DEMO TAPES

A mythical four track demo cassette with Autumn Breeze have been circulating in the tape trading circuit for a long time and low-fi copies of it have been widely spread among progressive rock collectors all around the world. Now at last a CD with decent sound quality, that justifies the material have been released directly from the source, topped with another demo with 4 tracks from 1977 which had been shelved and totally unknown until now. Of the four tracks from the "unknown" demo a very long version of "Nummer 646" with Swedish lyrics is the best. It's a grower with its loose atmosphere and Latin rhythms inspired by "Santana" All material from the more "wellknown" demo ended up on the "Höstbris" album, except for "Gammal Man" ironically their best song ever, halfway through, it turns into a hardrock monster in the vein of "Uriah Heep" and the untamed vocals by Leif Forsberg (their second singer on these two demos) have never sounded better. I would say that Autumn Breeze's most exciting material is spread on this CD, a four star rating with a (+).

Peter Wallgren (Okt 2009)

After three decades a lost gem was found

The words "Demo Tapes" or "Official Bootleg" are normally an indication for me to avoid an album, because I'm interested in final and complete versions of songs released professionally. So when Jan Warnqvist sent me this album released in 2009 with mostly 1977 material, I almost decided to avoid it.

But being that Jan was so kind to send it to me from Sweden, I thought that the least I had to do was to listen "The Demo Tapes" and review it even if I had to give a low rating, so placed it in the car while going to work (My daily journey to my office in downtown is of about one hour, and being summer I can listen the album peacefully with the windows closed and the AC on with nobody to bother me).

The surprise was great even when some versions are less developed than in "Höstbris", their sound is natural, and closer to their Hard Rock roots, in comparison with the elaborate debut album, "Demo Tapes" is brutal, aggressive but even the well known tracks sound more adequate to the band.

"Demo Tapes" is opened with "Falsk Ouverture", it's true that the recording is not so good but the music itself is much more powerful, the guitar work is simply impressive and the keyboards have a sound closer to early URIAH HEEP with a touch of MOUNTAIN,.to be honest liked this demo much more than the final version because of the Blues essence.

."Höstbris" is lso improved, specially in the keyboards being that "Warnqvist" creates some sort of painful howl that combined with the guitar creates a tortured sound so characteristic of early Prog.

"Dialog" is a new track that blends early JETHRO TULL (This Was era) with Blues, absolutely frenetic from start to end, all the band members give their best, specially Gert Magnusson with his impressive flute sections.

The vocals by Leif Forsberg require a special mention, the guy doesn't have a perfect range , but his style is simply perfect for a Blues Rock song as this one.

"Jordnara" is basically similar to the "Höstbris" version, at least until the drum section starts there I feel the band sounds much more vital and strong, reminds me of a FOCUS video Masters from the Vault, where while the other members of the band and some local artists eat giant slices of Dutch Cheese (In the kitchen of a castle, Thijs Van Leer and Jan Akkerman jam a local folk song with unusual happiness,. in the same way AUTIMN BREEZE members seem to really enjoy what they are doing.

"Secret Space Agency" sends us into PINK FLOYD territory, with a dense atmosphere and the band playing some sort of hard space Rock, the song starts soft, almost hard to listen (the recording doesn't help) and the music goes "in crescendo" until they explode in a burst of power.

"Vintern" is a return to the late 60's, the band plays some Psyche - Proto Prog variation with elaborate structures and incredibly a garage rock feeling, it's so natural and unforced that it's a pleasure to listen them, really enjoyable. Please pay special attention to Gert Magnusson and his frenetic flute, I just can't understand why this guy is not a legend today, being that he had the skills.

Now is the turn of "Nr 646", one of my favourite tracks, it's like a time machine to 1967, pure Psychedelia in the late 70's, if I didn't knew this guys recorded this song in 1977, I would be asking their inclusion to Proto Prog, because the atmosphere they create is absolutely convincing,

The album is closed with "Hammal Man", a track that starts soft and gentle but turns somehow funky with some Jazz sections that make it interesting, the sound again is clearly oriented towards the late 60's, good guitar work plus interesting melody and choirs.

