FRAMTIDEN ÄR ETT SVÄVANDE SKEPP, FÖRANKRAT I FORNTIDEN

What a truly fascinating album this is! The album is actually entitled "Framtiden Ärr Et Svävande Skepp, Forinkrat i Forntiden", which, translates as "The Future is a Hovering Ship Anchored in the Past", which is also one of the song titles of the album. As you might guess, ÄLGARNAS TRADGARD is a Swedish band, but a truly unique band. Just imagine what would happen if the Krautrock scene happened in Sweden, rather than Germany. Just imagine bands like AMON DÜÜL II or ASH RA TEMPEL gone completely Nordic, then you get sort of an idea of what these guys are like. The band includes both modern (guitar, synthesizers, bass, drums/percussion, violin) and ethnic and archaic instruments (sitar, tabla, zinks, zither, rebec). It's truly a bizarre combination of Krautrock, prog, Indian, and Nordic folk music. Most of it is all instrumental, with only two cuts with vocals (in Swedish). If this isn't the epitome of a hippie band, then what is? After all, the guys of the band all look like long haired freaks, and the music sounds like it's LSD influenced.

Of interest is one of the band members is Jan Ternauld, he is also an artist, so he did the cover to this album as well. He also did covers for a couple of Bo HANSSON's albums, specifically "Magician's Hat" ( Ur Trollkarlens Hatt) and "Attic Thoughts" ( Mellanväsen). In fact, that's not the only Bo HANSSON connection you find with ÄLGARNAS TRADGARD, they also recorded for the same label, a small label called Silence Records (a label, in the early '70s that was very open to this kind of music - and is still around, and had reissued this on CD).

Regardless, if you fancy the idea of Krautrock with a Nordic bent, you gotta try this album out!