GÖSTA BERLINGS SAGA

A good album of interesting, creative, and subtlely complex songs. A lot of variety here, too. What lacks is melody and sometimes 'meaningful development'--meaning that the songs don't always unfold in pleasing or 'sensible' ways.

1. Kontrast (7/10) is a slow developing, very symphonically constructed--but almost in a Minimalist way--song. I love the 'live in the studio' feeling of the recording. The song is a bit too repetitive for my tastes--despite the BUCK DHARMA (BÖC) guitar solo toward the end.

2. Sorterargatan 3 (9/10) is my favorite song on the album. It opens with a 'computer/keyboard' with bowed bass carring over from the previous song. Eventually a bluesy picked electric guitar takes over and, a little later, a tandem piano. At 2:00 there is a shift in instrumentation and feel. This shift is fully transitioned by 2:55 with driving bass and drums and very melodic harmonized guitar and keyboard arpeggios. At 3:40 guitar and then electric piano go briefly Fripp "Discipline" on us. Return to previous section of gtr & key arpeggios and then some classic rock syncopated guitar strumming. At 5:32 there is a haunting, whirling synth chord held in the background for over a minute as the song develops and morphs over the tp. At 6:45 some spacey effects accompany the plucking of a distorted guitar. Drums show off a bit within a military pattern. At 8:20 the guitars and keyboards simplify and repeat as mellotron and bass--and then 'recorder'-sounding synth-- melody takes lead to bare-bones end.

3. Svenska Hjärtan (8/10) begins with rather stereotypic Russian-sounding chord progressin played on an old upright 'Old West' player piano before a distored eledtiric guitar joins. Symphonic percussion effects also join in. An eery 'alien'-sounding synth takes over to the end.

4. Fem Trappor (7/10) begins with spacey-industrial synth play over cymbol work until 1:15 when bass joins in and together with the drums establish the beat. Guitars join in. At 2:57 enters main theme from the guitars. By 3:25 there is a melody shift with a "toy keyboard" playing. At 4:03 the main theme returns in a 'scratchier' form. 4:27 shifts to whole new rhythm and feel--old Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett era comes to mind.

5. Nattkift (8/10) starts with an electric piano intro (sounds very late-70s AMBROSIA-like). At 1:08 bass chords and slow electric piano arpeggios are quickly joined by fast arpeggios from a distorted electric guitar. Then shifts to some very bluesy guitar work--very dissonant-- almost like Allan HOLDSWORTH playing ROY BUCHANAN's guitar. At 3:19 a shift into an uptempo very standard blues-rock chord progression which is soon joined by guitar and ulilean pipes mirroring the solo. At 4:22 the song backs down to a bare bones electric piano arpeggios (They never left! Were just beneath all the other sound!) and then fade.

6. Berslagen (8/10) begins with another dissonant blues guitar start (FRIPP Red Era). At 0:38 the main theme is introduced playing through three different key changes. At 1:58 the picked acoutic guitar holds the melody. At 2:48 a bizarre guitar solo begins--very KING CRIMSON-like though Crimson never played quite like this. At 3:50 all instruments exit except electric keyboard playing before a quick shift to "toy" piano arpeggios. At 4:55 it is joined by bass clef electric piano chords. 5:25 seees FRIPP-ish sustained guitar solo beginning over the top of the keyboard work. At 6:05 begins the true toy piano solo/arpeggia--both hands over tremolo picked e-string note of the guitar. Enter a harmonium or accordion. At 7:55 drums reintroduce the dissonant "discipline" and now BELEW solo. At 8:48 there is a return to the harmonized melodic groove. Part STEVE HILLAGE, part MIE OLDFIELD. Interesting song. 7. Innilegur? (7/10) has Middle Eastern sounding acoustic "guitar" intro. (Perhaps a very old, dilapidated guitar?) At 1:35 it develops into more Western melodic picking. At 2:03 a synth and other guitar (bowed?) join in. A brief song. 8. Västarbron 05:30 (9/10) is my second favorite song from this album. It begins with a DOORS-y intro, bluesy bass/chord progression. At 1:20 the main melody is established on electric piano. At 2:25 a secondary melody enters, now accompanied by strummed acoustic guitar chord progression. Very NEIL YOUNG/CSN&Y-like. Guitar solo. At 4:20 the guitar and song sound more ALVIN LEE like with aggressive blues rock. Perhaps even BUDDY GUY. guitar fades to background as organ and electric piano foundation return to forefront. Strings join in, but listen to that guitar shredding away far in the back left! A bit of a "Strawberry Fields Forever" feel to the swirling chaos and eeriness of the end--and that toy piano!

