BRITTA LINDELL – How Would I Like (Prophone, 1973) / Waiting For The Next Sunrise (Caprice, 1981)

Swedish vocals, English vocals, other languages, instrumental
International relevance: **

Certainly one of the most curious entries here, Britta Lindell's music defies any easy categorization. If there was one artist worthy of the buzz phrase 'thinking outside the box', then it might as well be her. It's definitely not jazz, it's not folk, it's not classical, I don't even know if it's prog or progg but it's definitely progressive in the sense it doesn't sound quite like anything else.

Lindell was born in Lisbon in 1943 and moved around Europe, and as a trained alto violinist she had played with several European symphony orchestras before settling down in 1970 in a cottage in Västmanland, an area west of Uppsala and Stockholm. She mastered more than 50 instruments of different kinds including the piembalo, a prepared piano she came up with herself. Over the years, she worked as teacher, and briefly as a choreographer for the Swedish national television, wrote music for the stage and even a contribution the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986 that never got as far as to the actual competition.

Her debut album appeared already in 1973, with ”How I Would Like” on the independent label Prophone. A curious mix of folk music from around the world, baroque and renaissance music, and something that was simply Britta Lindell's own mind, with some lyrics from Swedish poet Nils Ferlin and William Shakespeare. At times she reminds me of both Iva Bittová and Dagmar Krause but with more of a playful tongue-in-cheek humour. Although she draws from a plethora of 'high-brow' influences, she never fell prey to pretentiousness. The album is fun, and Lindell's approach is almost that of a child discovering the world through magical thinking. Through charm she tunes you gently to her wavelength; she makes you not listen to her music, but to listen to it with her.

It took until 1981 before she released her next album, ”Waiting For The Next Sunrise” on Caprice Records. It pretty much follows along the lines of ”How I Would Like”, but it sounds a bit more elaborate, more developed and with a greater emphasis on the renaissance strain. It's still a good album, and still clearly original, but it feels a bit more contained and therefore lacks some of the wide-eyed freshness of the debut. The best track on ”Waiting For The Next Sunrise” might be the last one, the strangely eerie and suite-like ”The Next Sunrise”.

Britta Lindell released one further album called ”Lights” plus a single of her rejected ESC song ”Simsalabim”, both on the Siljum label in 1986.

Lindell passed away in 2000, leaving a slim but highly original and often intriguing recorded legacy behind.

How Would I Like full album

Waiting For The Next Sunrise full album playlist

TOMAS ERNVIK / VATTEN – Albums 1972-1980

With rise of the Swedish Jesus people movement in the late 60's and 70's, several Christian bands and artists rose to fame, some even reaching outside the religious circuits. Some albums sold exceptionally well in Sweden such as Jesus crooner Pelle Karlsson, (formerly of New Creation responsible for the marvellous ”He Is There”) who scored a surprise hit in 1973 with ”Han är min sång och min glädje” (a translation of Elvis Presley's ”There Goes My Everything” with a hard Jesus twist). Heavy rock outfit Jerusalem, semi-funky Salt and piano man/singer Per-Erik Hallin were also well known Christian artists at the time, and many of them were TV and radio regulars. Less known to most at the time was Tomas Ernvik's band Vatten.

Ernvik was born in Kristinehamn but later relocated to Gothenburg (and later still, to Stockholm). His debut came in 1971 with album ”Små låtar av och med Tomas Ernvik”, followed by his 'rock oratory' ”Brinnande” in 1972 with lyrics by Gert Gustaffson.

TOMAS ERNVIK & GERT GUSTAFFSON

Rockoratoriet Brinnande (Prophone, 1972)

Swedish lyrics

International relevance: *

From the Swedish liner notes: ”'Brinnande' was born at Easter '71 when we discussed different musical interpretations of the life and history of Jesus. It occured to us that a lot of focus was on Easter and that it was harder to find any musical adaptions of Pentecost.

