JOHN-ERIK AXELSSON – Barn (G-Produktion, 1971)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: *

”Spår”, the second album from this singer/songwriter, is a numbing act of inprofiency where Axelsson stumbles around in his catastrophes disguised as 'songs' like a drunken elk trying to avoid an electric fence. Surprisingly enough, this – his debut – is better (although I'm uncomfortable using the word 'good' in any form when talking about Axelsson). At least it sounds as if the backing musicians have some notion of what's happening. They even manage to get some groove going on ”Jag vill” (that curiously enough sounds a bit like the old soul nugget ”The Snake”, brought to perfection by Al Wilson in 1969).

But, then there's Axelsson himself. His lyrics are unbelievably lousy and sung with too much self-esteem. The effect is tragicomic as often the case when incompetent performers overrate themselves to the point of megalomania. Because no matter if the backing musicians are within the spectrum of adequacy, they can't conceal that John-Erik Axelsson is so lost in overestimating his own abilities.

While ”Barn” isn't quite as cringeworthy as ”Spår”, it's still a genuinely terrible album where you constantly sit anticipating in horror the next lyric like ”I went to a party last Wednesday and I met a woman with fat fingers” (from ”Kvinnor”, ”Women”) will jump out of the speakers to smack you straight in the face like a Mach 3 rotten plum bizzarely appearing out of nowhere.
 

"Barn"
"I badet"

HANS EDLER – Elektron Kukéso (Marilla, 1971)

Swedish vocals, instrumental

International relevance: ***

 

Hans Edler is one colourful character with so many tricks up his sleeve that it's almost easier to say what he's not done than to explain all his actual doings and dealings over the decades. He was practically born into music. His grand dad was a folk fiddler from Jämtland in Sweden and his mother was a music teacher. Hans Edler first band was The Mirrors in the late 50's and early 60's. When the beat craze struck Sweden he turned pop with a couple of bands, including the rather popular We 4. He took a course in electronic composition at EMS (Elektronmusikstudion, ”the studio for electronic music”) in Stockholm 1969. He studied mathematics simultaneously, and soon became a studio assistant at EMS. With full access to the studio's equipment he recorded ”Elektron Kukéso” in 1971, only using computers and electronic utilities.

”Elektron Kukéso” is one of the most visionary albums made in Sweden. Blending psychedelia, pop and electroacoustic music, it creates a peculiar inner landscape with Edler's vocals and melodies infusing the songs with an ephemeral melancholy. It's further out than both The United States of America and Fifty Foot Hose, it's more focused than Silver Apples, it's more bizarre than White Noise, less cheesy than most of what Edler's compatriot Ralph Lundsten did. But comparisons to others fall short. This is a singular album, moving in strange spheres only Hans Edler had access to. His baryton voice channels and opposes the soaring melodies at the same time to a great, tense effect. Some songs are plain captivating, especially ”Jag hör ett skrik” despite the obvious quotes from The Supremes' classic ”You Keep Me Hanging On”. Other tracks are decidedly weirder, like ”Leka med ord” and the instrumentals ”My Third Eye”, ”Miscalculation” and ”Lovedust”, sometimes predating glitch music and EAI (electro acoustic improvisation) with several decades. Everything moves and pulsates like a tidal wave, reaches for new mental continents. Not everything is good, but just about everything is fascinating.

Hans Edler released the album on his own label Marilla which he ran throughout the 70's. He released numerous album ranging from dance band music to children's albums, from accordionists to neo-rockabilly. Edler has worked with television, composed choral music, and been a succesful concert promoter. He's still active, usually performing in retro styled shows. Hes released several albums of his own – he even ventured into disco with his ”Space Vision” album in 1979 – but he never made another album like ”Elektron Kukéso”.

Full album playlist

TOM ZACHARIAS – Belinda (SB, 1975)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: **

The curious Tom Zacharias is said to have attended the same private school at the same time as Sweden's future monarch Carl XVI Gustav. He was predicted a future in tennis but wanted to become an actor. Instead he turned into a stand up comedian, a career that ended when he at one point peed on the audience... Zacharias then tried his luck as a pin-up boy (he didn't quite have the looks for it) and actually did some acting before scoring a record deal with MNW for one 45, released on their Green Light imprint. The single was a massive flop. Reputedly only a handful of copies were sold. MNW didn't renew the deal. Zacharias then had an album out on Grammofonverket in 1973, ”Är du ärlig – är du härlig”.

