REVIEWS - THE SEEDS, RAY STINNETT A FIRE SOMEWHERE, THE SERVANTS SMALL TIME HEY HEY WE'RE THE MANQUÉS, DAN PENN THE FAME RECORDINGS, BILL WITHERS THE COMPLETE SUSSEX AND COLUMBIA ALBUMS, DJANGO REINHARDT ON VOGUE THE COMPLETE EDITION 1934-1951, DIABLOS DEL RITMO THE COLOMBIAN MELTING POT 1960-1985, SANDY DENNY: THE NOTES AND THE WORDS A COLLECTION OF DEMOS AND RARITIES

And more…

The Seeds: The Seeds

Ray Stinnett: A Fire Somewhere

The Servants: Small Time / Hey Hey We're The Manqués

Dan Penn: The Fame Recordings

Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums

Django Reinhardt: On Vogue The Complete Edition (1934-1951)

Diablos Del Ritmo The Colombian Melting Pot 1960-1985

Sandy Denny: The Notes and the Words A Collection of Demosand Rarities

REVIEW - JAH WOBBLE & KEITH LEVENE: YIN & YANG

Overall, this doesn’t fully coalesce. But it does the reclamation that was no doubt intended.

Review here: The Arts DeskJah Wobble & Keith Levene Yin & Yang

FRIDA HYVÖNEN - TO THE SOUL, AND WHAT CAME BEFORE

When Frida Hyvönen’s To The Soul arrived earlier this year, it was soon obvious this was amongst the year’s best albums. Subsequent revisits have proved it’s more than that – it’s a landmark album that really has to be heard. Seeing her live in Sweden was further evidence of her impactfulness, making it self evident her path is singular. If, for example, you accept the perception that Rumer (partly via her association with Jimmy Webb) takes the singer-songwriter approach of late ‘60s/early ‘70s forward, then Hyvönen snuffs that idea out. That’s not to pick on Rumer. It’s just that Hyvönen is so good and so unexpectedly fabulous. Her identity is all hers and she's utterly modern, but the tradition she's within is clear.

I briefly touched on To The Soul recently, but that needs expanding. Also, what came before needs thinking about. How did Frida Hyvönen get to this?

To The Soul begins with what seems to be a feint. The first three tracks draw from what’s identifiably ‘80s: a snappy percussion and shimmering keyboard colour that evokes The Cure circa “A Forest”. Talk Talk come to mind. Then, the album subtlety changes and unfolds in an extraordinary evolution. Her voice soars, the songs become more ornate and filigreed, although her rolling piano is always precise. Laura Nyro springs to mind (Hyvönen has covered Judee Sill in the past so that makes sense) but she appears to be a counterpart to Dory Previn. Her lyrics share the conversational, analytical and retrospective style of Previn’s. Hyvönen sings of having her mother’s hands and meeting a man whose wife reminds her of Diane Keaton. The melodies are grandly filmic, sinuous and great. Above all, this striking album is immediate. So why isn’t she dead famous outside Sweden?

Her last album, 2008’s Silence Is Wild, was issued by the US label Secretly Canadian, so obviously that didn't do the internationalisation trick. To The Soul is on Universal yet Hyvönen isn’t universally known.

Until Death Comes, issued in 2005, was her first album. The elements now familiar from To The Soul are there, but the production is (obviously) less clean. Any of the songs could fit the latter stages of To The Soul. She arrived fully formed. The difference between the then and the now is not so much in the songs and their arrangements, but in the nature of the lyrics – more direct, seemingly more about specific experience rather than observation. Obviously, it’s impossible to tell if she’s reporting actual experiences or not. Even so, they feel real. “Once I Was A Serene Child” recounts an encounter with a self-declared male “poet”, eating disorders and wanting to be one of the guys rather than the subject of attention.

Silence Is Wild was even more direct. The opening track, “Dirty Dancing”, recounts two divergent lives that come back together. The sense of loss (or past) in To The Soul is bubbling up. Castanets and a slight bayonne beat echoes Phil Spector. There’s a wee bit of Michel Legrand in the vocal intro of “Highway 2 U”. Silence Is Wild isn’t overshadowed in any way by To The Soul.

So far, so linear – three albums: one in 2005, the second in 2008, the third in 2012.

However, there are two other releases, 2007’s Pudel and 2009’s Music From Drottinglandet.

In full, Pudel is titled Music From The Dance Performance Pudel Arranged For A Small Orchestra, Piano And Voice. It’s great, and bits could fit into the trajectory of the albums – and “See How I Came Into Town” , “New Messiah” and “This Night I Recall You” are amongst her best songs. Overall, Pudel is as much about the atmosphere cast as about the songs. Still works as an album though.

Music From Drottinglandet (in full - Frida Hyvönen Gives You: Music From Drottinglandet) is more oblique and impressionistic. It was written to accompany a photo book, where she and photographer Elin Borge documented Thai women resident in the north of Sweden.The ten pieces do not have titles. Each is given a Roman numeral: I – X. Vocals are wordless, and II is pretty much “Over The Rainbow”. Bits sound like Another Green World. Other bits sound curiously middle European and Hawaiian.

