01	Two Hours Over Two Blue Mountains With A Cockoo On Each Side, Of The Hours....That Is						13:13
	02	There Is A Time For Everything, There Is A Time When Even Time Will Meet						06:10
	03	Children Of Possibilities						03:12
	04	La Rotta						01:41
	05	Viriditas						02:59
	06	Rings Of Saturn						07:15
	07	The Future Is A Hovering Ship, Anchored In The Past						05:06
	08	5/4 (Bonus)						10:26
	09	The Mirrors Of Gabriel (Bonus)						08:25

Algarnas Tradgard [Sweden]
Updated 11/14/03
Discography
Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden (72)
Delayed (01, recorded 1973/74)


Reviews
For all the ink that was spilled gushing over German psychedelic bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s (i.e., Krautrock), you'd think someone would write a sentence or two about the arguably weirder and more wonderful world of Scandinavian psychedelic music. Algarnas Tradgard hails from Gothenburg, Sweden. This band's name, loosely translated, means "Elk's Tree Garden". The title of this, their first and only album (until the recent discovery of tapes recorded for a second, unreleased LP - both now available on CD), is "The Future is a Hovering Ship Anchored in the Past". This, and the glorious cover art - by band member Jan Ternald (who also did the cover for Bo Hansson's Magician's Hat LP) - which depicts Father Yod-like figures in a gully contemplating crystal balls while large blocks of what looks like Jarlsberg cheese float over head, might give you an idea where these guys are coming from!
In the liner notes to the CD reissue of Framtiden..., band member Dan Soderqvist lists influences as diverse as "Perotinus heavenly choirs from the 13th century, Messaien's heavy works for orchestra, Beefheart's Safe as Milk, King Crimson's endless string of chords, the beautiful acoustic Third Ear Band, Terry Riley's minimalism and above all the psychedelic music of early Pink Floyd." I would add that, like most of the really innovative Scandinavian bands of the early 70s, traditional folk / ethnic music figures heavily in the mix. The 6-member band (others include Andreas Brandt, Mikael Johansson, Dennis Lundh, and Sebastian Oberg - plus Margaretha Soderbergh, who sings on one track) plays a diverse and interesting array of instruments. Amongst the usual electric guitars, violins, piano, organ, cello and flute are low-budget electronics (Putney and Moog synthesizers), tape loops, found sounds, and an array of traditional folk instruments (jews-harp, rebec, zither, tablas, harmonium, etc.).

According to Soderqvist, the music on Framtiden... was largely improvised. Their coherent and atmospheric instant composing belies the fact that the group had been working together for about 5 years at the time of the recording. Side 1, which contains 2 extended, largely instrumental tracks, opens with church bells that fade into synthesized chirps and underwater guitar floating on a bed of increasingly dissonant harmonium chords. These give way to a dirge-like 'cello / guitar duet over a heavy rock rhythm which grows in intensity and fades into a macabre-sounding folk melody played on fuzzed electric guitar, violin and bass (with drums rumbling underneath). This, too, grows in intensity, and then gives way to a bizarre wash of found sounds and noisy cheap electronics. There's a lot more, so it will have to suffice to say that every twist and turn the band makes is surprising and inspired. Side 2 starts with 3 short folk-influenced pieces (with vocals) that range from earnest, to Medieval, to completely creepy. The last 2 tracks are longer and more-or-less similar to the stuff on Side 1.

Framtiden... is nothing less than a masterpiece of early 70s psychedelic space rock. Really, it's one of those recordings that inspires faith in the entire genre! It never lapses into drugged-out silliness, aimless noodling or overblown grandeur. There's also an undercurrent of whimsy at work here as well. Totally essential for psych fans, Framtiden... is a disc that many prog rockers will like as well, particularly those inclined to appreciate Pink Floyd (circa Ummagumma), early Can, early Tangerine Dream, etc. (though Algarnas Tradgard is not in any way a knockoff of those influential bands!). Totally essential. I have not heard Delayed, but it is supposedly similar to Framtiden... and just about as great. -- Dave Wayne

