Swedish prog folk

I've got to visit Sweden some day.

I warn you, some of his work is kind of New Agey, but the sounds are a little too eccentric to fit neatly under that heading. (He has a couple real fans around here, too. I don't own any proper recordings by him.)

Archimedes Badkhar does this sound, but integrating Eastern and African instruments as well. Their album Tre was recently reissued on CD.

Kebnekaise is decent progressive folk.

you want: Hand Gjort, Bo Hansson, all the other A&F LPs (here's hoping MNW has them slated for similar CD treatment - and soon), Anna Själv Tredje, Kebnekajse, Turid, Väsen, Ragnarok, Hedningarna, and SAGOR & SWING(!!!!!)

MNW just got bought out this week by Push Media, so who knows what'll happen to the backcatalogue. Silence has put out a bunch of stuff that's worth tracking down, too.

then Anna Själv Tredje's 'Tussilago Fanfara' is a must. the lone album by the duo of Mikael Bojen and Ingemar Ljungstrom. oh so Dreamy. hasn't been reissued; doubt it ever will be (c'mon, Silence!) but i have a very good rip of the LP. get in touch if you're having trouble finding this one.

i have a chance to Trad, Gras och Stenar this week but can't decide if it's worth it. wasn't too into their recent album and i've heard mixed reviews of their live shows. has anyone seen them live recently and do they recommend it?

http://www.sagorochswing.com/
http://www.hapna.com

philemon arthur and the dung - weird discordant folky stuff, sweden's answer to the godz/fugs thing, lots of nonsense singing and strumming. has (the original?) version of "in kommer gosta" (covered by trad, gras & stenar) which is great, but the album can be a bit much.

listening to 'ur spar' right now. pretty sure this is later than 'arbete och fritid.' but it's got a slightly less folky sound. or rather, the folky side has been mixed in equal parts with some free jazz and the long repetitive jams of harvester or tgos. it almost sounds like a live recording too but it's great, much noisier and more interesting than the self-titled one.

Danish progband Alrune Röd sjould be mentioned too, theyre great.

I recommend Philemon Arthur!

oh, and they not only did 'im kommer gosta' but also that long epic jam 'sommerlaten' which closes those live album reissues on silence label (i think jaws were hitting the ground at around the 10-15 min. mark, it was so great).

sean - ur spar has not been reissued as far as i know, i downloaded it a long time ago on hotline or some other such antiquated filesharing program. it is in fact a live album, which probably explains why it's so good. here's a discog:

Arbete & Fritid - Ur spår LP
MNW 1974
Arbete & Fritid - Se upp för livet 2LP
MNW 1976
Arbete & Fritid - Håll andan LP
MNW 1979
Arbete & Fritid - 1969 - 1979 CD
MNW 1991
Arbete & Fritid - Deep Woods (=1969-1979) CD
resource/MNW 1993

I like it, but it is more similar to Red Crayola's "God bless..." - twisted.

Well and do add my Kebnekajse-vote to all the previous ones.

Also, Fläsket Brinner quite often fit that "prog folk" bill, me'd say.

Arbete och Fritid - "Thulcandra"

That band won a swedish grammy, which caused so much anger in the swedish music business that the whole event was put on hiatus for like ten years. So for that alone; yes, highly recommended.

My world music pal here at work just hooked me up with another Arbete och Fritid album, See Upp for Livet. It's a double lp. This 18 minute lead off track is ferocious.
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s24594.jpg

Shit, I missed those YSI links from last march.

see upp for livet is their best studio album imo. that 2nd song w/ flutes is excellent

those two ysi links were from the deep woods comp. i can re-up later. i might also have the live ur spar if you're interested

Yeah, I'm interested! I'm really loving the weirder moments on See upp right now. Some crazy stuff. Do you need any Turkish psych? My coworker also gave me the first album by Selda which features Mogollar as her backing band, or something. Not sure, haven't listened to it yet.

we're the only ones reading this thread rite?

