Cold was the ground

Here is collaborative compilation my brother and I put together last Christmas as a gift for our old folks. I selected the songs while he did the lovely illustrations after hearing them. It is a rather roots based collection of tunes consisting of a few blues numbers from, or inspired by, different parts of the world (Texas, Mali, Mongolia, Algeria, Portugal), some modern Swedish folk music and a bunch of mellow jazz takes - both classic stuff from 1960’s and a mumbling Finnish future classic. I’ve also included a sweet Cuban 78rpm from 1936, which I ripped directly from the radio when it was broadcasted on my favourite show, Klingan. When I come to think of it some more tracks on here are also ripped straight from the radio. I like to think that I by this keep up with the tradition of 1970’s-80’s cassette taping, and is of course of the firm belief that “home taping is NOT killing music” (even though it can result in somewhat lack of audio fidelity...)

Giving name to this post is Little Axe’s opening adaptation of Blind Willie Johnson early blues classic, “Dark was the night, cold was the ground”. A tune that let my imagination drift back to Wim Wenders 1985 motion picture, Paris, Texas, for which Ry Cooder did an equally beautiful take on the same song. Both a film and a soundtrack that forever will be on my top-5-of-anything list.

I’ll also offer this opening track on the compilation, as well as an old Cuban one, Lazarperry’s oriental acoustic dub and the mysteriously Ellington tune "Fleurette Africaine", as individual downloads so you could get a hunch if you might enjoy the rest.

If you dig these I suggest that you go on and download the whole 15 track compilation as a zipped RAR-file (which you unpack yourself in no time with any free-bie unzipping program, available for example from WinRar, if your computer don't have any already installed) following this link below:

Cold was the ground (an 84mb Jo&Mo comp dec 2007) (defunct link, can be back re-uploaded upon request)

By the way; if you enjoy this selection chances are that you would also like the eclectic radio mixes from P2:s Kalejdoskop crew, broadcasting every monday to wednesday 22:30-00:00, and listenable on the web for 30 days afterwards.

I love you my friends

Madeline Bell & Alan Parker - That's what friends are for

Hird - I love you my hope (feat Yukimi Nagano)

Hird - I love you my friends (original instrumental version)



Valentine's day again... Considering the amount of music dealing with the topic of love throughout history, it is truly pitiful that there is so few dealing with the beauty of friendship. Here are at least a few of my favourites on the subject.

My first encounter with Christoffer Berg, the man behind Hird, was in the early 2000’s when I stumbled upon one of his very first 12 inches. At that time he was working under the name Christoffermusik, weaving fragile micro sonic tapestries, while also releasing soothing and just slightly more melody based electronica under the Christoffer Brus moniker.

In 2003 Flora & Fauna released “Nattskift”, a compilation of Swedish electronica, which hosted Christoffermusik’s “Hostlovepilogue” as its last track. With its 14+ minutes of pure bliss it was love at first hearing. I really can’t express in words how much I adore this tender and soothing chill out piece which have been one of my most reliable fall-to-sleep-to-tracks ever since.

When Berg later turned into Hird and delivered the infectiously catchy “Keep you Hird” and then followed it up with the ever so beautiful “I love you my friends” 12 inch EP’s (both on DNM), our love affair was cemented. In 2004, Hird came out with his first full length album “Moving On” (DNM), and with it a full blown development to both deeply soulful and laid back jazzy house music. It’s just that Berg is so much more wholehearted than your average house figure, with an open approach to many different music styles, experimentalism and mellow jazz, which help him creating such a warm and individual sound.

What also lifts “Moving On” above the rest is the collaboration with talented singer Yukimi Nagano on more than half of its tracks. Nagano has previously been heard putting her distinctive voice to several of Koop’s hits, and is now fronting her own group Little Dragon. Their self titled full length debut from last year has been met with raving reviews, and I very much look forward to check it out but haven’t got around to yet. Here is a promising live session from the group:





Madeline Bell & Alan Parkers “That’s what friends are for” was penned in 1975 for the KPM music library, i.e. one of Britain’s most prodigious stockpiles of specially commissioned music for every event, occasion and purpose - a session studio which provided television, film and radio with catchy themes, subliminal background music, jingles and commercial ads.

Although vocal music was a rare commodity in the 1960’s and 1970’s library music, Madeline Bell was one of the mainstays in KPM’s leading session mafia. Now, in the era of sampling and crate digging, some of the more funkier material among the tons of obscure library music has found its way onto some of the most modern and hip dancefloors of our time.

One of many reliable retro labels who have taken as their mission to dig up unearthed gems from the mysterious archives of these providers of muzak, is British Strut (which I believe went bankrupt a few years ago - or was it just their sub-label, Afro-Strut? – but now seems to be up on their feet again). I snatched this particular track of their nice compilation “Music for Dancefloors: The Cream of the KPM Green Label Sessions”.

If you’ve read this far of me ranting away, I can’t resist throwing in a bonus song. Straight from the heart, mainly for my Swedish folks, I give you “Kompissång” - 1998’s pop version of honey dripping soul voice Kaah.

I can’t remember that Kaah in the early days of his career, up until his critically acclaimed 2000 album “Soulrebell”, received much else than hatred for being “wimpy”, having a nasal voice, wailing or making up his own singing style. What seemed to bother people the most was that he was trying to make soulful music in the Swedish tongue, and in his own way. Or perhaps the real reason why he disturbed that many was the sheer fact that he exposed himself in a weak and stereotypically unmanly way, both lyric wise and in his (2 meter long) appearance. The actual reason why I, in 1997, even bought his debut single, “Skiter i allt”, was probably just to join the laughter and bullying (‘ey, this was in high school, you know, please forgive me…), for what was unison considered the worst piece of shit around.

But Kaah stood his ground and proved everyone wrong by entering people’s hearts one by one. Started out as a “guilty pleasure” to like but pretty soon became the hottest guy around, just like he deserved. It would perhaps be a very long and unjust parallel to compare with the recent success of Anthony (of The Johnstons) but still. I for one have since collected almost everything he ever released.

I wouldn’t consider “Kompissång” one of his strongest numbers, I selected it merely due to its lyrical content about friendship (in Swedish), and it is not that representative of his later repertoire either. It is truly too mainstream and got a certain cheesy mid-nineties feel to it that some people might have a hard time feeling nostalgic about just yet. I still enjoy it though, and thought it fitted nicely next to Hird. Later on I might share a “best of Kaah”-compilation I put together some years ago, if anyone is interested. In the meantime here is the video for one of my favourite tracks of his, "Innan du går" from 2003's album "Jideblasko International":