To The Soul obviously isn’t a one off. It and everything that preceded it stands on its own. Together, this is a significant - powerful - body of work. So how come then that Frida Hyvönen has remained – despite having lived in Paris – resolutely Sweden’s?

Also only on Kieron Tyler worlds of music:

• Fonal Records / Shogun Kunitoki
• Helmi Levyt - Finland’s Voice Of Love And Madness
• Imandra Lake: Seesamseesam 
• Joensuu 1685 and Brad Laner on Splendour Records
• Mari Kalkun
• Röövel Ööbik: Young Godz Have Fun
• Susanne Sundfør: A Night At Salle Pleyel
• Susanne Sundfør: Spot Festival 2010 And The Brothel
• Susanne Sundfør: The Silicone Veil

JACK DOWNING - A FORCE THAT CANNOT BE NAMED: THE JACK DOWNING ANTHOLOGY ON RPM INTERNATIONAL

Although American, Jack Downing was Sweden’s pioneer of roots rock. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, in his adopted country, he issued a string of singles and album compiled for the first time on A Force That Cannot Be Named: The Jack Downing Anthology.

The released recordings - including the first-ever reissue of Now And Then, Downing's sole album - are supplemented by unreleased studio demos and live radio appearances, taking in the full story from 1966 to 1974. With a liner note by leading Swedish music writer Per Magnusson, A Force That Cannot Be Named: The Jack Downing Anthology is the definitive statement on this important figure.

After arriving in Sweden in 1963, Downing formed The Other Side in 1965. Their debut single Like A Rollin´ Stone / Out My Light opens the anthology. Both the Bob Dylan classic and Out My Light are lacerating, garage-rocking Americana. Downing's musical calling card set him up as leading light of Sweden’s music.

Jack Downing was a force, sweeping everything along with him. A character that could have been in Jack Kerouac's On The Road, he had his own, rambunctious take on Dylan (he recorded Open the Door, Homer, from The Basement Tapes as Open the Door, Richard before they were issued), Hoyt Axton and Merle Haggard. Legendary Swedish guitarist Kenny Håkansson was along for the ride. So was ex-pat Brit Mac MacLeod (the inspiration for Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man).

Release date is 19 November.

DISC ONE

Singles And Unreleased

1. Like A Rolling Stone (The Other Side, Karusell KFF 664, 1966)

2. Out My Light (The Other Side, Karusell KFF 664, 1966)

3. Fast James (Jack Downing & The Other Side, unreleased demo, 1968)

4. Lonesome Hearted Archer (Jack Downing & The Other Side, unreleased session, 1968)

5. Open The Door, Richard (Jack Downing & The Other Side, RCA Victor FAS 818, 1969)                                

6. Greenback Dollar (Jack Downing & The Other Side, RCA Victor FAS 823, 1969)

7. No Man's Land (Jack Downing & The Other Side, RCA Victor FAS 823, 1969)

8. Pretty Miss Mike (Jack Downing, single version, RCA Victor FAS 854, 1970)

9. The Last Thing On My Mind (Jack Downing, single version, RCA Victor 74-16024,1970)

10. Wide River (Jack Downing, RCA Victor 74-16024,1970)         

11. Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Jack Downing, RCA Victor FAS 860, 1971)

12. I'm A Lonesome Fugitive (Jack Downing, single version, RCA Victor FAS 860, 1971)           

13. After Yesterday Ends (Jack Downing, CBS 8229, 1972)

14. Going To California (California Blues) (Jack Downing, CBS 8229, 1972)

15. Colinda (Jack Downing & The Other Side, CBS 1797, 1973)

16. Belshazzar (Jack Downing & The Other Side, CBS 1797, 1973)

17. Geronimo (Jack Downing & The Other Side, CBS 2081, 1973)

DISC TWO

The Album and Live

Now And Then (RCA Victor LSP 10321, 1970)

1. Branded Man (also single, RCA Victor FAS 845, 1970)

2. Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line (also single, RCA Victor FAS 845, 1970)

3. The Kind Of Words

4. I'm A Lonesome Fugitive

5. Muddy Water (also single, RCA Victor FAS 818, 1969)

6. Pretty Miss Mike

7. Queen Jane Approximately (also single, RCA Victor FAS 854, 1970)

8. Martha (also single, RCA Victor FAS 863 1971)

9. The Last Thing On My Mind         

10. A Force I Cannot Name

11. Branded Man (reprise)

Live

12. Seventh Son(Sveriges Radio, 1971)

13. Greenback Dollar (Sveriges Radio, 1971)

14. Pretty Miss Mike (Sveriges Radio, 1971)

15. Queen Jane Approximately (Sveriges Radio, 1971)

16. Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line (Sveriges Radio, 1971)

17. Branded Man  (Sveriges Radio, 1971)

18. Going To California (Sveriges Radio, 1971)

19. The Easy Way (Jack Downing & The Other Side, Tonkraft, 1974)

20. Isn't That So (Jack Downing & The Other Side, Tonkraft, 1974)

REVIEW - CÉLINE DION: SANS ATTENDRE

No need to say more.

Review here: The Arts Desk Céline Dion Sans Attendre