VARIOUS ARTISTS – Frälst! A Selection Of Swedish Christian Grooves 1969-1979 (Subliminal Sounds, 2022)

 
Featured artists: Dunkersgruppen / Shepherds / Tomas Ernvik / Sånggruppen LIV / Sambandet / Birgitta Yavari / Siw Sjöberg / Alea Jacta Est / "Boppe" Bengt-Olof Perhamn / Humlans Funkykapell / Tillsammans / The Vergers / Obajda / Kyrkans Ungdom I Osby / Janne - Roberth - Willy / Mission Impossible / Vatten / Ingamay Hörnberg / New Creation
Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: ***

The American Xian (Christian) underground has been pretty well documented with several reissues of key albums and compilations extracting the best examples of what the Jesus Folk movement had to offer musically. A lot of work in that direction is still needed, but this once so neglected musical area has gained more attention in recent years than ever before. True that a lot of Xian music is absolutely dreadful to listen to, every bit as bad as it's said to be, but there are indeed albums from especially the 70s that are quite stunning, and tracks scattered on other, more uneven LP's that are worthy of resurrection. Some truly strange and bizarre music lurks in the world of Xian vinyl; fuzzed out garage rock, brain-dizzying psychedelia, singer/songwriters that are just as talented as better-known non-religious ones... and there are albums that are so weird that almost no readymade tag applies.

I don't think anyone really knows how many Xian albums were released in Sweden during the Jesus era of mainly the 70s, but with Jesus having a strong hold of Sweden during the decade, and with the Swedish Jesus movement being selfsufficient as far as recording studios, pressing plants and distribution go, a guess at several hundreds – perhaps even thousands – isn't at all laughable. Many of those turn up in the most ignored charity shop crates, and most of them remain ignored too by most flea market vinylnauts. I say most, because in some places, those maligned albums have caught more interest as the years have gone by. Somewhere on some album with a particularly appalling cover, an absolutely mindblowing track might hide. Don't forget New Creation's devastating psych anthem ”He Is There”, first brought back to life by the third volume of ”Who Will By These Wonderful Evils”! Finding just one other such track is what keeps the most hard-headed flea market hunters going despite an obvious health hazard doing so. Because bringing home ten, twenty, fifty albums of rosy-cheeked, psychotically smiling Bible thumpers, you make yourself prey to a blah-blah-ga-ga-da-da condition that may take years or more to recover from. Sanity is a fragile thing. Be careful out there.

Therefore, a compilation like ”Frälst! A Selection Of Swedish Christian Grooves 1969-1979” has been much needed for quite some time by anyone with a gnawing suspicion that they might miss out on some real goodies if you don't willingly put your health at risk. I'm somewhere in-between those who don't want to go deeper into the deep end, and those who never once betray their mission to find the next ”He Is There”, and so ”Frälst!” (meaning ”Saved!”) comes in very handy as a rough guide to the netherworld of Xian vinyl.

Compiled by Subliminal Sounds, known for their endless quest for buried treasures, the label has done some death-defying work looking in places few sane people dare to tread. It has to be said that ”Frälst!” isn't the be all and end all release -- after all, its subtitle clearly says "a selection". Thomas Ernvik is featured on all versions, but Vatten only on the vinyl version of the album; Vatten being one of the most heralded Xian Swedish bands, thanks to their hard rock sound championed by many a collector around the globe. And there are other bands that have come up with quite decent tracks too, such as Christallen, that are missing from the selection. And as always, some might questions the track picks. But the interesting thing isn't what's not here but what is. Although not every track in this collection is a winner, ”Frälst!” successfully paints a picture of a 'genre' that thoroughly contradicts the common view of it. While the sometimes over-zealous vocals and in-your-face sermonising can remain a bone of contention, there are some real fiery guitars and relentless grooving going on here, and that's what you have to focus on if you allow yourself step outside any stale preconceptions to be surprised at the width and depth of the 'genre'. I say 'genre', with quotation marks, because it's of course not correct to speak of Xian music as a heterogeneous genre: “Frälst!” contains heavy rock, tracks that head in a slight funk direction, folk, and things that can't be named anything but psychedelia.

Artists include Siw Sjöberg, Sambandet, Kyrkans Ungdom i Osby, The Vergers, Mission Impossible, Obadja and Shepherds. Some of them are slightly better known, such as Tillsammans (on Kompass) and the aforementioned Tomas Ernvik, but most of them are virtually completely unknown outside the religious world – and some probably also within the Xian community. At least nowadays. Thanks to a carefully crafted running order, “Frälst!” comes off as surprisingly consistent. Highpoints include the quirky “I Am Free” (Sambandet), the brooding “Kom till mej” (Tillsammans), the strangely ethereal “Halva världen svälter” (Shepherds) and the marvellous “Mission Impossible” (Mission Impossible) that rounds off the digital version in a doomy organ-driven fashion that easily makes it the best track in this entire lot. The vinyl version has a slightly different tracklist and ends with an even bigger bang, the aforementioned "He Is There" by New Creation. 

I can only imagine what a massive task it must have been to find these gems. Subliminal Sounds deserve all credit possible for not only excavating them, but to construct an album that is, for the most part, rewarding to a point basically no original Xian album is. It's perfectly fine to settle for “Frälst!”, but if you dare going trawling through the flea market crates that God forgot to find more of this stuff, it's a brilliant starting point to set you off.

Full album playlist on Bandcamp

TILLSAMMANS - Tillsammans (Kompass, 1976)

 Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

Not to be confused with GregFitzPatrick's Handgjort offshoot of the same name, this seven-piece was a Christian outfit that featured Tomas Ernvik on bass and guitar. Suffering from several wimpy ballads, it still has a fair share of progressive and not-quite-symphonic folk rock moves. The playing is consistently good throughout (including some semi-heavy guitar) and the songwriting is above average, especially if you close your ears during the more overt, sugarcoated "Jesus is a nice bloke" songs. Oddly enough, I sense a wee bit of Paul McCartney and his mid 70's Wings here and there.

"Hela mitt liv" opens side B and has a slight renaissance air which nicely compliments the tasteful almost-folk harmonies. Tillsammans retain the faint folkishness on "Undran i vår tid" and on the mournful "Människor", the latter being the best track here. These three tracks help making the second side stronger than side 1.

Despite the reputation Tomas Ernvik earned through Vatten, the album can still be found fairly cheap. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch, often too much on the well-meaning side of things, but some nice guitar passages and a couple of listenable enough tracks, it's certainly better than the standard Swedish Xian albums that appeared in droves in the 70's.

"Hela mitt liv"
"Kom till mig"

"Jag vill leva nära dig"

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

När regnet dragit förbi no links found