Whoa dude, that's it, dude. This is the single marvelous kraut-rock essentiality not coming out of Germany. With a mile and a half long title, whose meaning my unknowledge of Sweden forbade me to understand or even penetrate into [Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden], no band could fail to mark the blissful countenance of Universal Master (would any band proceed the way AT did). Music is spectacular blend of slow-smoking hallucinogenic psych, vernacular Swedish folk styles (Viking chanting included), minimalistic schemes, all-out-Middle Eastern mantric procedures and of course progressive developments. Sometimes it erupts in a Univers Zero-ish manner. Endlessly mystic, somewhat elusive and never thoroughly palpable, it prepares listener for glimpses of Upper Realms. The most suitable prog album for meditation and contemplation, which at same time evokes extreme comparisons. Detection of many instruments deployed is impossible, for music tempts (successfully) to lead off-(above-)road in scaling of great heights, both physical and metaphysical. No additional oxygene needed, though. Highly recommended!!! -- Nenad Kobal
Algarnas Tradgard (Garden of the Elks), like their Silence label mates Kebnekajse and International Harvester, excelled in mixing melodic material from their own folk tradition with then-contemporary psychedelic rock sounds. Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp, Forankrat I Forntiden (Silence SRSCD 3611) finds the six-strong band coaxing a wealth of earthy and unearthly sounds out of violins, sitars, acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers and various percussion instruments, all wrapped in the amnion armour of typically spacey studio effects. It never works better than on the long opening track with an even longer title, "Two Hours Over Two Blue Mountains with a Cuckoo on Each Side, of the Hours ... That Is", which falls effortlessly like its rain of synthesizer glissandi from a hazy organ sky into an ominous, lumbering psychedelic jam where menacing vocalise, violin, guitar and drums uneasily build a modal theme into a rumbling drone, sort of like a hillbilly string quartet negotiating a raga, accompanied by an amateur chorus of trolls. Obvious references include a calmer version of early Amon Duul II or Pink Floyd and the lysergic cosmos occasionally dreamed up by the likes of Annexus Quam, but distinguished by the indigenous cultural elements amid the obligatory Orientalist touches. "Children of Possibilities" features a female voice singing a melody right out of Swedish folk heritage but with a trippy accompaniment right out of mind. Heavy on acoustic tones and floating smokiness, the album only kicks out the jams in "Rings of Saturn", where electric guitars and violin are allowed a typically modal but still rather fastidious freak-out duel. All this makes for a pretty strong and idiosyncratic psych album that sounds far fresher than most of its contemporaries after all these years. The Yeti watchers of German Nepal at least should get their Sandozes out of the rain long enough to check out what Swedish Elks have to offer. The CD comes with two live bonus tracks, the foot-tapping mantra "5/4" and the foggy "The Mirrors of Gabriel", which are both of good quality.
The band kept up their live playing and even recorded an album's worth of new material in 1973 and 1974, but it was only in 2001 that the material was mixed and released as Delayed (Silence SRSCD 3626). Here the band present a more solid and progressive sound that makes heavier use of drum kit and guitar. The much worshipped Mellotron also appears to loan a bronzed patina on the martial opener "Takeoff", which grabs bits from Holst's "Planets" suite (you just can't get away from "Mars" in prog, can you?) and marches through a King Crimson-like musical maelstrom under violin and guitar's modal banner. The follow-up "Interstellar Cruise" grows from reflective floating in a bog of synthesizer effects and Mellotron pastoralism to an extended flurry of guitar-driven space rampage which coasts and then burns with ever-increasing intensity, goaded by the Mellotron and synthesizer. After this staggering start the band ease off and continue exploring the same avenues as on the first album, from Indian motifs ("Almond Raga") to shimmery electric excursions ("The Arrival of Autumn"), yet with more rock-oriented arrangements. The only vocals appear on the haunting closing track "My Childhood Trees", as a male voice sings in dreamy falsetto a lyric based on a poem by the Finnish poet Edith Sodergran against a sparse but highly effective background of reverb-soaked flute and zithers, perfectly illustrating the lyric's dichotomy of whimsical nostalgia and existentialist menace. The resulting album is a marvellously atmospheric and creative mixture of psychedelic and progressive rock, certainly one rarity that richly deserved its release. -- Kai Karmanheimo



Trettioariga Kriget мне показалась довольно стандартным вариантом хэви-прогрессива, не знаю, может, не расслушал до конца. Dice не очень люблю, по-моему, на ниве симфо-прога и Atlas, и Kaipa дают им сто очков вперед.

А вот Algarnas Tradgard - это уже ребята совершенно из другой песочницы. Великолепный медитативный прог с элементами этно-музыки и краута. Они были частью довольно плодовитого в Швеции движения психоделического минимализма, основанного на совмещении хипповских веяний из Англии и классического американского минималихма (в первую очередь, Терри Райли, который сам приезжал в то время в Швецию и не один раз. Если понравились Algarnas Tradgard, обязательно нужно послушать группы Arbete Och Fritid, Trad Gars Och Stenar, International Harvester, а также великую психоделическую группу Parson Sound, из которой в той или иной степени выросли все вышеперчисленные.
Это без дураков абсолютно неповторимая музыка, нигде, кроме Швеции, такой нет и не было никогда.

Впрочем, попадались там и очень хорошие вещи, их главный шедевр, на мой вкус, Emtidi "Saat", 4+, отличный прогрессивный фолк, с чисто немецким андерграундным душком. Последняя вещь на этом диске - шедевр краута, иначе не скажешь. Если где-нибудь увидишь, бери обязательно.