Silly me. I thought Filipsson Gamba Rangstad was a person and chased all over social media trying to find him/her/them.
Turns out they are a trio of Daniel Filipsson, Daniel Gamba and Jonas Rangstad, three Swedish musicians “raised in the Swedish melodic tradition with its emotional depth and melancholy.”
With one album behind them already they are heading towards a second, ‘Svartsjölandet’ with this, the second single from it. The first was called ‘Helveteshelgen’ (‘Hell weekend’), a gentle piano and flute piece more appropriate to a retirement home than Hell, the flute parts inspired by ‘El Cóndor Pasa’ (‘If I could’) by Simon & Garfunkel. It marries melancholy and joy in the way that only the Swedes can.
Imagine ABBA’s ‘The Day before you came’ and substitute its outro with ‘Helveteshelgen’. It isn’t hard.
This second single, ‘Premiär’ has now been released too. It shares its name with the Premium Lounge at Manchester Airport, for people that don’t like to mix with the hoi polloi in the main terminals; another of those useless facts we love to share with you!
‘Premiär’ is piano and flute again, perhaps more melancholy than jolly on this occasion and then ‘enlivened’ by a trumpet solo that will rank as one of the saddest you have ever heard.
I couldn’t get out of my mind the notion that if NBC ever resurrected Hill Street Blues after close to 40 years since it was axed, and wanted an alternative theme tune to Carlton and Post’s classic composition to be more representative of policing in the 2020s, then they wouldn’t go far wrong with this.
FGR have an interesting take on instrumental music, which they see as “a bold affirmation of human creativity in response to the growing presence of AI-generated music. The moment someone starts singing, the human voice takes over, it draws all the attention. You stop hearing the music and start listening to the words. That’s why we create instrumental music: to keep the music front and centre, and let the melodies speak for itself.”
Hm. I see where they are coming from. The dreaded AI is everywhere (except in NMC, we are an AI-free zone) but not all vocals are AI, yet.
But there is no arguing that this is the sort of thoughtful instrumental that simply doesn’t need a voice. It speaks for itself.
(Continues after the Spotify link)
Find them on:
Website (label): https://www.st4t.se/filipsson-gamba-rangstad/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/filipsson_gamba_rangstad/
