Cirrus Winery (2008)

This summer I visited Uppsala Progressive Festival which took place at the scene Parksnäckan (Uppsala). It was a pleasant afternoon and evening with a bunch of interesting bands. Another thing that was pleasant was that a lot of vinyl records was being sold there, of course most of them on the theme progressive music. Even more pleasant was that some of these records were the kind that you can’t find in stores (physical ones nor internet based), instead it was the kind of records that the band itself distributed and sold at different occasions, such as concerts or their own homepage.

For a number of reasons it’s fun to buy these kinds of records; you get an album in your collection that not many other people have, this makes you feel special. It’s fun to own an album that doesn’t exist in a lot of copies, it becomes somewhat a rarity. And I always have the hope that some day the band, or one member in the band, will become world famous, then a record like this will increase its economical value like a maniac and become hot stuff. A thoroughly cynical and economical investment, in other words.

This album has a of the above mentioned ingredients.

Cirrus Winery has a link to my hometown Uppsala since the band was created at Wiks Folkhögskola (Folkhögskola = a place where you usually live and participate in different courses / educations, often with a creative focus, a year or two) which is situated just outside Uppsala. A lot of young men and women have stayed there throughout the years and have taken part in more or less structured courses and lived more or less structured lives. Something tells me that alcohol and alternative drugs is sometimes an ingredient in the life at the Folkhögskola. Something tells me that the members of Cirrus Winery liked the life at the Folkhögskola. After the time at Wiks Folkhögskola the band members somewhat spread over the country but the band still remained, and if I understood it all correct the band members also became members in other bands without threatening the existence of CW.

The members of CW are Andreas Lindmark (keyboard), Mikael Lennholm (guitar, song, flute), David Svedmyr (bass, song, flute) and Thomas Johansson (drums, percussion, song).

I like this album. It’s progressive music that’s not very difficult, just more interesting and funnier then more mainstream music. The too complicated and technical musical creations are not there which is positive. In other words, CW has managed to find a good balance between the difficult and the easy-going. The songs are overall of good quality and I think they have had a lot of fun creating the album. And sure, it smells a lot of the 70s which I mean as a complement.

The weak side of the album are the passages with song. Usually I don’t have a problem with Swedish bands singing in English, but listening to this album I found myself wondering why they don’t sing in Swedish. I don’t think that the band members at the time at the recording were seeing themselves on the international scene, and the possibilities for the album to find its way outside the Swedish borders were probably quite small. Why not then sing in Swedish? One problem with them singing in Swedish is that the Swedish accent is heard quite clearly which bothers me, it makes it harder to take the music serious.

Another problem with the song is that I find the lyrics quite immature and kind of naively pretentious. There’s a potential to make them better and maybe if they would write them in Swedish they would find the words easier?

A third problem is that I don’t really like the singer’s voice and the position of the voice in the soundscape. The singer doesn’t really sing badly, it has more to do with me (as one usually says). Some of this can be blamed at the production and if one would remaster the album this could be done better. Today the recording, and especially the singing, sounds a little bit home made. The passages without singing are on the other hand really good and funny to listen to, and here I really enjoy the album. The passages without song are also a major part of the album.

In the text above the negative part of the records gets more room than the positive part. Therefore I’d like to make clear that this is an album I really like and recommend, especially for all the progressive fans out there. I think it’s possible to order it from there homepage:
http://cirruswinery.argh.se/

I’m happy that I bought this album, both concerning the music and the feeling the album gives me; to own something quite hard-to-find and what a special person I must be to do just that.

Tracklist

SideA

1. Swing it!
2. Junior High
3. I'm in Love
4. Octopus
5. The Rose and the Grave

Side B

1. Jag Äter en Apelsin Utan att Skala Den
2. Al Capone
3. Jimmys Jordgubbe
4. Hymn for the living