en and tva

i don't know anything about turkish psych. haven't even heard 3 hur-el yet

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^SWEETNESS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Look!!!There Is Life On Earth!! by Life On Earth!!is one of my faves this year, though I may have gotten the exclamation points mixed up. On Subliminalsounds.se (lyrics in English, which sounds kinda French-inflected here, at least to American local yokel me)Anthologyrecordings.com has some of the 60s pre-T,G och S, maybe more related stuff by now (and forcedexposure.com's always good to check.

bump for Trip Maker

thanks, amon.
Here's Erkin Koray's Second Album. It's more traditional (in the Turkish sense) than the albums on either side of it, but I thought that may be appropriate.

i'll check that out when i get home

look at this live footage of International Harvester

aw, cool.

Not very folky, but there's a new Baby Grandmothers reissue set out; Sweden, early seventies i think, in a trad gras vein, but maybe with more of a sabbathy heaviness.

Sounds righteous.

i have that, it's very good

I've belatedly discovered Hedningarna and and Gjallarhorn (a roots-fusion band from from Ostrobothnia - Swedish speaking Finland) this week. Both are very similar in approach, almost frenzied percussive driven folk with close harmony or multitracked female vocals, occasional hardanger fiddle, and unafraid of production flourishes.

For Hedningarna, drone is provided by hurdy gurdy, jew's harp or other medieval instruments, with Finnish language close harmony vocals by a Finnish duo on their best three albums: Kaksi! (1992), Trä (1994), and Karelia Visa (1999).

Gjallarhorn audibly incorporates more multiculti influences (thumb piano, didj), and the overall sound frequently approaches later Dead Can Dance. One of Gjallarhorn's close associates is a professional studio engineer and custom microphone designer, and it shows in the sound - assuming you like a fairly wet and almost electric sound (though no electric instruments are present), their albums are some of the best recorded in any genre. Another member studied in Australia, and the drone role is taken by didgeridoo. Yes, I know this alone will turn off many with memories of the patchouli stink of mid-90s global fusion hippie excess, but trust me, here it works. Gjallarhorn's secret weapon is Jenny Wilhelms, whose multitracked voice carries the hockets with ease. Its pure, vibratoless, and free of the nasal timbre in a lot of the Nordic folk recordings I've sampled this week. The albums to start with are Sjofn (2000) and Rimfaxe (2006). Suvetar, the lead track off Sjofn illustrates their approach well:

As an aside, do not confuse them with the unrelated Italo-Norwegian death metal band that also adopted the name Gjallarhorn.

As an aside, please don't confuse

I have a pretty neat comp of this stuff, I'll share it

RIP Lars Hollmer of Samla Mammas Manna :(

yes RIP. the obits I read had no info on causes, I wonder if it was suicide? however it's sad

the mix I mentioned, a nice introduction to this sort of thing if anyone's interested: http://www.zshare.net/download/5351904987efc318/

mostly old stuff but some newer bands in the mix too. totally Dungen free

I hope that is still available when I get back home on Friday.

Älgarnas Trädgård ‎– Framtiden Är Ett Svävande Skepp, Förankrat I Forntiden (1972)

Reissue is out: http://www.subliminalsounds.se/product/algarnas-tradgard-framtiden-ar-ett-svavande-skepp-forankrat-i-forntiden-more-2xlp/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yuvO_5PCdE

just found this, hadn't thought to look before.
I picked up their 3rd lp a couple of decades ago probably because it was the one thing i could find at the time. I was trying to explore non english speaking prog cos I thought it might be a bit less obviously precious. I wondered if there had been much of a difference between that lp and the preceding 2 and it does seem like it lacks the psychedelic tinge that is pretty pronounced on those.
Not really thought about it much recently, got reminded of it earlier this week so checked out tracks on Spotify where I'd also been checking out Italian prog after getting the Ambropse croce book for xmas. Mainly been listening to podcasts on tehre recently.

I think there is a folk influence on here that may become more pronounced on teh 2nd lp but does seem that what they are jamming on are folk airs doesn't it?