CORNELIS VREESWIJK – Poem, ballader och lite blues (Metronome, 1970)

 Swedish vocals, spoken word
International relevance: **

Cornelis Vreeswijk came to Sweden from The Netherlands as a 12 year old, well in time to learn Swedish to the point he mastered the Swedish language better than many native Swedes. His debut album ”Ballader och oförskämdheter” hit like a bomb upon its release in 1964 and more or less kickstarted the wave of new Swedish troubadours and visa singers. No-one could touch his excellence though, and up to his untimely death in 1987, he had released dozens of albums of sharp-witted observations, great acoustic guitar playing and brilliant songwriting. Not a lot of it is within the progg realm however, but he did have some friends in high progg places as proven by his albums around the turn of the decade 1969/71. Looking closely at the musician credits from these years, you'll find names like Kenny Håkansson, Lasse Wellander and Slim Borgudd. Borgudd is also on ”Poem, ballader och lite blues” along with Jojje Wadenius and Bosse Häggström meaning the entire Made In Sweden is present here. Add to that Björn J:son Lindh and Sten Bergman, and you have an album with progg credentials enough.

The title is self-explanatory. It translates to ”poems, ballads and a bit of blues”, and that's exactly what you get. The poetry recitals may be short but they're nevertheless distracting and interrupts the flow but the strictly musical parts are, for the most part, simply brilliant. You could argue that it would have been an even better album if the double album had been trimmed down to a single disc omitting a few out-of-place numbers, but that's essentially hairsplitting. Not only does it feature some of Vreeswijk's best songs of all time, the musicianship is absolutely great on tracks like ”Rosenblad, rosenblad”, ”Cool Water – på den Gyldene Freden” and the really heavy blues ”Ett gammalt bergtroll”. Eveyrhing adds up to Cornelis's best album and thus, one of the great Swedish albums.

Full album playlist

BERNT STAF – Complete albums 1970-1981

One of the many discoveries made by Metronome producer Anders Burman who brought the likes of Pugh Rogefeldt, Ola Magnell and John Holm to public recognition. Burman had a penchant for original voices, and Bernt Staf indeed had one of those, oddly piercing and nasal. Uncommercial some would say, but he nevertheless scored a huge hit with his song ”Familjelycka”, culled from his 1970 debut album ”När dimman lättar” for a 45 the following year. Staf's lyrics have a political focus, often dealing with the depopulation of the non-urban regions of Sweden.

När dimman lättar (Metronome, 1970)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: **

”Familjelycka” is an incredibly annoying song, especially with Staf's terrible vocals perforating your eardrums (the Jan Hammarlund syndrome). Unfortunately, ”Familjelycka” sets the tone for ”När dimman lättar”. The album is full of twee singer/songwriter stuff marred by Staf's very unpleasant, infantile voice. Last track ”Uppståndelse” shows a somewhat more powerful perfomance, but the fake gospel sound still doesn't make Staf's polyp squeaks any more tolerable. The funky ”Hovmästarsoppa” was released as Staf's first single, and it's a pretty good track – hadn't it been for the vocals.

Live (Metronome, 1972)

Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: *

I'm not very fond of live albums since I don't like the sound of a cheering audience, but in this case an audience screaming loud would have been beneficial. Perhaps it would have had drowned out Bernt Staf's vocal mannerisms. Having him drawling through ”What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor”, ”Havanagilah” and a Swedish version of ”Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” is a fucking punishment. In the live setting, he turns into a third rate protest folk singer who talks too much between tracks. His speaking voice is every bit as maddening as his singing voice. And then he whistles...

Vingslag (Metronome, 1972)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: *

Full band backing provided by Sten Bergman, Ola Brunkert, Lasse Wellander, Göran Lagerberg and others. Which obviously gives Staf the occasional excuse to holler away like a Dylan with a stomach pain. No harmonica honks; instead Staf whistles... again...

Valhall (Metronome, 1973)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: **

This could possibly have been an OK Kvartetten Som Sprängde album – they're the backing band here (plus a cameo from Bo Hansson). Had it actually been an album of theirs, it would have been instrumental, and had it been instrumental, you wouldn't have to endure Staf's vocals.

Vår om du vill (YTF, 1976)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: *

Substituting Kvartetten Som Sprängde with a slick radio friendly lush laidback West Coast sound was Staf's worst idea since the day he decided to sing. And that smug grin on the album cover...

Hycklarnas paradis (Best, 1981)

International relevance: *

Swedish vocals

Mocking reggae on the title track (a pathetic Swedish cover of Bob Marley's ”Pimpers Paradise”) was Staf's worst idea since substituting Kvartetten Som Sprängde with a slick radio friendly lush laidback West Coast sound on ”Vår om du vill”. Not even having Kenny Håkansson among the session musicians can help this privately released mess. And oh, Staf whistles too...

Bernt Staf made one further album on his own Best label ('Worst' would have been a better name) in 1983, ”Hammenhög Airport”, and a comeback album in 1996, ”Klockor”. He also appears on several various artists compilation, including ”Progglådan” that features an early live recording for Swedish Radio show Midnight Hour.