Trying hard to make it in the entertainment business and haphazardly taking whatever showbiz job he could get, Zacharias jumped at the chance when shady businessman and inventor Stefan Brydolf one day contacted him. He suggested Zacharias should write a book and record two albums with triple X rated content. Zacharias came up with the BDSM themed book ”Rebecka” in three weeks, released to no success and soon forgotten altogether. The material for the first of the two albums was written during the same intensive period, and then quickly recorded by an exhausted Zacharias together with session drummer Rolf Alex, bassist Lars Bergstrom (ex-Levande Livet) and guitarist Tommy Broman. For the female vocals, Esther Nordenbring (previously involved in the Tillsammans project) and Suzie Heine (whoappeared in the Swedish stage version of ”Hair”) were recruited, appearing on the album as Vera Fräsch and Helen Bed. The album's cover star is Tommy Broman's girlfriend at the time, Karin.

The first album was named ”Belinda” and sold anonymously in porn shops and through ads in porno mags. It's probably the most infamous Swedish album of the 70's, perhaps even of all time (and that includes Johnny Bode's scandalous ”Bordellmammans visor” which gave Stefan Brydolf the idea for the ”Belinda” albums to begin with). The lyrics certainly are hardcore, I assume way too coarse for the average listener – sadism, incest and enema are ingredients in this bizarre stew.

The story behind "Belinda" and the myth surrounding Zacharias are much better than the music itself. Yes, it's a bit more accomplished than one would suspect from the nature of the album and the circumstances under which it was recorded, but that has more to do with the session players than the songs. Some of them are OK, some pedestrian, some just bad. You could say ”Belinda” sounds like a technically more talented Erik Aschan album.

The follow-up album ”Belindas döttrar” was recorded three months later, and selections from both volumes were chosen for a projected album in English. New vocals were overdubbed but the English album went unreleased until Subliminal Sounds unearthed the recordings in 2004 and released them as a CD with bonus tracks from the Swedish versions. They also reissued it on double vinyl in 2011.

Tom Zacharias had another album out in 1975, ”Horar gör vi alla”, and a children's album (!) followed in 1979, ”Vi barn” that was awarded with the Swedish 'children's album of the year' Grammy (!!!). He also acted in children's TV series ”Katitzi” the same year, appearing alongside actor/drummer Janne Carlsson (i.e. the half of Hansson & Karlsson that's not Hansson). In 1984 he released ”Till frukost” on his own label, featuring 50 people including Turid Lundqvist whispering profanities. He continued looking for a breakthrough and participated in various strange projects over the years before passing away in 2010.

Full album playlist with bonus tracks

PREFIX – Brustna illusioner (PIM, 1974)

Swedish vocals, English vocals

International relevance: **

One of the rarest progg albums ever, privately released by Prefix main man Pierre Blom on his own record label PIM. According to Tobias Petterson in ”The Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music”, it's not a group effort as much as a Blom solo album.

Whether it would have been better if Pierre Blom had actually used other musicians than his equally untalented wife and one Åke Eriksson on vocals is hard to say but I hope so. Because playing most of the instruments himself in his basement was clearly not a good idea. ”Min kära” is a bad track but on top of the dung pile. In ”Stupid Record Company”, reeking with self-pity, Blom complains that no label wants to release his music – hmm, I wonder why that is... The title to the opening track is ”Alla toner är ledsna”, meaning ”all notes are sad”, and well, I would be sad too if I was a bum note on this album...

Prefix is in the same category as Malaria, John-Erik Axelsson and Radiomöbel, i.e. unlistenable crap with few or no recognizable traces of talent. If you find a copy of this album, be sure to put on protective suit and gloves before handling the album. You really don't want to touch it. It might be hazardous.

Band name and album title are sometimes mixed up when listed.

Full album

CURT JALMO – Ängel med krossade höfter (Sonet, 1972)

Swedish vocals

International relevance: **

 

An outsider classic thanks to Curt Jalmo's laughably overpretentious lyrics including embarrasing tributes to Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin (recited to music by Johann Sebastian Bach). The title, meaning ”angel with crushed hips”, should give an idea of Jalmo's poetry. 