Still, highly recommended for the prog lover.

Gösta Berlings Saga are really maturing into a stylistically diverse, highly original, and most importantly really cool-sounding band. I was overjoyed to find this CD on the shelves of my local music store (cursed as I was by the impression that these guys would remain inaccessibly Swedish forever) and picked it up somewhat impulsively.

And originally, I found it generally enjoyable but slightly disappointing compared to Tid är Ljud, the first album of theirs I heard, but it has massively improved on repeated listens. Part of this is due to the minimalist style of record--my first impression was that the songs tended to be overlong, but closer observation reveals a wealth of small details that really make the album excellent. (Really, more of a 4.3 or 4.4.)

Finally, the album shows a clear progression from their second, Detta Har Hänt. That one, although still heavily produced, still maintains the same instrumentation and a roughly uniform sound throughout, whereas Glue Works uses many different interesting synth sounds and other instruments--including the only successful example I've seen of the musical saw in a rock context. The whole thing is excellently produced by Matthias Olson (of Änglagård fame). I wouldn't necessarily say this album is better than Detta Har Hänt, but it shows clear musical development. As previous reviewers have said, it's more than a bit post-rocky, which is an interesting change in style.

Three paragraphs, and I haven't even gotten to individual songs yet! The opener, 354, is a relentless, minimalist rocker, with the group's signature combination of Fender Rhodes and harsh guitar, playing an incessantly energetic (and utterly bizarre time-signature-wise--I still haven't figured it out) piece that subtly metamorphoses through several different themes, concluding with a pounding two-chord theme over which various instruments exchange solos. This last part does go on a bit long, but the piece is quite exciting overall. Also, I think I understand the enigmatic title--the piece is 5:54, or 354 seconds, long.

After "354" comes "Icosahedron", continuing the theme of "slightly mathematical titles". This is an excellent piece, with an eerie Rhodes intro that suddenly crescendos into a crashing, heavy sequence of bizarre chord voicings on the guitar. The effect is menacing and unpredictable, and it all too soon calms back down to the Rhodes. This piece is highly original but also fascinating to listen to, and is also a bit too short.

The following piece, "Island", is one of the album's two "epics". It starts out with a pleasantly eerie string section (with saw!) which introduces the piece's main theme. This goes on for a minute or two, and then the piece starts in earnest, with a crashing guitar theme and thunderous drumming from Alexander Skepp. For about 10 minutes, the band riffs in subtly changing ways on a pretty exciting 13/8 chord progression, almost never halting or pulling back its steady advance. This piece does have one outstanding flaw, which is that it's distinctly overlong. It could easily lose a minute or so from the ending jam and vastly improve. But my opinion has still gotten more positive from when I first heard it. The trick is that, at the time, it was unlike anything I had ever heard. In this track more than any other on the album, it is important to pay attention to the weird things going on in the background, and what initially appears to be interminable jamming at the end turns out to be a truly epic fadeout. (Which, as already stated, is a wee bit long, but still cool!) What is really impressive is that, apart from the sudden transition away from strings at the beginning, the piece preserves its length without any awkward jumps or cuts. It doesn't sound like it was stitched together from shorter songs, but rather uses slow, unnoticeable transitions through guitar solos, harsh saw-wave synths, repeated motifs, and back to more soloing. Although perhaps not the best song on the album, it is a fascinating listen and a fitting centerpiece--atmospheric and terrifyingly relentless at the same time (which always strikes me as an oxymoronic combination, until I actually hear examples such as this.)

Fortunately, the 13-minute crunch-fest of Island is followed up by a relatively calming intro to "Gliese 581g", a mysterious repeated Rhodes figure over xylophone and subtle, breathy synth noises. It's intriguing, because the main melody is actually comprised by these "background" noises--the "foreground" figure is really the slowly developing backing. After this goes on for a while, the instruments draw back again, in time for a sudden, violent interruption of guitar chords carrying a similar theme, which are then backed by thundering, complex percussion, building up to a sudden stop. Again, this piece is a bit on the long side, but still excellent.

