Holy crow, what a find! This album collects three pieces of previously unknown music, recorded between 1965–67 by a wild Swedish quartet whose music destroyed the lines between free jazz, free rock and new music. Led by reed player Sandstrőm (whose subsequent recordings are excellent, but nowhere near this nuts) the first track is a savage blast of free jazz quoting from Ayler’s “Ghosts” amid howls of maniacal pleasure. Amazingly the C-melody saxophone on this cut (“Partita Per Pianoforte”) is played by Bjorn J:Son Lindh, whose fusionoid 1970s work is pretty square. Trumpet and cello are handled by Mats Hagström (notable for work with GL Unit). Erik Dahlbäck (later of Fläsket Brinner) covers drums, electronics and little instruments. It’s especially odd to note that all these guys showed up as the musicians on a 1967 single by the Swedish parody pop band Gårunt Show. Despite this, both tracks on the first side are very cool blurts of freedom predating most parallel Swedish action.

On the B side, Bengt Linnarsson (of Baby Grandmothers/Mecki Mark Men) adds electric bass to the mix. And the long single track, “Bränn Fläsket” (“Burning Ham”) is a masterpiece of rock based freakery. Pulsing drums and bass, crazy vocals, tape music overlays, this tune has it all! Recorded in August 1967, this track makes them contemporaries of Pärson Sound, who are generally considered the ur-root of the Swedish smoke generation.

The interview included makes it clear these players were coming out of a very jazzcentric tradition, one they felt was kickstarted by Gil Evans’s Into The Hot LP (a Cecil Taylor disc in all but name). There are hints regarding the process by which this crazy music got made, but the final results are pure magic. Anyone with a hankering for the music of the Pärson Sound/International Harvester/ Träd, Gräs Och Stenar continuum, or Don Cherry’s Swedish era, is in for a real treat. One can only hope this is just the tip of a subunderground Scandinavian iceberg. I could use a whole shelf of such stuff. Byron Coley