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

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.

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ARBETE & FRITID – Se upp för livet (MNW, 1977) / Håll andan (MNW, 1979)

Se upp för livet (MNW, 1977)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

 

One of Arbete & Fritid's weakest. Roland Keijser had left the band at this point, taking most of the jazz with him, and leaving the leadership to cellist Ove Karlsson under whose direction the band took a step closer to rock, or at least rock related music.

The music on ”Se upp för livet” is pretty diverse though, ranging from the plain bizarre (”Knoga och knega” and ”Avdelning - indelning” ) to the downright spooky (”Jag är inte som andra”), from the eerie opening drone of ”Födelsemusik” to the hard rock of ”Lev hårt - dö ung” (sounding like a crossbreed of Nationalteatern and Gudibrallan). A lot of the album sounds like a Thomas Mera Gartz solo album on one hand and a Träd, Gräs & Stenar album on the other (Gartz and Torbjörn Abelli appear on ”Se upp för livet”). The atypicalities of the album might be explained by the fact the music were made for an exhibition at Kulturhuset in Stockholm 1976, and probably had to fit in with the exposition's concept. It would probably have been a better album had it been trimmed down to a single disc, but it's still worth having for the good bits.

Håll andan (MNW, 1979)

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

International relevamce: ***

The last album to be released by Arbete & Fritid is still stylistically sprawling but nevertheless a more cohesive effort than ”Se upp för livet”. Here you find the almost-punk burst of ”Jag föddes en dag”, the dreamy ”Dorisk dron”, the elevated jamming of ”Thulcandra”, and the experimental and slightly creepy ”Kalvdans”. I've always had a soft spot for this album and although it's not really comparable to the early Arbete & Fritid albums, it's certainly a recommended effort.

The ”1969-1979” CD comp, later retitled ”Deep Woods”, features three good and otherwise unavailable tracks from 1978. There's also a unique (albeit not very good) and still unreleased Tonkraft show from December 1979 worth snooping around for by Arbete & Fritid and Archimedes Badkar joining forces.

 

Se upp för livet full album playlist

Håll andan full album playlist

NYA LJUDBOLAGET – Nya Ljudbolaget (MNW, 1981)

International relevance: ***

Instrumental, Swedish vocals

Ranked #13 on the blog's Top 25

Nya Ljudbolaget's name means ”The New Sound Company” in English and implies there was an old Sound Company too and there was. Before the late and sorely missed cellist Ove Karlsson joined Arbete & Fritid, that was his band. With Arbete & Fritid's last album ”Håll andan” being released in 1979, Karlsson was free to resurrect his old outfit, now with Samla Mammas Manna drummer/percussionist Hans Bruniusson, Samla relative Kalle Eriksson on trumpet, saxophonist Ulf Wallander (Ramlösa Kvällar, Samla Mammas Manna, Renhjärta et al), and on one track, Marie Selander on vocals.

”Nya Ljudbolaget” is like an extension of late era Arbete & Fritid, with a drone foundation supporting the sometimes Eastern, sometimes Swedish sounding melodies. But the album has more on offer than just that; "Chal Chal Chal" and the three-part suite ”Cellohalling/Putenska marschen/Ramlösa mammas fritid” have a strong air of Samla Mammas Manna and other RIO bands; ”Continuum Prometheus” is Terry Riley styled minimalism, while ”Minnesvisa” sounds like an old mournful Swedish folk song (but isn't). The entire album is wrapped in a dark kind of shimmer, wonderfully evocative, and should be considered mandatory by Arbete & Fritid fans, particularly those with an admiration for their later post-Roland Keijser period.

Full album