This is followed by two short pieces. The first, "Waves", might actually be the best on the disc, with strange percussion (including handclaps) and growling bass, a catchy opening synth theme, and then weird, echoey guitar chords which fall into the background. The song is sort of based off of several layers that swap out for each other, producing a highly varied piece with a lot going on. And of all of the tracks on the record, this one is the one that would be most improved by lengthening--it's under 3 minutes!

The second short piece, "Geosignal", does not impress me. It starts out with a slow, melancholy theme on strings and accordion (?) which then switches to a brass interlude. It's the least remarkable part of the disc, but it's fortunately also the shortest, and the last note fades out and then sweeps back into...

"Sorterargatan 1", the "prequel" to Detta Har Hänt's "Sorterargatan 3". This begins with a chiming repeated figure on the guitar and menacing bass notes, leading in to more of the stunning rapid twiddles on the guitar that marked its companion piece and then a more ethereal section with an eerie leading tone. The song then suddenly stops, several minutes short of its promised running time...

And starts up again as what appears to be a totally different song--another slow-building tune this time, with rhodes, bass, drums, and cello, but, for the first time on the album, actually happy! Apparently this is still a part of Sorterargatan 1, but I can't really see that--they're not connected in any way. Still, it's nice to end such a dark record on a happy note, and the buildup is well-executed.

So, to conclude this overly verbose review: Glue Works is very, very good. Sometimes it stresses the minimalism and repetition of its songs a little too far, but there are enough details and complexly layered parts that in most places it doesn't make a difference. It's also got a style that I've heard nowhere else before. So if you're interested in post-rock, minimalism, eclectic prog, or just any instrumental rock that's highly original, it would behoove you to check this out. Highlights include "Icosahedron", "Waves", and "Sorterargatan 1".

Gösta Berlings Saga have given us quite a treat for their freshman album. They have an interesting style, one which hints of Discipline-era King Crimson; although they share a similarity, they're both very distinctly different styles. The Fender Rhodes Electric piano drives this album, and does so quite well. Another thing I like about this band: they don't sing. Instrumentals only (with a bit of speaking in one track only.) The album kicks off with an excellent opening track entitled "Helgamarktz" with a high-energy theme. The beginning reminds me of a crossover of Roundabout (Yes) and Memories of Old Days (Gentle Giant). It starts slowly, with an ambient chord on the organ, and guitars come in. It quickly picks up, however, and this is one of the quickest tracks on the album. 10/10.

The next, Syrenernas Sång, has a crunchy theme on the Rhodes with a wah pedal. I love this track, but the speaking halfway through gets in the way of the cool guitar solo. 9/10.

Aniarasviten starts fast, but actually gets slower as it progresses. The fast opening is great, and so is the mellotron-drenched middle. I'm not too fond of the more static ending, but this is still a great track. 8/10.

Ljud Från Stan is another rocker, rivaling Helgamarktz. It has a nice solo on the aforementioned Fender Rhodes. 8/10.

Tog Du Med Dig Naturen is my least favorite on the album, it's just kind of slow. It's got an alright theme, but it's ten minutes of a theme that never really develops. 5/10.

Knölsvanen has a cool intro on the Rhodes. It then goes into a somewhat twisted melody. 7/10.

The last track, Svarta Hål och Elljusspår starts with lots of tritones. This one in particular reminds me of Discipline. It makes use of many repeated phrases, seeming like minimalism. It goes into a slower middle (with flute!) 7/10.

Well, there you have it. Some really great Swedish prog.

GOSTA BERLINGS SAGA are back with their special blend of Swedish instrumental Prog. Once again ANGLAGARD's Mattias Olsson is back to help with additional sounds as well as producing,recording and mixing this baby. All I had to see was that David Lundberg was once again playing Fender Rhodes and mellotron to know this would be good. Like the last one we get a Post-Rock flavour at times but I will say right off the bat that the last one is a better album than this one. Still I definitely rate this better than the debut and a solid 4 stars.

