Enhet För Fri Musik - Inom Dig, Inom Mig

Hugely welcome second edition of the fabled Swedish improv group's debut record, first released on cassette in 2015 and then on vinyl by Aguirre in 2017. There's a reason this one's come back around again, and not simply because of the ever-growing interest in the contemporary Gothenburg underground. Along with Blod and Neutral, with whom they of course share members, Enhet For Fri Musik represent a starting point for a new sensibility in experimental Swedish music, a revolving cast of musicians exploring free music impulse and folk traditions. Inom Dig, Inom Mig, translating as Within You, Within Me, is a clarion call. Sweden has history for this kind of open-ended music - what might have once been labeled prog, i'd suppose - though Enhet For Fri Musik make a unique contribution to the lineage by overlapping the worlds of DIY (possibly even amateur) practice, no-wave anti-formalism and the longer established institutions of improv and folk music. They wouldn't really sound exactly like this again, testament to their evolving concerns, but also of how instinctive this first transmission is. They were probably listening to Trad Gras Och Stenar, but i think there's a healthy dose of The Shadow Ring and the Dead C in their ears too - the 18 minute closer, Det Ordnar Sig Ska Du Se, is perhaps the apotheosis of such a thesis. Ahead of its time? Or out of time? It doesn't really matter for music that still sounds instinctively alive in the moment.