HÖSTBRIS

First time I came across the name "Autumn Breeze" was when someone had sprayed the bands name in big white capital letters on a mountain wall which I had to pass every day on the way to school. I had no idea what this was about, until 10 years later then I found a copy of the "Höstbris" LP in a youth centre, which I immediately stole. And as a collector of progressive rock, this was absolutely a nice inclusion to my recordcollection. I would say that this is an important record in many ways, it is probably the last of the interesting Swedish progressive albums of the 70s, it has nerve enough to satisfy both progressive and symphonic rockers, and the famous Scandinavian melancholy is very obvious here. The record is largely keyboard/guitar oriented, everything is laid down very well structured, and the 40 studio hours has been utilized to the max to make a ambitious work of art. The best cuts are title track "Höstbris" And "Um Mani Padme Hum" with its ultra cool mantra that should give every surviving hippie the chills, "U P A" is also an interesting piece but you will find a much better version of it on the "Demos" CD under the name "Gammal Man" I must also mention the beautiful laid back "Våren" which has a lot in common with Hawkwinds classic track "Hall of the mountain grill". In one way "Höstbris" tends to be too much of an instrumental record, it could have benefited from more vocals, and even more hardrocking parts, but on the other hand it is done in a well structured manner and holds together fine as a unit. The record cover was reviewed in the local press as boring or ugly at the time of its release, but I would say it has a certain primitive charm, and asks a lot of questions, the drawing looks unfinished, it appeals to an open mind and you cannot really tell what's going on in this picture!? The original "Höstbris" LP was released in 1000 copies on the Ö Records label. A lot of people seams to think that it was a private release, but Ö Records was actually a real record company, based in Karlstad (Sweden) and responsible for around 20 releases in the late seventies, although Autumn Breeze was the only progressive record on the label, original copies are very hard to obtain today so this CD version is more than welcome.

Peter Wallgren (Okt 2009)