THE AUTUMN BAND

It's a bit of breaking news in the underground circuits that Autumn Breeze is back on track. Over thirty years have passed since their eponymous album "Höstbris" saw the light of day. With that record forever cemented as a landmark of Swedish symphonic rock in the baggage the expectations on the new material are rather high. The most important question is of course, is the spirit of 1979 still here? And can they still deliver good rock music? Don't worry, of course they can! But they also have some new aces up their sleeves on this long, long awaited second album.

I would say that they are shooting in three different directions on this record, "Going down to Africa", "Mombasa" and "Gruba" have the smooth flavour of world music, mixed with latin funk, a winning concept and bands like Stardust International, Tequila and Hot Salsa comes to mind while listening, in these cuts they have definitely left the progressive rock sound of "Höstbris" and moved on to a more up to date world/jazz/funk sound.

Then there are three straight rockers "Until finished", "Fried eggs" and "Love me baby" all of these are more "in your face" than the average Autumn Breeze track, what they lack in originality they take back in energy, and there is a certain hit potential in some of the chorus lines.

The third part of this trinity of styles is the progressive/symphonic numbers "Life is just another day", "Schon Für Schasen", "Sorrow", "Rock´n roll madness" and "Massösen". "Life is just another day" (the first single from the album) is sheer magic, still within the Autumn Breeze formula but with a crystal sharp sound most worthy a 21 century rock band, and the new singer Linus Bornlöf does a fantastic soulful job with the vocals on this epic track. "Rock´n roll madness" is another brilliant piece which makes me think of the Travelling Wilburys song:"Tweeter and the monkeyman", although in a more trippy, organic mood and with the always outstanding flute to the fore. Also the voice of Gert Magnusson has matured in a very cool way, as today he sounds like a Swedish counterpart to Bob Dylan!

The most traditional Autumn Breeze styled tracks are definitely "Schon für Schasen" and "Massösen". I could be wrong but this must be two of the leftovers from the "Höstbris" era, and the interesting fact that Gert Nilsson (their original guitar player) has co- written "Massösen" may give us a clue in what direction the band had planned to go after the "Höstbris" release.This is the peak of the album in many ways and the organ/guitar work is just amazing, almost like Swedish krautrock, no other band has a sound like this!

All in all this release offers positive surprises, straight rockers and progressive anthems for the conservative I honestly hope that Autumn Breeze will reach a wider audience this time around, so we don't have to wait another thirty years for a third album!

Peter Wallgren October 2010

Since some months ago, my very good friend Jan Warnqvist (Thank you for the dedicatory in the album pal), has been sending me albums of AUTUMN BREEZE containing excellent old material released at last, but for the first time after three decades the band has released "The Autumn Band" with 100% new material, great news for the followers of this very good but obscure Swedish band (Hey...I'm yet to find a bad Swedish band?).

This time the band doesn't conform with playing one genre or style, they mix Prog atmospheric tracks with Jazzy songs and straight rock material, so the listener never gets bored and the band proves us their versatility.

"The Autumn Band" starts with the excellent "It's Just Another Day", a fantastic Spacey track in the vein of Pink Floyd, with skilled guitar riffs, beautiful flute and Jan creating that dense atmosphere that seems to fall over the listener.

But my biggest impression is the vocal work, Linus Bornloff (who has some range similarities with "David Gilmour") combines his low ranged voice with the sweet tone of "Sara Bergqvist", creating a memorable song.

"Sorrow" is a melancholic and melodic song again with an excellent vocal work, but this time the star is Jan with his piano, the tune is heartbreaking and delicate, something new in the style of the band that I like.

"Love my Baby" is pure Rock & Roll in the style of the late 50's, nothing spectacular, but pleasant to listen, seems like the band members are making a retrospective of the music they were raised with.

"Schon für Schase" is another Space/Psyche oriented song, the intro reminds me a bit of "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", but the similarities are superficial, the atmospheric keyboard and amazing guitar is perfectly supported by that human metronome called "Lennart Olssen" in the drums.

The track is very dramatic with radical changes from aggressive guitar to soft flute, again AUTUMN BREEZE hit the nail in the head.

"Until Finished" is another strange track, it's clear that it's mainstream, but the nice Beatlesque aroma takes us back to the late 60's, again not spectacular, but adds variation to the album, as the next song "Going Down to Africa" some sort of Elvis sings Funk, very entertaining.

I expected that "Rock & Roll Madness" was going to be another mainstream track, but this time the band play Folk Prog with JETHRO TULL overtones, the usually sweet flute is now aggressive and powerful, the choirs are outstanding and again the piano is delightful.

"Fried Eggs" begins as a Rock track, but soon morphs into a jazzy song with very good vocal work, Tullish flute and a guitar that sounds very close to "Brian May's style", this guys keep surprising me with their constant changes, and the next song "Mombassa" enhances this impression, because it starts funky and changes into some Folksy Jazz with contagious percussion.

"Gruba" again combines several styles and genres, I can listen, Rock, Blues,. Funk, Jazz, Ethnic Music, etc...But the biggest surprise is "Massösen", at last a Symphonic track with lush keyboards, killer bass and radical changes, the highest point of the album and a good closer, because "PleaseGetOnTheBus" is just an experimental closing with a mysterious almost "a cappella" section supported by soft piano that lasts only 45 seconds.

After checking the songs comes the harder part. My first priority is to leave clear that this album is not Symphonic and not all the tracks are Prog, it's more an eclectic blend of styles and moods closer to PINK FLOYD and JETHRO TULL than any other band.

But hey, the music is good, and doesn't bore for a second, so if this is the new line that "AUTUMN BREEZE" is going to follow after a three decades sabbatical, I like it and I'm ready to give them four stars.