The story begins right after the Crucifixion of Christ, and continues up until what happened on the day of Pentecost, which we consider very important.

The music is multifaceted and you can trace influences from hard rocking blues and pop as well as High Baroque. The music is performed entirely by amateurs.”

Using the oratory format, the music wasn't intended to be performed on stage, but it nevertheless very much sounds like a musical. ”Rockoratoriet Brinnande” does indeed span several genres but it's still obvious that the music is subordinated to the plot. ”Petrus predikan” is a blues with plenty of Ernvik's guitar soloing, and thus the track here that most clearly points towards his future Vatten albums. Sometimes hyped but not recommended.

VATTEN - Tungt vatten (Prophone, 1975)
Swedish vocals

International relevance: ***

 

The best three tracks here are ”Jag är trött” (also included on the ”Pregnant Rainbows For Colourblind Dreamers” 4CD comp), ”Du kämpar”, and the freakout feast ”Glädjesprutan” with Tomas Ernvik's imaginative guitar work to the fore. These are the kind of tracks that earned Vatten their reputation as a good power trio with an appeal far beyond the Christian circuits. November leaps to mind, but Vatten has a less prominent Cream vibe and, of course, Jesus lyrics. Mood track ”När du...” might appeal to psych heads also, with an otherwordly atmosphere and Leslie vocals. But it should be noted that while ”Tungt vatten” has its share of enjoyable moments, it is an uneven effort. A couple of songs drag the album down, such as the tardy blues track ”Egoismen”, instrumental piano piece ”Tempora Mutantur” and Latin flavoured ”Förtröstan”.

VATTEN - Plain Water (Gutta, 1980)

English vocals

International relevance: **

It took Vatten five years to return with a full length album adter ”Tungt vatten”. In the meantime, Ernvik did some production work for other Christian bands like Absolut and Tillsammans (not the Greg FitzPatrick led band), and did session work for Södertälje band Friskt Vatten (that had nothing to do with Vatten despite a similar band name). A pilot single from ”Plain Water” was released in 1979 on Ernvik's own Gutta label, ”The Hunter” backed with ”Rely Back”. As suggested by the two titles, Ernvik had switched to English lyrics for ”Plain Water”. Unfortunately, the album doesn't fulfill the promises made by ”Tungt vatten”. It's a more cohesive album for sure, but the production is lacklustre and the songs just aren't very good, with too many standard blues rock and AOR moves, and even strains of funk fusion in ”Irving” and formulaic jazz in ”Rely Back”. ”Tungt vatten” wasn't perfect, but ”Plain Water” is disappointing.

TOMAS ERNVIK & AGNETA GILSTIG

När regnet dragit förbi... (Gutta, 1980)

Swedish vocals
International relevance: *

Agneta Gilstig was a singer often hired as a backing vocalist for a plethora of artists, both from the Christian and the secular scene. She made a 45 in 1971 with Per-Erik Hallin, but ”När regnet dragit förbi...” was her first album. Ernvik was deeply involved in it (hence the co-credit) – he wrote the songs (with others providing lyrics), sangs and played several instruments. Still it's really Gilstig's album. She takes the vocal lead on all tracks which isn't a very good idea, unless you happen to like her non-descript soprano and the equally lame songs. ”Tåglåten” is pretty cool though.

VATTEN - Smältvatten (Gutta, 1981)

International relevance: **

Swedish vocals

”Smältvatten” is a little bit more inspired than its predecessor and so, marginally better – that's marginally. Still too much stiff blues rock, with some anemic funk and a horrendous reggae track to really ruin it.

Vatten did another album in 1984, ”Vattendrag”, and one futher in 1992, ”Diggin' the Roots” with several covers of classic blues songs. Ernvik died on New Year's Eve 2016.

från Rockoratoriet Brinnande

"Konfrontationsblues"

"Jesu slutord I & II"

"Pingstdagen" 

Tungt vatten full album playlist
Plain Water full album playlist

Smältvatten full album

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