"354" opens with guitar as a beat then the Fender Rhodes join in. I like the prominant bass as well. A spacey almost theremin-like sound takes over at 4 minutes and when it stops this sounds amazing. Quite intense. "Icosahedron" kicks in fuller just before a minute as the guitar is picked over top. It settles 2 1/2 minutes in to the end.

"Island" opens with cello and that theremin-like sound again.The drums kick in before 2 minutes.The guitar comes to the spotlight before 4 1/2 minutes as this song just keeps getting better. "Gliese 581G" has a Post-Rock flavour to start.The guitar kicks in at 4 minutes to the end. "Waves" is a short tune with a heavy beat and mellotron.

"Geosignal" has some harmonica, horns, piano, guitar and atmosphere. It blends into "Sorterargatan I" where a full sound kicks in quickly. Almost a Zeuhl-like rhythm especially with that growly bass sound after 1 1/2 minutes as the guitar plays over top. A calm follows with mellotron. It's building then that Zeuhl-like bass returns after 4 1/2 minutes. A calm a minute later then it starts to build 7 1/2 minutes in. Cello 9 minutes in then mellotron before 10 1/2 minutes.

"Glue Works" is an excellent follow-up to the masterpiece that was "Detta Har Hant".

Who is Gösta Berling and why did he name his band after the Canadian synthrockers?

I jest of course. There is no Gösta Berling unless you count the defrocked minister from the Lagerlöf novel and Jethro Tull-like namesake of the group, and frankly if you really want the straight poop on this disc; the scuttlebutt, the word, skinny, dish, and hearsay, I'd suggest reading Starless' excellent write-up. My main parting with his fine assessment is that I do find Glue Works focuses strongly on building layered themes upon simple structures rather than material that is change-oriented. Kinda sounds like what you'd get if you threw half the Ozrics and half of Anglagard in a room together for a day or two. And then there's that Hansson&Karlsson influence. It's a strange mix but that's okay, it works, and it sounds like the kind of thing you'd regret tossing five or ten years from now. Sadly it's not an approach that does a whole lot for this writer. The project functions on paper, but somehow the music doesn't stick and seems to evaporate as it plays leaving little residual flavor. I do wish this were not the case for the 46 minute Cuneiform release, but you call 'em like you see 'em.

There is some very good stuff here, however, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point it out. '354' promises with an intriguing vamp of thin, tingly lines from Einar Baldursson's guitar & Dave Lundberg's electric piano splayed over the tribal drumming of Alex Skepp. A good start. Atonal 'Icosahedron' clearly reflects the Hansson/Karlsson impact while painfully long 'Island' at over twelve minutes creaks along to the beautifully recorded cellos of Cecilia Linne, wayward sounds of an aetherphone, and develops into a very cool jam that, if tailored, could've been a highlight. But the piece is dragged-out to it's breaking point and doesn't really capitalize on this outfit's potential brilliance. A welcome change of pace for 'Waves' reminding vaguely of early Peter Gabriel, and 13-minute monster 'Sorterargatan 1' is quite good, the foursome finally bringing it with multiple changes of theme, direction, pace and instrumentation.

This is a good record. Very good. And I know I must be missing something. I wanted more, I wanted less, I don't know what I wanted, and it isn't really the band's fault that I'm such a nitpicking assh*le. This is an album that can only be judged by the listener while he is listening, not defined by an outside impression. And so dear reader, with gaping ear and hungry spirit, you should decide for yourself if GBS fits your bill. I only know it didn't quite fit mine.

Named after a famous 19th century Swedish novel, the story of a defrocked church minister with added sword and sorcery, this band has a lineage that one can trace back through Anekdoten, the recently reformed Änglagård, and older influences such as Hansson & Karlsson, the ubiquitous King Crimson, and Van Der Graaf Generator. In fact Änglagård's Mattias Olsson is involved here on production duties and contributes "additional hidden and lost sounds".

Any entirely instrumental band has to be able to keep the listener's attention with many intricate twists and turns, or go the other way and create a trance-like ambience. Gösta Berlings Saga, not unsurprisingly given their influences, go for the former approach, and highly successful it is too. I've listened to this album quite a few times before attacking the keyboard, and each time I hear something I missed previously.

