STRANGE INCONVENIENCES (Peter Scion 1998)

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

I suppose any artist with a back catalogue exceeding the number of three albums have some "Great Lost Album" lying around somewhere in the rubble. I guess this one would be mine, although it might be rather "lost" than "great"! But seriously, I do have a fondness for "Strange Inconveniences". I like the songs, I play around with the arrangements (using banjo for instance), and it's good to hear my long time friend Carita Forslund sing for the first time on one of my albums. Carita has, as far as I know, given up music just like me, but she used to be a very, very talented songwriter in her own right, although her recordings remain unreleased to this day. A great pity, but a good thing that she wanted to work with me as a flautist (on "Tree Music" and "Devachan") as well as a singer (on the track "Cold Ground" from this very album).

"Strange Inconveniences" was shelved because not long after the sessions, I formed rock band Pangolin, and since they immediately became my main focus, I didn't want any solo album to interfere with the band activities. I do think that the album was good enough to release though, why it is a relief of sorts to finally have it out, if "only" as a download.

I projected several versions of "Strange Inconveniences", changing a song here, adding another there. The version here drops an early, and not very thoroughly realized acoustic take of the Pangolin number "Poisoned River To Her Heart", in favour of "Sounds of the Space Age". I'd say that this is the most definitive version of the album.

"Sounds of the Space Age" was recorded at the end of the sessions, and was an all electronic experiment combining the sounds of an old, wonderfully cheesy organ with a built-in rhythm machine, with phrases primitively sampled from a National Geographic flexi disc celebrating the first steps on the moon. I had no idea whatsoever how the samples would work together with the backing track - I couldn't hear what I was doing due to the technical limitations of the 4 track machine I was using. So I had to trust luck and chance, and I must unashamedly say they were both on my side this time. I love this recording so much, and I don't care if no-one agrees with me! You might say it's totally off compared to the rest of the album, but I say it isn't. It reflects the playfulness that defined my approach to the whole recording session.

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