När dimman lättar full album playlist

Live full album playlist

Vingslag full album playlist
Midnight Hour 1971 full album playlist

from Valhall

"Göteborgsposten"

"Arbetarblot"

"Zaïre" 

No links found for Hycklarnas paradis. 

CARSTEN REGILD / VARIOUS ARTISTS – Voice of the Wolf (Gump, 1975)

Swedish vocals, spoken word

International relevance: *

The final and most peculiar album on the collectable Gump label. Actually, it's one the most puzzling progg related releases ever. It features abbreviated versions of tracks from previous Gump albums by Sten Bergman and Joakim Skogsberg, an extract from ”Mr. Smith in Rhodesia” by sound poet and author Åke Hodell, pieces by avantgardists Sten Hanson, Leo Nilson, and J.O. Mallander (of legendary Finnish experimental band The Sperm) plus several previously unreleased recordings including a not very good outtake from Pugh Rogefeldt's not very good 1973 ”On the Rocks” album. (Metronome artist Rogefeldt was a sort of A&R man for Metronome subsidiary Gump.)

The entire second side of the album is dedicated to Hans Anton Knall's ”Merde”, comprising excerpts from all the tracks on side one, electronically treated by Knall into one dizzying electronic composition. The album was credited to and edited/produced by Carsten Regild at Sweden's leading studio for electro-acoustic music, Fylkingen. Regild had previously released the massively rare ”Be My Baby” 7” on Gump in 1970, and provided graphics to several albums in 70's and 80's (among them ”Alla vi barn” by enfant terrible Tom Zacharias).

As a showcase for Gump it's pretty useless as it only includes a couple of edited tracks from previous Gump LP's. It doesn't work as a general representation of the Swedish experimental audio scene either as the selections are so wildly inconsistent stylistically. It's much more of an aural installation piece. Far from a regular spin but undeniably intriguing on its own terms. 

Full album playlist

ATLANTIC OCEAN – Tranquillity Bay (Love, 1970)

English lyrics, spoken word
International relevance: ***

A legendary album with an impressive members list in retrospect: Björn J:son Lindh, Jan Bandel, Johnny Mowinckel, Staffan Stenström, Sten Bergman and Greg FitzPatrick (appearing under visa escaping pseudonym Göran Ahlin), most of them later to turn up on a number of stellar progg albums.

”Tranquillity Bay” was the first LP in a series of co-productions between Finnish Love Records and bands from the not yet fully developed Swedish progg scene. The 1970 release date suggests a strong influence from late 60's pop and rock, and it's indeed a product of its time. The album's very unfocused, with nonsense tracks (”The Critics”, ”Able Baker Charlie Dog”, ”Relapse (incl. United Fruit)”, some with spoken parts), post-psychedelic numbers (”Take a Look Around You”, ”Very Special Dream”), pre-progg (the side long ”Weather”), and pop (”Can't You Hear Them Shooting”). The short a capella snippet ”What Is the Time” reappears a few times to give the album a conceptual sense, but the truth is that the songs are way too disparate to work together in a cohesive fashion. But the best ones are very good. ”Tranquillity Bay” is a legendary album but admittedly largely because of future history and what became of the members.

Prior to the album, baroque pop song ”Your Sister Juliet” was released as a single backed with the much better pop psych track ”Would You Believe It”. Atlantic Ocean can also be heard on the original soundtrack to Roy Andersson's ”En kärlekshistoria” (international release: ”A Swedish Love Story”) from 1970, The movie songs are better than most of what ended up on their proper album.

Full album 

7":

Your Sister Juliet 

Would You Believe It

STEN BERGMAN – Lyckohjulet (Gump, 1974)

Swedish vocals, instrumental

International relevance: ***

Sixth album released on Metronome's highly collectable subsidiarylabel Gump. Sten Bergman had been in Atlantic Ocean and Fläsket Brinner and features former band colleagues Per Bruun on bass, guitarist Bengan Dahlén, plus Archimedes Badkar's Christer Bjernelind also on guitar, and Thomas Mera Gartz of Träd, Gräs Och Stenar on drums and violin. ”Lyckohjulet”, however, is a much more straightforward than any of the aforementioned bands. It shows Bergman well acquinted with the American music of the day – think of a more relaxed version of early 70's Jefferson Airplane, the Crosby, Stills & Nash family, The Band and ”Basement Tapes” Dylan, and you've nailed the album pretty well.

Among the weaker tracks are the country tinged title track and ”St. John”, the piano ballad ”Vinterdröm”, and ”Kommer hem” which borrows a little too much from Dylan's ”Like a Rolling Stone” (did Bergman really think no-one would notice?). But the good tracks are really good – ”Människofiskare”, ”Med dej här bredvid”, ”För mycket av ingenting” (”too much of nothing” in English – spot the Dylan reference?), floaty album closer "Sorti" and, to top it off, the marvellous ”Vägen är lång”. In short: It's uneven but good, with one great track. 

Full album playlist