The first thing I notice is a powerful organic sound propelled by Gabriel's bass and Alexander's driving back beat on the opening piece, the cryptically named 354. The tune marches along, embellished by some nice piano flourishes from David before becoming darker and pulling you round in a very fast orbit. There's even a musical saw interlude before the crunching finale. An impressive start.

Instrumental bands can call their songs anything they like, and there are some great titles here. Icosahedron is "..a regular polyhedron with 20 identical equilateral triangular faces, 30 edges and 12 vertices" - and who am I to argue! Gilese 581g is a planet orbiting Gilese 581 in the constellation of Libra, and is reckoned to be an Earth-like planet with a good chance of supporting life. Where do they find these titles?!

Icosahedron with Einar's crashing chords puts me in mind of one of the instrumental passages from The Strangler's Meninblack album, but with added cojones. More musical saw and waltzing cello gives a chamber music feel to Island, the first longer piece on the album. The theme is taken over by bass and drum, you can feel the build up. The spirit of Änglagård is very much in evidence on this great piece of stomping waltz music from another galaxy.

Geosignal has a glam rock beat overlaid with some trumpet and more crashing Stranglers-like chords. A surprising but fun deviation.

Soterargarten 1 reprises a title from the last album, where it was listed as Soterargarten 3, and the band's myspace site has Soterargarten 2 for streaming. It's all a bit confusing! Anyway, after a mournful trumpet intro a huge marching bass/drums riff establishes a theme, and it lurches along like Iron Man in a rage. Then it stops, and a quiet reflective piano led section later joined by trumpet and cello builds to a gentle climax, lulling the listener after the carnage that has gone before. Wonderful stuff. You'll have buy the thing to find out more!

I don't usually go for track by track descriptions (ok, I haven't described every song here, but five out of seven is good going for me!) , as personally I find reviews that give an overall impression far more helpful, but this has sucked me in, in a good way I hasten add, but I'll stop now, having hopefully teased you just enough to investigate further.

Tid ar Ljud (Time is Sound) was the debut album from Swedish instrumental prog rock band, Gosta Berlings Saga.

I discovered this band after the release of their second album, Detta Har Hant, and truthfully it was so good that I was afraid to listen to this album for fear that it wouldn't captivate me to the same degree. Luckily, it didn't take a lot of listens to realise that Gosta Berlings Saga had come out of the gates strongly, and that their debut album was just as strong as its follow-up.

The band play instrumental rock music, and although they have a standard rock lineup of drums, keyboards, bass and guitar, they sound far removed from standard rock band. The music is built from carefully constructed layers of music that create entrancing textures, and as the details of the music are uncovered it only grows in appeal. This is definitely an album where there are plenty of details to uncover through multiple listens.

Between this album and Detta Har Hant, the band had switched guitarists, and so there is a bit of a difference in the sound here. Matthias Danielson doesn't create textures with quite the precision that Einar Baldursson would on the next album, but he puts a bit more rock and heaviness into his playing, making this album a bit meatier than its follow-up. This works quite well, and the closing track, Svarta Hal Och Elljusspår (Black holes and Floodlit Track) is perhaps the best example of this. It is also possibly the best track I have heard from this very talented group thus far.

Definitely a recommended listen. Now to get my hands on their latest, "Glue Works"...

After an extremely promising debut Gösta Berlings Saga released some three years later this much-awaited for Detta Har Händt. First small deception: the much less charming artwork of this sophomore album, based onto construction shots, which quite a departure to the particularly charming debut digipak package. The group also saw a change of guitarist, Baldur's son stepping in for Daniel's son (too easy, but too hard to resist ;o))). The first impression, once the disc popped inside you deck, is that you'll have no problems to recognize the instrumental world GBS had installed with their debut. Lundberg's keyboard array hasgrown impressively, even if they're considered additional instrument and lmainly quoted on the Rhodes.

I can't help but thinking of the early Anekdoten (Vemod + Nucleus) upon a few occasions on this album, mainly the guitar and mellotron layers, but also at Crimson ('the opening succession of chords on Bergslagen. Sometimes the electronic noises are intriguing almost ambient, like at the start and throughout Svenska Hjärtan; whereas they're announcing a deeply involved frenzy in Tem Trappar. The little flaw detected on the debut, overstaying inside the same groove without foraying around it, is actually increased as we find long moments (such as the closing Vasterbron) where the heroic wails and dramatic weeps from the guitar flatters shamelessly your eardrums with much talent, but might be more concise in its propos. Nevertheless, even an old dog such as me will allow himself to fall into a well-dressed up trap, such as this one.

