönor 

Swedish vocals, English vocals, a cappella
International relevance: **

Kvinnokulturfestivalen (Festival of Women Culture) was a three day event held in Stockholm in late October 1977 with many of the usual suspects coming together. This album is a selection of songs recorded at the festival and features Marie Selander, Turid, Lena Granhagen, Andra Bullar, Margareta Söderberg and Röda Bönor to name a few. Most of it is acoustic and most of it sounds exactly as expected, meaning political folk with a righteous message.

A couple of tracks have electric backing and those selections are also the best. Marie Selander's ”Carcara” even manages to work up a physical groove very rarely heard on political albums. Lava, a seemingly temporary grouping assembled specifically for the festival, is Lena Ekman backed by the likes of Sigge Krantz (Archimedes Badkar, Stockholm Norra, Torkel Rasmusson, Lokomotiv Konkret et al) and Ola Backström (Stockholm Norra, Torkel Rasmussion, Dag Vag). Their ”Svartsjuk” starts out a bit trying and uncertain but grows organically as it goes on. Ola Backström's slide guitar isn't exactly Elmore James – more of a slurry Robbie Krieger – but it works to good effect and pushes the song almost to the six minute limit. And Monica Törnell is far better here than on any of her own albums from around this time.

The performers are perhaps more interesting than the performances, but as said above, the album isn't entirely without musical merits. It's not a great album by any means, but remains one of the better feminist albums from the period, for what it's worth.

Full album playlist

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Röd 1:a maj-fest (Oktober, 1974)

Featured artists: Robert Karl Oskar Broberg / Peps Blodsband / Pepparn / Fria Proteatern / Athenians / Margareta Söderberg / Anders Linder / Lennart Johnsson / Röda Stjärnan

Swedish vocals, a capella, instrumental
International relevance: *

Recorded live on 1 May, 1974 celebrating Labour Day. Wildly uneven and certainly not essential, but with a couple of memorable performances. The majestic Peps Blodsband performs a spirited ”Fem långa år”, a translation of Eddie Boyd's classic blues ”Five Long Years”. They also team up with actor Anders Lind (Kapten Zoom, Ville & Valle & Viktor) for one track.  Hoola Bandoola Band backs up Robert Broberg for ”Vem är det som bromsar och vem är det som skjuter på”.and also appears on their own, with a surprisingly weak take on their otherwise excellent ”Keops pyramid”. Other artists include accordionist Pepparn, an a capella performance by Margareta Söderberg (known from her collaboration with Arbete & Fritid on ”Käringtand”), and three fatiguing tracks by Fria Proteatern.

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A VARIOUS ARTISTS SPECIAL – 3 regional compilations

HOPKOK (Partille Musikförening, 1975)

Featured artists: Akropolie / Impros / Varde Ljud / Måttbandet / Medium

Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: **

Released in Gothenburg suburb Partille, featuring five local acts mostly in the progressive and symphonic vein. None of them is very interesting, the best being Medium with a slight krautrock vibe and lots of guitar/organ jamming.

JORDLJUS – BEFRIA MARKEN (Jordljus, 1978)

Featured artists: Lillemor Lund / Jordbandet / Mullvadarna / Lillen och Göran / Bank I Väggen / Margareta Söderberg, Margareta Van Gilpen & Sara Söderberg / Hagamal / Christer Öhrman

Swedish vocals, spoken word, a capella

International relevance: **

This private pressing (in an edition of 1,200) was a fund raising release for Jordfonden, an association of people known as Jordfolket ('the Earth people') wanting to buy some land to set up a hippie styled agricultural commune as an alternative to the modern industrial society.

The album has a distant Arbete & Fritid connection, with Margareta Söderberg who had the ”Käringtand” album out in 1976 with them backing her up, and Lillemor Lind whose album ”Hjortronblom och kärleksört” features several Arbete & Fritid members.

”Jordljus – Befria marken” consists of mainly folk and folk rock, all of it with a homemade vibe and some of it political sounding. Most of it isn't very good, but a couple of Jordbandet's contributions are OK, and Bank I Väggen's ”Springlek” is instrumental and acoustic folk rock somewhat reminiscent of Arbete & Fritid/Anders Rosén's ”Sen dansar vi ut”.

MUSIK I TANUM -80 (Tanum Skivristningar, 1980)

Featured artists: Pertinax / Björn och Tomas / Baltix / Nibokas / Siv och Sixten / Milda Makter / Henry och Einar Hedström / Marie Stensby / Hans Fromén / Bengt och Nisse / Andrea Ehnebom / Lur-Gunnar / Bohus-Dals Dragspelsklubb / Kalle i Kalleby / Kville Kyrkokör / Maud Tretom / Ärter Och Fläsk / Märta Thorwall / Aröette Chené Wiklander / Kurt Wiklander / Johan Johansson / Backa Skola, åk 3 / Kent Andersson / Gitarrkvartetten / Sara Reimbert / Gerlesborgslägret / Jazzgruppen / Muzzle

Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: *

Released in Tanum north of Gothenburg famed for its many impressive rock carvings – more impressive than this album for sure. Only one track is interesting from a progg perspective, ”Bibbi” by mediocre symph rockers Pertinax. The rest is unexciting jazz, school bands and classical music.

From Jordljus - Befria marken:
Jordbandet - Framåt tillsammans

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"

ÄLGARNAS TRÄDGÅRD – Framtiden är ett svävande skepp, förankrat i forntiden (Silence, 1972)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

Ranked #19 on the blog's Top 25

Perhaps Gothenburg's Älgarnas Trädgård should have been German because they were more 'kosmische' than most. Träd, Gräs & Stenar's music have been declared 'meditative', but that's an adjective I'd rather save for Älgarnas Trädgård. Because their kind of meditation works without serial flubs and fuck-ups. They even manage to use sitar and tablas on ”Det finns en tid för allt, det finns en tid då även tiden möts” without getting silly and cheap-sounding.

”Framtiden är ett svävande skepp, förankrat i forntiden” sounds just like band member and painter Jan Ternald's absolutely stunning artwork looks. The album is a trip deep into inner space, an intergalactic mind journey but at the same time firmly rooted in ancient soil through the folk sounding passages as ”Möjligheternas barn” with vocals by Margareta Söderberg, and ”Tristans klagan” based on the renaissance dance ”La Rotta” (title corrected on later editions). The music's an altered state full of secrets, conundrums and enigmas, reaching out in all directions, inwards, outwards, upwards, downwards, sideways, ahead and back – its scope is almost unfathomable. ”Framtiden är ett svävande skepp” is a work of wonder.

When reissued on CD, the album was expanded with live recordings made at Gothenburg's Museum of Art in 1972. More live recordings exist, including one from Stora Teatern in Gothenburg in 1973. A second Älgarnas Trädgård album was also recorded, but as the band dissolved during the mixing sessions, the release was cancelled. Silence eventually put out it out as ”Delayed” in 2001.

Full album playlist with bonus tracks