The music itself is decent albeit unspectacular singer/songwriter stuff with some folk touches à la Contact, and sometimes with a bit of groove. Major label Sonet drummed up a set of often used session musicians such as Stefan Brolund (Hörselmat, Pop Workshop), Jukka Tolonen, folk fiddler Ole Hjort, and Lasse Wellander (Nature) to mention the most renowned. All in all a passable album if you can stand the pompous lyrics, or simply don't understand Jalmo's incommodious verbal leakage: non-Swedes certainly has an advantage here. The album's reputation has also grown with time and is now considered a cult album.

Jalmo also published ”Nattsand” in 1970, a collection of poetry which I haven't read, and quite frankly, I don't really wish to either. He was lead singer in 60's band Lay Abouts who released one single in 1967, the forgettable ”So Long Fanny”.

Full album playlist

KARL GUSTAV KARLSSON & VÄNNER – Själens natt (Kalles Music Production, 1980) / En poet (Kalles Music Production, 1981)

Swedish lyrics, instrumental

International relevance: */*

 

A completely unknown artist – I find no traces of his two (presumably only) albums on the Internet, at the time of writing not even on Discogs. So I assume they're very rare and only released locally in what I assume from the record label's address is Karlsson's native town Ulricehamn on the Swedish west coast.

”Själens natt” (”night of the soul”) is largely instrumental, with only a couple of vocal tracks sung by the annoying Ingrid Jonsson who sounds like Christian singer, if you get my drift. She's still better than Karlsson himself, who sings so out of tune and out of breath to a dreary church organ on closing track ”Tre skopor mull” that it's bordering on the laughable. The remainder of the album is either moody psuedo-classical piano music, or tracks with equal traces of Parisian café music and Swedish folk thanks to the addition of accordeon and violin. A promo insert quotes from reviews published in the local Ulricehamn press but for all I know that could just as well be fake...

The title of the second album means ”a poet” in English so you could tell that Karl Gustav Karlsson raised the level of ambition after his debut. That's code for 'now even more pretentious'. With Ingrid Jonsson out of the way, Karlsson now feels compelled to take care of all the vocals himself. That includes melodramatic recitation...

The album drags on endlessly and is even harder to sit through than ”Själens natt”. While nowhere as bad as say, John-Erik Axelsson, it's still a genuine endurance test.

 

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JOHN-ERIK AXELSSON – Spår (G-Produktion, 1972)

International relevance: **

Swedish vocals

John-Erik Axelsson was a remarkably untalented singer/songwriter from Malung who somehow managed to convince G-Produktion (home of Acke & Gurra) that it was a splendid idea to release not one but two numbingly inept albums in the early 70's. Both albums were released as Axelsson.

In the liner notes to his first album ”Spår”, Axelsson gladly explained that the arrangements were a group effort but that he, as a self-proclaimed dictator, was in charge of the final results. I guess he was ultimately responsible for ”Spår” too but maybe he shouldn't take too much pride in it. 'Real people' and outsider albums can be amazingly intriguing, but they can also be amazingly bad – not good bad, just bad bad. ”Spår” fits the latter category, falling somewhere inbetween Erik Aschan and U.S. dunce Cosmic Michael. Just to say something kind about it: it's short, less than 28 minutes.

If I had to pick the best or rather, the least worst track, it would be "Barkbrödsdag".

 
Not only was Axelsson a sub-par songwriter, a sub-sub-par singer, a sub-sub-sub-par guitar player, he was also a sub-sub-sub-sub-par lyricist. While there's no doubt his concerns with, for instance, environmental issues were sincere, his ability to express them weren't quite Nobel Prize winning material. Try this line from "Ode till Göran Nilsson": ”Det är så långt till ditt öra/men nu måste du höra” (”It's so far to your ear/but now you've got to hear” – and no, it does not sound any better in Swedish).

It's possible, even likely, that some will find the unintentional silliness cute and the naivety endearing, but an album this unimaginative and scoring this high on the bungler scale just makes me feel antsy and uncomfortable. I've seen ”Spår” compared to Kjell Höglund but that's as close you can get to defaming Höglund without being prosecuted.

Year of release might be incorrect. I've seen it listed as 1970 but according to "The Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music" it was released in 1972 so I stuck with that.

Ode till Göran Nilsson

Barkbrödsdag