Träd, Gräs och Stenar – Box Set

Springing from the remains of International Harvester and Persson Sound, both groups worth peeking into in their own right, Träd, Gräs och Stenar (Trees, Grass & Stones) was at the forefront of the psychedelic movement in Sweden in the late ’60s. The band was built around the live experience, setting up shows on their own that heavily pulled in audience interaction. At the core of the group was Bo Anders Persson, who’d already done time with his earlier band Persson Sound. Persson began leaning into rock after a career that started off working with Terry Reilly, but finding rock to be much more inclusive he found his home marrying experimental impulses to rock’s medium. His emphasis on exploratory forms and DIY setup with Persson only grew stronger as he added musicians and went on to transition to what would become Träd, Gräs och Stenar.

The band recorded two studio albums, Rock För Kropp Och Själ and an eponymous LP, but the studio is not the focus here. As the band was rightfully a live band first and foremost, they recorded several live albums including their two most well known, Djungelns Lag and Mors, Mors. Anthology have rounded up a set that includes these two albums from ’71 and ’72 respectively along with a new set, culled from recordings the label sourced from member Jakob Sjöholm. The new set, Kom Tillsammans, features recordings that have never seen light to this point.

That’s a hell of a lot of backstory, as for the music, TGoS don’t lean too heavily any crazy psychedelic effects, but instead delve into a territory that blends Swedish folk with The Dead’s style of longform jams as an exploratory conduit, feeding off of the audience and pushing their songs well past their originally written bounds. Though, don’t let the folk tag fool ya, the band definitely get heavy and its easy to see that they had a love of groove and the blues germ that fed into many of their British and American counterparts. There’s a proto-Krautrock kick here and they share some of the same impulses, if not necessarily the precision that their German peers would latch onto in the same period of time.

Its a hefty set, but for those with the right kind of ears, highlights like the 26+ minute jam “Sommarlåten” and 23+ minute “Ofullständiga rättigheter” provide a glimpse into their prowess. This one is a gem, as is pretty standard for Anthology’s in depth releases and at 6xLPs, its a bit of an investment as well, but a worthwhile one. This is a key piece of history that deserves this new light.




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