Band : Gösta Berlings Saga
Album Title : Detta Har Hänt
Label : Transubstans Records
Distributor : Clearspot
Release Date : 2009
Review : CD

The first chapter of the progressive rock band Gösta Berlings Saga starts in the Stockholm suburb Vällingby, in the year 2000. Musicians and friends David Lundberg and Alexander Skepp, heavily captivated by the sounds of Hansson & Karlsson, started making instrumental songs, based on drums and organs, sketching playful and melodic sounds. In 2004 the duo decided to add the lineup, out of feeling a more and more obvious limitation in music. Thinks started to change musically, when Gabriel Hermansson joined as bassist and added volume and distortion to the sound and the suspense. Matthias Danielsson also joined as guitarist, so that Gösta Berlings Saga entering their best shape and starting to gig. The new guitarist, after Mathias, is Einar Baldursson, with the talent and influence of whom Gösta Berlings Saga enter a new path, into darker and more dissonant places. (myspace)

While Gösta Berlings Saga is definitely working under a symf-prog paradigm, they add in a lot of diversity of influence and instrumentation that keeps things sounding fresh and interesting. Their keyboard-sound relies less on the modern digital sounds, and more on analog keyboards like the rhodes, moogs, mellotron, orchestron, optigan, acoustic piano, pump organ. The band occasionally branch out into jazz fusion, and there are even a few classical touches, The quality of song writing is generally very good, apart from “Svenska hjartan” all the songs are strong, and there are occasional flashes of brilliance. “Innilegur”, “Svenska hjartan” and “Nattskift” (Koyaanisquatsi, anyone?) are rather experimental and scary, and it should not leave the listener indifferent. Three epic songs make up a majority of the album’s musical thrust and highlight the band’s progressive bent.. “Sorteragatan 3”, “Bergslagen” and “Vasterbron 05:30” are breathtaking rides, and on these tracks Gösta Berlings Saga inject a dark, hypnotic and heavy mid-70's King Crimson and Magma feel into the music. The last track “Vasterbron 05:30” is the standout from the album. Nowhere does the intense dialogue between all musicians work as brilliantly as on this number, a special mention goes to the guitarsolos, sounding like Caspar Brotzman, Reiner Fiske (Dungen), Fripp, J. Mascis and John Helwig (Vocokesh) cut up in a blender. It’s all about distortion pedals, fuzz, wah-wah, feedback and playing ridiculously loud. In combination with the lovely mellotron melody it’s massive, just amazing.

93/100

Cosmicmasseur.