Artist: Junipher Greene
Album: Friendship
Year: 1971
Line-Up: Helge Groslie
- Lead vocals, keyboards
Bent Aserud - Electric & acoustic
guitars, flute, harp, vocals
Oyvind Vilbo - Bass, vocals
Geir Bohren - Drums, vocals
Freddy Dahl - Lead vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, vibraharp
Oyvind Vilbo - Bass, vocals
Geir Bohren - Drums, vocals
Freddy Dahl - Lead vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, vibraharp
Label: Sonet
Friendship
my friends, is a matter of thought,
It’s
a wonderful thing that cannot be bought,
It
comes from the heart and lasts through the years,
Through
hardship and sorrow, and human tears,
And
it shines like rays of the sun.
The
beginning of the 70’s, progressive rock was thriving in the UK, but
what was happening in Scandinavia? Something very spectacular was
recorded in Oslo, Norway: A double-LP called “Friendship”, which
was actually the first double-LP ever made in Norway. The exact year
was 1971, and the artist was a band called Junipher Greene. In the
same year, prog-classics such as Aqualung by Jethro Tull and Moving
Waves by Focus were released, but this early prog-rock gem was never
really discovered by the big audience, though perhaps it should’ve
been.
The
band was founded in 1966 and it started as a blues group in Sandaker
Secdondary School of Oslo. The magnificent tale of this band reached
its climax with this album, which, in 2007, was given a title “The
best rock album of Norway”. After a few comeback-gigs in 2008 and
2009, their 2010 concert called “Rock på
Torget” in Bodø became the last live show of this marvelous group.
Fortunately, it was captured on DVD.
“Friendship”
is a mixture of various musical genres of that time. The pillars lie
on a rock’n’roll ground, but there is a spoonful of jazz and a
gentle pinch of blues in the sauce. Organ-spiced rock is sometimes
accompanied with the gentle touch of flute, which is actually the
reason I brought up Focus and Jethro Tull. The high point of the
album is definitely the unbelievably beautiful “Maurice” where
the rhythm section is playing bossa nova and the air is filled with
the incredible flute dominance. The album culminates to the
self-titled track, running almost 20 minutes: a standard duration in
the prog-scene.
The
band had to finance half of the LP by a demand of the record label,
Sonet, which considered progressive rock as a risky investment. Sonet
is a Swedish record label concentrating on jazz, founded in the 40’s,
now being a part of Universal Music Group. My Special edition is a
re-mastered version (2003) of the LP.
“Friendship” may be
a hard one to acquire, but it is worth the search, if you are into
70’s prog-rock. It is a pioneer in Scandinavian progressive music;
Junipher Greene is one of the first progressive groups from Norway.
The attitude that stems from this piece is amazing; “Friendship”
should’ve been one of the cornerstones of the evolution of
prog-rock. Now it remains a mysterious Norwegian diamond in the
history of chaotically breeding music industry.
Check
out some samples: the self-titled track and the enchanting flute
brilliance:
Written
by: Oz
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