Holy River Family Band - "Haida Deities" (Record Label :The Wild Places 1996, Wild 003)Jens Unosson (Organ,Piano,Electric,Synthesizer)
Arne Jonasson (Bass,Guitar,Saz,Violin,Oud,Hurdygurdy,Surnai)
From Aural Innovations #1 (January 1998)
Sweden's Holy River Family was born as an offshoot of The Spacious Mind. The band consists of Jens Unosson on electric piano, organ, and synths, Mathias on flutes, pipes, tablas, and congos, and Arne on guitars, bass, violin, hurdy gurdy, as well as saz, oud, and surna.
I guess the four songs on this disc (at 15, 12, 4, and 30 minutes) could best be described as Middle Eastern psychedelia. The percussion rhythms, horns, slowly improvising guitars, and chanting all come together to make some pretty trippy music.
The first three songs are separate parts of a single work. The disc opens with "Fragrance Of Flowers And Herbs", which sets the tone for the rest of the journey with its Middle Eastern percussion beat, various sounds, and jamming guitar. The next song, "Eztetl", takes a basic drum beat which provides a background for some interesting synth sounds and a heavier, acidic guitar that becomes increasingly more furious as the song progresses. Where "Eztetl" ends, "Green Corn Dance" abruptly begins. The shortest tune on the disc, it winds down this three parter with an up-front bass line and liquidy pulsating synths.
The 30 minute "Vision Quest Of The Sanpoil" starts with what we can now consider a Holy River trademark of Middle Eastern percussion and various odd horn sounds. As in Fragrance, the guitar jams smoothly over the tablas. The band uses the song's length to introduce chanting, various acoustic instruments, electric piano, and horns, all emanating (rather than assaulting) from every direction. The tune stirred up some rather demented images of belly dancers in tie-dyed saris... quite a sight indeed!
In summary, exploration seems to be the ultimate objective of this music and in this it succeeds. When I first heard this CD I thought the theme became a bit monotonous over the course of an hour, but I kept being drawn back to it and now after several listens I enjoy it for its atmosphere of ethnic psychedelia. I'll be interested to hear what the next release brings.
For more information email The Wild Places.
Sweden's Holy River Family was born as an offshoot of The Spacious Mind. The band consists of Jens Unosson on electric piano, organ, and synths, Mathias on flutes, pipes, tablas, and congos, and Arne on guitars, bass, violin, hurdy gurdy, as well as saz, oud, and surna.
I guess the four songs on this disc (at 15, 12, 4, and 30 minutes) could best be described as Middle Eastern psychedelia. The percussion rhythms, horns, slowly improvising guitars, and chanting all come together to make some pretty trippy music.
The first three songs are separate parts of a single work. The disc opens with "Fragrance Of Flowers And Herbs", which sets the tone for the rest of the journey with its Middle Eastern percussion beat, various sounds, and jamming guitar. The next song, "Eztetl", takes a basic drum beat which provides a background for some interesting synth sounds and a heavier, acidic guitar that becomes increasingly more furious as the song progresses. Where "Eztetl" ends, "Green Corn Dance" abruptly begins. The shortest tune on the disc, it winds down this three parter with an up-front bass line and liquidy pulsating synths.
The 30 minute "Vision Quest Of The Sanpoil" starts with what we can now consider a Holy River trademark of Middle Eastern percussion and various odd horn sounds. As in Fragrance, the guitar jams smoothly over the tablas. The band uses the song's length to introduce chanting, various acoustic instruments, electric piano, and horns, all emanating (rather than assaulting) from every direction. The tune stirred up some rather demented images of belly dancers in tie-dyed saris... quite a sight indeed!
In summary, exploration seems to be the ultimate objective of this music and in this it succeeds. When I first heard this CD I thought the theme became a bit monotonous over the course of an hour, but I kept being drawn back to it and now after several listens I enjoy it for its atmosphere of ethnic psychedelia. I'll be interested to hear what the next release brings.
For more information email The Wild Places.
also posted at marvellous Blog Spot Lost In Tyme
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz
.jpg)
These are the two following tracks on the compilation. The style is very different from the previous single, with the B-side at its most raw and heavy, is bluesy rock. At this time, Swedish progressive rock was on the rise, and to maintain their own identity in the scene English seemed no longer to be accepted, so the duo had to rewrite the whole b-side of the upcoming album into Swedish, which they did. Still they couldn’t find the inner “message” of the group or label it so properly and decided after a long year of waiting only to release a mini-LP, with 3 tracks from the LP and a live version (as a trio), which are the following tracks on the compilation. The style especially on the first two tracks of this session has some loose guitar jamming and sounds as if it has a somewhat improvised energy (“Green is beautiful”,). The sitar is very much mixed to the far background and all focus is on the freaky electric guitar and hippie-psych rhythm on “Bridge for two blues”. “Idag Sticker jag Bort” I think I like best from this session. It becomes really freaky and somewhat experimental near the end, with some psychedelic effect. Because the original intended LP was not going to be released they went to the studio to get the tapes, but they seemed to have been lost. The saved tracks might only have given a slight idea of the intended album. We miss now for instance an 11 minute track of “How does it feel to be without friends”, a track which the group still had from a 1970 performance (played as a duo on guitar, sitar only). The two radio performances the group once did for national radio were not kept by the radio and the only left over tape from the second session was stolen in a car burglary. More attempts were done by the group the following years but they were not all successful because of more sad circumstances, until they parted to go their own, different ways.
The compilation gives some idea of the range of interests from the group, from disciplined arrangements of sitarrock (first two tracks), to raw rock (the Scorpion tracks) to somewhat loose jams with an improvised feeling and possibility, with bluesy hard rock guitars, and with a psychedelic effect, which could eventually lead to inventive and unique moments. The group had bad luck when we talk about storing some of their best moments, but now have all the luck they can have for Mellotronen always make the best compilation a group could dream of, with a 32 page booklet with info and rare pictures.(
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
+-+cover.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
