CD # 23: Not ABBA

The reason: As the Swedish outcast in a club of UK and Canada residents I figured I might aswell make my alienation a bit useful.

The mix: The compilation is called Not ABBA not because I have anything against ABBA (quite the contrary), but to emphasize that I have tried to avoid what Swedish music I think you may have already heard. That means no ABBA, nor Ace of Base, Roxette, The Hives, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Cardigans, Europe, Army of Lovers, Robyn or that song by Peter Bjorn & John. You may have picked up some of what's on this CD anyway (The Knife?) but hopefully most of it is new to you. And good to you!

The plays:

1.
Merit Hemmingson
Mandom mod och morske män
(Trollskog - mer svensk folkmusik på beat, 1972)

Keyboard/piano/moog/organ player and singer Merit Hemmingson made herself a name in the sixties and seventies through a couple of records of contemporary interpretations of traditional Swedish folk music (thus the undertitle of the album, "Swedish folk music on beat"). This track (the title translates to "Manhood courage and brave men", but this recording is fortunately instrumental, as the lyrics consist of patriotic rubbish) opens said album and I found it suitable for a starter her aswell.

2.
Jenny Wilson
Summer Time - the Roughest Time
(Love and Youth, 2005)

Jenny Wilson was the singer of Swedish independent band First Floor Power before she made her much appreciated solo debut with Love and Youth in 2005. Second album Hardships was just released, receiving similar praise. As often as being talked of because of her music, though, Wilson has, together with amongst others Frida Hyvönen (of track 7), become a poster girl for a sort of "old lady"-fashion, often wearing fifties dresses and huge accessories.

3.
John Holm
Sången till Larry
(Lagt kort ligger, 1974)

Seventies again, and prog rocker John Holm. Notably, the term "prog rock" doesn’t mean the same thing in Sweden as in the rest of the world. Whereas British bands like King Crimson and Yes were musically progressive, in Sweden it’s more about being politically progressive (or at least being released on an independent label) and the prog scene also nicknamed itself "the music movement". "The song for Larry", about an old friend in decay, is a typical example of the kind of social realistic lyrics the prog scene heralded.

4.
Doris
Grey Rain of Sweden
(Did You Give the World Some Love Today, Baby?, 1970)

Doris Svensson sang in several bands in the sixties, before releasning her solo debut in 1970. Doris is a fine example of an artist of that time who was not at all related to "the music movement". She only released one solo album, and was long forgotten, until the album was re-released in the nineties, when it regained a cult following. Doris herself now works as a nurse in Göteborg, the same town in which this compilation was put together.

5.
Silverbullit
Run
(Arclight, 2004)

Silverbullit, another band from Göteborg, is possibly Sweden's best live act. Singer Simon Ohlsson was once arrested after a concert because the police was convinced he was on drugs (which he wasn't). On another occasion, after jumping into the audience, guards threw him out of the venue and the band continued without him. Third album Arclight was ranked by Swedish critics as the best Swedish album in 2004, but sadly the band still hasn’t broken through to the masses. Tell your friends.

6.

Jan Johansson

Gånglek från Älvdalen
(Jazz på svenska, 1963)

Pianist Jan Johansson tragically died in a car accident at 37. Before that he composed the theme for the 1969 TV series about Pippi Longstocking, and recorded a bunch of albums called things like "Jazz in Russian" or "Jazz in Swedish", interpreting folk songs from different parts of the world. The Swedish one is probably one of the albums owned by most Swedes, and most people could tell this is a Johansson recording from hearing just a couple of seconds of it. On a side note, Johansson's two sons now play in metal bands Stratovarius and Hammerfall respectively.

7.

Frida Hyvönen

Once I Was a Serene Teenaged Child

(Until Death Comes, 2005)

Frida Hyvönen made her debut in 2005 with the album from which this song is picked. Being from Northern Sweden ("Norrland"), she is part of a scene that includes bands like Sahara Hotnights and The Wannadies, and has also worked with David Sandström (of track 15). Third album Silence Is Wild was released last year and apart from that Hyvönen has also composed and recorded music for other art forms, such as a dance performance and a photo book.

8.
The Knife

Silent Shout

(Silent Shout, 2006)

The Knife is probably the entry in this collection you are most likely to have already heard. If not the band themselves, maybe the José González cover of their song "Heartbeats", which is the one from that Sony commercial with the bouncing balls. Siblings Karin and Olof Dreijer are of the most celebrated Swedish artists of the noughties, but also the most reluctant. They never show their faces in pictures, and wear masks when playing live. Fourth album Silent Shout was inspired by graphic novel Black Hole by Charles Burns. Almost as bizarre as that is the music video for the title track, directed by Andreas Nilsson, guitar player in Silverbullit (of track 5). Look it up.

9.
bob hund

Rundgång, gräslök, fågelsång

(bob hund, 1993)

Another contender for best Swedish live band (with the singer not arrested, but diagnosed as suicidal after having jumped up and down on the stage during a concert, causing severe knee damage, which the doctor summed up as "the patient jumping five metres [sic!] up in the air, without drugs"), bob hund recently released their eighth album. They are one of my favourite bands of all times and this song (the title meaning "[Audio] feedback, chive, bird song") is one of my favourite songs of all times, adapting Swedish summer into a little over two minutes of pop music. Nuff said.