Only as a curiosity, "Hammal Man" sounds like an embryonic version of "UPA" from ."Höstbris" .

It's true that most listeners of Progressive Rock search for complex structures and elaborate songs, this is not the case of "Demo Tapes", but the simplicity and strength makes me miss nothing, sometimes less arrangements allow the band to show what they are capable of, and in this case AUTUMN BREEZE proves that they deserved better luck, because as a band they were capable of great things.

Like in the debut album, my rating is 4 solid stars, that should be 4.5 because the simpler but vigorous approach of "Demo Tapes" convinced me even more than the intricate arrangements of "Höstbris".

Symphonic Rock band Autumn Breeze came in life in Arvika in 1972 by singer Leif Forsberg and guitarist Gert Nilsson, its only consistent member throughout their career.The band had a good live activity during the early period, but it was late-70's when they entered their most prolific era.In 1977/1978 the band recorded a 4-track demo tape and also made a radio broadcast appearance.Some 30 years later these four demo tracks along with demo versions of tracks found on their sole 1979 release was released as ''Demo tapes'' on MyRecords.

The two opening pieces ''Falsk ouverture'' and ''Höstbris'' (the Swedish translation of Autumn Breeze) are early versions from the full-length ''Höstbris'' release,an obscure mix of Symphonic, Psychedelic and Space Rock with CAMEL,KAIPA and ANYONE'S DAUGHTER touches, great guitar work and massive synth layers creating changing climates.''Dialog'' has a strong Scandinavian flavor with spacey flute work dominating a light pounding groove.''Jordnära'' is another demo version of the same track found in the band's debut, stylistically this is more on the Psych/Prog side with a low-tempo mood and Birgitta Nilsson's hypnotic voice on the forefront, before exploding to a SANTANA-flavored Latin/Fusion style after the middle thanks to the guitar of Gert Nilsson.''Secret space agency'' is another track in a Psychedelic Rock style, totally instrumental, with the good flute work of Gert Magnusson shining through and Jan Warnqvist's keyboards setting some more energy later.''Vintern'' is a very harmonic instrumental piece, close to NEUSCHWANSTEIN, excellent combination of flutes, guitars and keyboards in a short but lovely Symphonic Rock affair.''Nr. 646'' is the longest but also the weakest cut in the album.Pretty loose and unstructured for the most of its part,this a dated and rather experimental performance of the band with a jazzy edge and plenty of space for individual improvisations with flutes,saxes and bass in a jamming style.The closing ''Gammal man'' is rather dull and commercial, a mix of Psychedelic/Blues Rock with Funk, not representative of the band's sound.

A pretty nice documentary effort from this Swedish Prog legends as part of the band's reincarnation around the year of this release.Good addition for fans of Progressive Rock with a nice dose of diversity.Warmly recommended despite a couple of weaker tracks.

Well here is my third installment of the "classic" Autumn Breeze trilogy. In my previous reviews I pretty much covered the band itself, so there isn't much more to add here. That actually goes to the biggest problem with this review. I just don't have that much more to say.

"Demo Tapes" is just that, a collection of demos. With two exceptions, different versions of these tracks can be found on "Höstbris" and "På Radio 1978." There is enough variation to make it worth hearing, but it is by no means to be referred to as an original collection.

The performance is somewhere between the other two albums. It is not nearly as refined as "Höstbris," but neither does it have that passionate live performance fire of "På Radio."

If you are interested in Autumn Breeze, try the other two albums first. This would not be the best place to start. Once a fan of the band, "Demo Tapes" would probably be a worthy addition to a collection. It is the completion piece to a set.

For a better picture of the band, check out my other reviews.

H.T. Riekels