A curious character, this Ralph Lundsten guy. His career somehow parallels that of Ragnar Grippe, as Lundsten started out as an electro-acoustic composer and then gradually moved towards more commercially accessible music. A wider attention came in the mid 70's with his series of so called nature symphonies taking inspiration from Swedish nature and folklore. Lundsten became something of a new age music pioneer, recording many of his albums in his Andromeda studio in a house painted pink. He was on a massive ego trip, seemingly only liking his own music. Most of his many many albums are cheesy and aimed at the crystal healers market. To be fair, a lot of his un-commercial early stuff (from the late 60's and early 70's) is quite superficial too but at least somewhat more interesting to listen to.
With the 70's drawing to a close,
Lundsten assembled an amorphous band called The Andromeda All Stars
and rarely has the term ”all stars” been more to the point.
Plenty of name performers passed through, too numerous to mention in
all, but a few would be Bernt Rosengren, Ahmadu Jarr, Tommy Körberg,
Jojje Wadenius, Monica Dominique, Wlodek Gulgowski, Björn Inge (November et al),
Björn J:son Lindh, Janne Schaffer, Tomas Ledin, and renaissance
music flag-bearer Sven Berger. This massive lot of people helps the
four Andromeda All Stars albums into the progg realm.
Universe (Harvest, 1977)
Instrumental, wordless vocals
International relevance: **
The
first All Stars album (housed in a truly eye-catching cover) is one of Lundsten's best, although I hesitate
to use superlatives when talking about Lundsten's albums, no matter
what line-up they flash. It's uneven and still very cheesy, but it
has some entertaining moments of gurgling and bubbling sounds where Lundsten
probably just fools around with the crazy sound effects because he
enjoys it. As typical to his post-EAM albums, there are plenty of
synth washes. The best tracks are those that have a rhythmic
structure, like ”Harvest In Heaven”, ”Space Funeral”, and the
space rock sounding ”The Planet Of Winds”.
Discophrenia (Harvest, 1978)
Instrumental
International relevance: **
With the disco wave sweeping the world
in the late 70's, plenty of musicians jumped the danceable bandwagon.
Even the self-loving Ralph Lundsten got bit by the bug, but his
interpretation of disco is of course different to others. He either
mess with it deliberatly, or he misunderstands everything. The title
track is in fact rather interesting as Lundsten seems to predict the
synth pop still a few years away from public recognition. It actually
reminds me a bit of the early Human League albums (those before the
girls joined the group and they became MTV darlings with ”Don't You
Want Me”) and they hadn't been released yet when ”Discophrenia”
came out. The album even spawned a single (with an extended remix of
the title track), a rather rare thing in Lundsten's discography.
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (Harvest, 1979)
Instrumental, English vocals
International relevance: **
The third Andromeda All Stars album
falls somewhere between the first two, with characteristics spilling over from
both. ”Rendezvous With A Washing-Machine”, ”Ego Love Song”
(appropriate title for Lundsten!) and ”Horrorscope” are still discophrenic, while other chunks stick to the wishy-washy synth layers. The album is very
inconsistent, and it sounds as if it's cooked up from leftovers from
the previous two discs. The all stars concept is beginning to wear
thin.
The New Age (Harvest, 1982)
Instrumental
International relevance: **
After a couple of electronic/symphonic
works in the beginning of the 80's, Lundsten returned in 1982 with
the final album credited to The Andromeda All Stars. Largely new-agey
as the title lets you know, but a more coherent work than ”Alpha
Ralpha Boulevard”. But it does sound as if the steam had run out altogether of
the All Stars project. It's less colourful and crazy than the initial
trio, there's no real push to it.
From "Universe"
Universe Calling / The Space Sneaker / In The Shade Of The Purple Moon / The Hot Andromedary / The Blue Planet / Harvest In Heaven / In The Erotosphere / The Celestial Pilgrim / Rhapzodiac / The Planet Of Winds / Lunatic Safari / Space Funeral / Cosmic Song
From "Discophrenia"
Andromedan Nights / Discophrenia / Luna Lolita / Robot Amoroso
From "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard"
Alpha Ralpha Boulevard / Rendezvous With A Washing-Machine / Space Flower Dance / Ego Love Song / Happy Earthday / Horrorscope / Computerful Love / Dancing In A Dream / Lifetide
From "The New Age"
Morning Of Creation / Time Storm / Future Carnival / Trance-Action / The Remembering Castle / Garden Of Delight