New limited edition deluxe tri-fold sleeve 3LP set of these legendary recordings. A spectacular, and now revised and updated, archival package of primitive drone and minimalist rock/trance/psych from the Swedish underground, believe the hype as follows; one of the most memorable audio documents ever.
Defying the world to ignore the psychedelic shamanism and intense spirituality of their music, the battle cry of late 60s Stockholm underground quintet Pärson Sound was “We, Here and Now!”. Unfortunately, up to now their music has been a well-kept secret, despite such high profile appearances as supporting The Doors, and being personally invited by Andy Warhol to open his 1968 exhibition at Stockholm’s Museum of Modern Art. Compiling unreleased live and studio recordings, Pärson Sound is an astonishing find that successfully buckles all notions of how rock, jazz and experimental music should behave.
The first record opens with a lulling guitar drone that fools you into thinking that the remaining nine minutes or so of ‘Tio Minuter” (“Ten Minutes”) will be equally laid-back and hypnotic. It turns out that the intro is a short musical fuse setting off a cacophonic hard rock explosion that owes more to the psychedelic Metal brutalities of 60s heavyweights Blue Cheer than the minimalistic tone patterns of La Monte Young and Terry Riley (whose ideas Pärson Sound were also strongly attracted to; indeed they met in an ad hoc ensemble put together to perform Riley’s music). Rather than just endlessly chipping and hammering at rock’s surface noise, however, the group carry out complex sound experiments, whose full richness only emerge with several patient replays.
On “From Tunes To India In Fullmoon (On Testosterone)», a live recording from 1968, the group bring into play their love and understanding of free jazz. Bo Anders Persson’s looping electric guitar, Thomas Ticholm’s aggressive sax and Anne Ericsson’s howling electric cello supply the swifling black center for a sonic tornado.
The main members of Pärson Sound went on to form the equally short lived International Harvester, who recorded one album for Love Records called Sov Gott Rose Marie (Good Night Rose Marie). Disc two opens and closes with works from this period, both of which plunge head on into a rock filled swamp of strange sounds, devotional drones and amplified abstraction.
