Flasket Brinner

1971 Sweden

Review originally published in Gnosis on March 30, 2001. Edited on August 29, 2007.

Sweden at the beginning of the 1970's, like Germany close by, had an exciting music scene where American and British trends were being ignored. Here the bands were not shackled by commercialism and could pursue the freedom to explore all sorts of combinations of styles. In this environment, bands such as Algarnas Tradgard, Samla Mammas Manna, Kebnekaise and International Harvester produced a very exciting rock culture filled with creative ideas. All appeared on the Silence label, the Swedish equivalent of Germany's Ohr label. Flasket Brinner (The Flesh is Burning) were but one of these great bands.

On their self-titled debut, Flasket Brinner pursued the instrumental free-form jam mixed with the odd progressive composition in a live setting. The style is very much inspired by the free jazz scene that flourished in late 1960s Europe. However here, the instrumentation was more rock based with organ, guitar, bass, drums, flute and sax. The playing is extremely energetic which, if not careful, will catch the listener in a bit of head-banging (Metallica style). And, best of all, the melodies were based on traditional Swedish themes making a wonderful concoction of rock, free jazz, psychedelic and folk. A brilliant album overall and a must for fans of Euro psychedelic fusion.

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