A bit less brilliant than its predecessor, DHH is maybe more adventurous, but in the greater scheme of prog things, they're both fairly sonically similar, even if I'd advise to start with the debut and move to this one after. In either case, while certainly not groundbreaking (what is still so, in this end of the 00's decade?), GBS offers some orgasmic moments, even though it might have a little too much déjà-vu feel and may sound a tad formulaic, in regards to the Scandic retro-prog plethora.

Although I generally find that Scandinavian's two most important decades for contributing to the prog cause are the 70's and 90's, I must say that the second wave seem to have lost a lot of steam in the 00's, but there still a few surprises, like the Norwegian Elephant 9 or the early Paatos and this GBS, which escaped my radar until fairly recently. This standard prog quartet appeared in the middle of the decade and released their debut album in late 06, but apparently this was a rather discreet side-door entrance on the scene. It's not the album's design that the culprit, here because this sumptuous digipak is very catchy (for progheads anyway) and the booklet is filled with marvellous naïve drawings that fit rather well their music. Sonically this group develops a mainly instrumental prog rock, often close to the typically- Scandic mellotron-laden retro-prog

The seven tracks , that range from five to almost ten minutes, are almost totally instrumental (a few spoken phrases on the Syrenernas sang - Siren's Song I believe), but the quartet receives help from a few guests, including two violins on Aniarasviten and Naturen tracks, the former also benefiting from weird electronics bruitages, and a flute on the closing track. The group's sonic spectrum is clearly an organ (by synth)-lead prog that features the typical Nordic melancholy, neither too-classical nor too-jazz leaning, just mainly rock. One of the very few critics I could formulate is that the group tends to overstay a bit too long in the great grooves they found, without trying to extrapolate, just content to expands in terms of lengthy solos, but then again the groove and enthralling solos are enough to keep me happy in the greater scheme of recent prog releases.

BTW, I can't help thinking that graphic designer Berglund is somehow related to keyboardist Lundberg, but this is just a hunch, based upon inverted syllables in names. A superb debut album that has caused me to review my top twenty of the last decade, and it's possible that one I will re-evaluate it downwards, once I will freed from its spell. But in the meantime, it's not likely to happen too soon.

Given how long this album has been out, it has received remarkably little attention here, especially considering the glowing reviews that have already been written for it! I add my voice to this group in the hopes that it will cause others to stand up and take notice of this excellent band hailing from Sweden, a country that is, admittedly, better known for it's symphonic/retro prog bands and metal, and less for it's more experimental instrumental music.

With their second album, Detta Har Hant (which translates to "This Has Happened"), Gosta Berlings Saga have created something great, and one of the better albums to come out it's year of release.

The music of this band is built using the typical rock lineup of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, but the band couldn't sound further from typical rock. What we are treated to hear are greatly textured soundscapes, built with textured layered guitars, lively bass, and marching drumbeats.

Some of the songs take a different turn; for example, Svenska Hjartan is a more chilled out piece that relies more on the keys than the layered guitar attack that much of the rest of the album uses.

The music on this album is incredibly strong, and I'd be hard pressed to name a single track that I didn't like. It does take several listens to penetrate all the details of the album, but once you do, these songs will stick with you and demand that you return to them many times. The songs weave through intricate sound patterns effortlessly, leaving you constantly guessing what will come next, yet never feeling like it is forced.

I must admit that most of my favorite moments on this album are the more upbeat tracks, such as the opener Kontrast (Contrast), Fem Trappor (Five Stairs), etc., but I have a soft spot for the build up in some of their more laid back tracks, such as Nattskift (Night Shift), which builds from a soft keyboard part before the guitar comes in. These tracks also show a different side to the drummer, who tends strays further from the marching-like drumming he does on the more upbeat tracks.

Overall, Detta Har Hant is an excellent release that deserves a lot of attention, especially from those who enjoy adventurous instrumental music.