HIMLAVASEN is Swedish for 'Heavenly Beings' but might otherwise be translated Awful Noise': a tongue-in-cheek name for a fun band of Gottenburg instrumentalists. Tony Cummings reports.

Himlavasen

The scene: a balmy summer evening at the De Bron Christian Arts Festival in Holland. Three thousand Christian music enthusiasts have been feasting on a banquet of musical goodies from a dozen household names of rock gospel. Then onto stage come a band few have heard of and who's decidedly eccentric dress looks like an annual convention of 'Blues Brothers', movie buffs. 16 musicians, sporting dark glasses and trilby hats launch into their first number. Himlavasen its seems are instrumentalists. Beyond that they defy category.

The rhythm section is neat-for-the-feet punk-cum-rock but those big band riffs, brassily blaring out to an increasingly excited audience have much of the sound and feel of the Swing Era while the solos recall everyone from Charlie Parker, Herbie Mann, Jimi Hendrix. These guys aren't however, session music eclectics showing off their versatility with dry technique for technique's sake. They're a fun band, as captivating to watch as to listen to. They get up, sit down, wave instruments above heads, finger snap, and jump down from their tiered platform to egg on the guitarist in exercises in precision choreography which are pure theatre, and so deliciously tongue-in-cheek they're a hundred miles from the pretensions of a Steve Farnie. By the time the band does a final Count Basie-goes-funky climax and sways in clone-like unison off the stage the audience is on its feet, screaming to a man (and woman) and a semi-pro band from Sweden have pulled off one of the most surprising triumphs on the international gospel music circuit.

Himlavasen's debut album (released in Britain, through Word UK) is called 'Hip Bop' which seems a somewhat more succinct attempt at pigeon holing their music than mine (anyone for Big Band Scandi-Funk?). Cross Rhythms asked Christer Bodell, the band's keyboard player and (English-speaking) spokesperson how he'd classify Himlavasen's music. "We realise we are hard to categorise. We'd like to not be categorised as, a jazz band, we're not a Glen Miller type band. I suppose we're really a rhythm and blues band which happens to have a grown out of a jazz band. That's why we have 12 horns in the band." To those still not hip to the street beat an R&B band from Sweden seems as likely as a symphony orchestra from the Upper Volta. In fact just as in the secular mainstream Swedish house music is now being tipped by street-wise pundits as the NBT (next big thing) so Swedish gospel punk is booming with dozens of fine bands putting soul music and the dance floor beat to the gospel message. I asked Christer why this was so "Some would say Sweden is probably the most America influenced country in the world. For a long period of time we have had influences from gospel music. Back in the late 60's the black church music came to Sweden and a lot of youth choirs started all over Sweden singing black gospel music mixed up with a Swedish tradition. This eventually turned out to be the Christian youth music of today, like Choralerna. "They were the ones who started it all during the early '70s. Now in 1990 in every church just about you can find a decent bass player, drummer 'cause there's so much funky music around."

Himlavasen's origins were in fact far from funky. The nucleus of the band grew out of the Swedish Lutheran Church's brass band tradition which has many of the ooompah-oompah qualities as Britain's Salvation Army ensembles. In 1978 Sven Fridolfsson, a 15-year-old saxophone player joined the brass ensemble of the Lutheran mission in Gottenburg. He showed such a talent that in due course he took over as the ensemble's leader and gradually the move away from marches and traditional hymns began. Sven began to write and arrange. As the years moved on, a floating pool of brass musicians was established which was able to play the intricate crisp-as-new-driven-snow parts, which are the foundation of the Himlavasen sound. By '87 the sound was fully developed. Big concerts in Sweden and Holland, broadcasts for Dutch and German television, an appearance at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival (West Germany) and their first album, recorded for Sweden's Cantio Records. Yet despite this ever increasing exposure of Himlavasen, the band are not professional, doing most of their gigs for expenses only despite the fact that half of the musicians are full-time pro's (the others having jobs in everything from computers to dentistry). The band have dealt with the biggish nightmare of getting 16 musicians to gigs by a daring move. Explains Christer "Our list of band members is pretty huge. We have 16 members in our standard line up but our list of substitutes is about twice a long. We have about 48, 49 people on our total list for people to call if a regular can't make it."

The thought of what rehearsals must be like when intricate band parts and complex choreography have to be learned by a never ending pool of musicians causes me to muse for a second or two. What, I ask, is the motivation which keeps the band together and gigging?" "I think, finally, the motivation behind Himlavasen is a desire to glorify God," explained Christer slowly and thoughtfully." We try and keep our minds on God when we're playing. "There are so many technical things around and for some people it is easier than it is for others, I can't answer for everybody. Some are proud musicians - they want to do a good job but there is a humble... I've noticed when people come to substitute in our band, people that I find in other environments maybe - they're kind of loud, they're taking over things. They come in our band and there is a different attitude. They notice it. "People, for example, if you're talking about things and where we can make an impression as a band just for the people who substitute who come in and just play with us once, they say 'what is this, what kind of band is this? This is incredible! I've never played in a band like this? I'll play for free! Call me anytime'. There are people in the band who got saved by becoming a member of the band."

Himlavasen are instrumentalists and for some people the very idea of trying to communicate anything of a spiritual nature without the prop of lyrics is impossibility. Understandably, that's not the way the band see and hear it. "We believe that our music speaks something of the joy of knowing Christ. Somehow people in the church wonder why we do all these thing on the stage, all the choreography, but we feel like ... this part of Himlavasen - we do 30 concerts a year. That means we're on stage 30 hours every year. "On the other hours we've got other things to do and we've got other ways to evangelise. But we like our time on stage to be a joyous experience, to be something from God and a big joy. "At times we really feel we are playing for God. Especially during ballads, and if you keep your mind on God when you're playing it can be worship. And people come up to us afterwards. It's happened a lot of time they say 'Man, I'm so happy I went to a Himlavasen concert '."