Samla Mammas Manna
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band, often characterized by its virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
musicianship, circus references and silly
Silly
Silly may refer to:* Silly, Belgium, a town in Belgium* Silly Department, a department or commune of Sissili Province in southern Burkina Faso* Silly , an East German rock group from the 1970s...
humour
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...
, similar in many ways to the song-writing styles of Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. They were one of the founding members of the Rock in Opposition
Rock in Opposition
Rock in Opposition or RIO was a movement representing a collective of progressive bands in the late 1970s united in their opposition to the music industry that refused to recognise their music...
(RIO) movement in the late 1970s. In 1979 they were Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
's backing band on his solo album, Gravity
Gravity (Fred Frith album)
Gravity is a 1980 solo album by English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith from Henry Cow and Art Bears. It was Frith's second solo album and his first since the demise of Henry Cow in 1978...
(1980). Musically they bore resemblance to some bands of the Canterbury scene
Canterbury Scene
The Canterbury scene is a term used to loosely describe the group of progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz musicians, many of whom were based around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s...
.
Members of the original line-up were Lars Hollmer
Lars Hollmer
Lars Gustav Gabriel Hollmer was a Swedish accordionist, keyboardist and composer whose work draws on influences ranging from Nordic folk tunes to progressive rock. He has been a member and/or founder of over half a dozen groups, most of whose work has been recorded at The Chickenhouse, his well...
(keyboards), Hasse Bruniusson (drums), Lars Krantz (bass) and Henrik Öberg (percussion). For Måltid, jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
guitarist Coste Apetrea joined the group.
They were on the fringe of the Swedish political progg
Progg
Progg, a contraction of the Swedish word for "progressive music" was a left-wing and anti-commercial musical movement in Sweden that had its roots in the late 1960s, and its golden age in the 1970s. It should not be confused with the English expression progressive music or progressive rock. Progg...
movement, although their lyrics are humorous and never explicitly deal with politics. The title of the album Klossa Knapitatet is a play on the Swedish phrase krossa kapitalet, a common slogan in the 1970s which literally means "crush the capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
", and also the title of a seminal progg song by Blå Tåget
Blå Tåget
Blå Tåget is a Swedish progg-band, that used to go under the name Gunder Hägg, the name of a legendary Swedish runner, but after name conflicts occurred they changed name to Blå Tåget in 1972.Their lyrics cover a wide range, frommarxist analysis and...
, called Staten och Kapitalet (Den ena handen vet vad den andra gör). Some more serious elements of the prog movement were not amused by this frivolous attitude.
The band underwent several line-up changes, as well as a few name changes, over the years (they released albums as Zamla Mammaz Manna and von Zamla), re-inventing their sound each time. In 1999, the band reformed under their original name for a one-off release entitled Kaka. And in 2002 they reunited again, but this time with the Japanese musician Yoshida Tatsuya
Yoshida Tatsuya
is a Japanese musician and composer who is the only consistent member of the renowned progressive rock duo Ruins, as well as Koenji Hyakkei...
on drums, for some acts and for their latest album Dear Mamma. The band played its first and only concerts in the US in August 2003, at the annual Progday festival in North Carolina and a couple of other dates.
In 2005 the band had the honour of opening the first day of the international progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
festival
Rock festival
A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...
that takes place in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, InProg
InProg
InProg is an international progressive rock festival held almost yearly since 2001 in Moscow, Russia.The festival was organised by the Russian Rock-magazine InRock....
2005.
Hollmer died in December 2008.
Discography
- Samla Mammas Manna (1971)
- Måltid (1973)
- Klossa Knapitatet (1974)
- Snorungarnas symfoni (1976)
- Kaka (1999)
- Dear Mamma (2002)
as Zamla Mammaz Manna
- För äldre nybegynnare (1977)
- Schlagerns mystik (1978)
- Familjesprickor (1980)
as von Zamla
- Zamlaranamma (1982)
- No Make Up! (1984)
- ... 1983 (live) (1999)