10.
Pugh

Love, Love, Love

(Ja, dä ä dä!, 1969)

Pugh Rogefeldt's debut album Ja, dä ä dä! ("Yes, it is!") is often mentioned as the first rock album in Swedish (even if this track ironically has an English title). Pugh never made another album close to being as good as this one, but new artists keep naming him as one of their great influences because of it. The drums were played by Jan Carlsson, one half of prog duo Hansson & Karlsson (who famously almost recorded an album with Jimi Hendrix), and bass player was Georg "Jojje" Wadenius, who later joined Blood Sweat & Tears. In 1998, the drum intro was sampled by DJ Shadow for "Mutual Slump".

11.
Lena Nyman
Ett bloss för moster Lillie
(Bloss, 1997)

Lena Nyman is an actress, probably best known abroad for her parts in Ingmar Bergman's Oscar winning Autumn Sonata and Vilgot Sjöman's infamous I Am Curious (Yellow). Nyman has also released a couple of records though, two of them consisting of musical interpretations of Swedish poets Karin Boye and Bodil Malmsten respectively. This track ("A puff for aunt Lillie") derives from a poem by the latter, about a deceased woman who "passed away in socks with seams / and eternal rock 'n' roll dreams".

12.
Komeda
If
(The Genius of Komeda, 1996)

Komeda took their name from Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda (whom you may remember from last year's effort Original Soundtrack) and were part of the Swedish indie scene in the nineties. However, as arty as they may be, they were also famous for having their music appear in quite a few commercials. Second album The Genius of Komeda is the Swedish equivalent of Moby's Play, in that sense.

13.
Samla mammas manna
Tärningen
(Måltid, 1973)

Samla mammas manna ("Collect mother's manna") was a band from the Swedish prog scene (see track 3) that actually played more of progressive rock in the international sense. Long, equilibristic and often instrumental songs, inspired by Frank Zappa and (as a lot of these guys, as you may note) Swedish folk music, made them one of few prog rock bands that also has a following abroad. Like, they're huge in Japan. "Tärningen" means "The dice" but I have no idea why that’s the name of the tune.

14.
Hoola Bandoola Band

Vävare-Lasse

(Garanterat individuell, 1971)

Last entry in the prog section is Hoola Bandoola Band, a seven-piece band who were among the most prominent bands within "the music movement". "Vävare-Lasse", from their first album, is a morality about free-spirit weaver (!) Lasse, who is dragged from his loom to go work for the king. Politically naive as it may be, the music rocks (I love the saxophone!).

15.
David Sandström
Rock in Motion
(The Dominant Need of the Needy Soul Is to Be Needed, 2004)

David Sandström played the drums in Refused, front band of the Swedish hardcore scene in the nineties. The same year as they disbanded (1998) he released his solo debut, but it was with his ridiculously long-titled second and third albums he really became a name in his own right. One of the most beautiful text messages I have ever received was from a friend from the same Northern city as Sandström, reading as follows: "The night train towards the north is at it's best early in the morning, when you're the only one awake, listening to David Sandström, watching pine moors, bogs and occasional villages swish past the window. That I love!"

16.
[ingenting]

Lisa sa

(Mycket väsen för ingenting, 2006)

[ingenting] translates to [nothing] and their second album from which this song is picked to "Much ado about nothing". Sharing producer with Frida Hyvönen (of track 7), a third album is on the way, possibly paving the way for actually being known as more than "that band with the square brackets in the title". The beautiful "Lisa sa" is obviously a hommage to The Velvet Underground's "Stephanie Says".

17.
Veronica Maggio

Ballad om vintern
(Vatten & bröd, 2006)

Veronica Maggio is an odd example of an artist that is played on Swedish radio all the time, but still ranks as credible by the critics. One reason are her inspiring lyrics, another that she actually is great. "Ballad om vintern" (which I think you can figure out the translation of yourselves) was the end track of her debut album and completes the mini-theme of the Swedish seasons within this collection. As Doris on track 4, Maggio uses the word "grey" to describe the Swedish winter. Fair enough, I guess.

18.
Nicolai Dunger
Black Hole Sun
(Eventide, 1997)

Productive singer-songwriter Nicolai Dunger has released 13 albums since 1996. Few of them sound alike, ranging from the strings on Eventide to country-ish Soul Rush, or, well, more traditional singer-songwriter stuff. Dunger has worked with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Ebbot Lundberg of The Soundtrack of Our Lives and Nina Persson of The Cardigans. In my book, his best use of outside influence is however this cover of Soundgarden's 1994 hit "Black Hole Sun". Strings by The Tämmel Quartet and vocals by Dunger, not Antony Hegarty.

19.

Tired Tape Machine

Life Is a Joke
(Hälsningar från skogen, 2009)

My CD of the Month last year was a selection of music for the motion pictures. Had beautiful Swedish documentary Hälsningar från skogen (a.k.a. Greetings from the Woods) been released a year ago, this track would have been included. "Life Is a Joke" closes the film, played over mesmerizing pictures of old people dancing in a club house in the small village where the film takes place. The soundtrack is outstanding, and all of the tracks could have made it to this collection. If you like it, good luck in trying to find it, or I could fix you up with an additional CD.

20.
Monica Zetterlund/Bill Evans
Om natten
(Waltz for Debby, 1964)

In 1963, singer and actress Monica Zetterlund recorded a Swedish version of Bill Evans' "Waltz for Debby" (called "Monicas vals"). The recording reached Evans himself, who was so enchanted by Zetterlund's interpretation he wrote her and asked if they couldn't make a record together. They could, combining jazz standards and (once again!) traditional Swedish folk songs, arranged by Evans. "Om natten" ("In the night") closes the album and is to me a perfect way of ending also this score of Swedish music. a-funk wishes you a good night.