The second round of reissues from Aguirre, mining rare artifacts from the contemporary Gothenburg scene, is wondrous indeed. This time they bring us two incredible vinyl reissues of crucial albums - "Leendet Från Helvetet" and "Knutna Nävar" - by Blod, the solo venture of Enhet För Fri Musik member, Gustaf Dicksson. Fascinating byproducts of DIY culture, tape music, and rigorous experimentalism that appear from the shadows as subversive nods to 1970s Swedish folk and prog, they're among the most beautiful and surprising albums we've encountered in a good long time.

Over the last year or two - via a series of remarkable releases by Arv & Miljö, Treasury of Puppies, Astrid Øster Mortensen, and others - we’ve found ourself casting our gaze toward Gothenburg, Sweden, a number of times. The city’s contemporary scene has been gathering a growing international fan base, thanks to a strikingly individual sense of spirited and playful creative rigor. Aguirre’s latest batch, comprising a handful of reissues from the Gothenburg scene, got rolling with Enhet För Fri Musik’s 2021 LP Ömhet & Skilsmässa, focussing on the band that sits at the heart of it all, and from which a great many networks of activity stem. One of these is Blod, the solo venture of Enhet För Fri Musik member, Gustaf Dicksson, and the creator of “Leendet Från Helvetet” and “Knutna Nävar”, the next two reissues in the batch. Channeling the irreverent DIY spirit that has helped define the Gothenburg scene at large, these two stunning offerings delve down a more delicate path, making nods to the golden era of 1970s Swedish folk and prog, intertwined with forward thinking experimentalism and bedroom psyche.

Blod is one of the earliest projects to lay the groundwork for the Gothenburg sound, predating the formation of Enhet För Fri Musik - the slightly more famous project to which Gustaf Dicksson also belongs - by a short time. It is also one of the most prolific, producing north of two dozen releases since the project’s debut release, “Dop”, in 2014.

While Gustaf Dicksson’s voice rests at the centre of the Gothenburg scene - in addition to Enhet För Fri Musik, he also belongs to the duo, Oroskällan, with fellow bandmate Dan Johansson - his work under the moniker Blod stands slightly apart from the pack. As it has progressed, it has grown gentler and more considered, illuminating important aural connections between seminal Swedish folk, prog, and psychedelic projects like Handgjort, Turid, Philemon Arthur And The Dung, and Träd, Gräs & Stenar, and the community of musicians to which he belongs. This becomes quickly apparent from the first sounding of “Leendet Från Helvetet”, the first of two vinyl reissues by Aguirre, dedicated to the project’s back catalog.

“Leendet Från Helvetet” was originally issued in 2017 by Förlag För Fri Musik in a numbered limited edition of 100 copies. Due to its sparse availability, it is regarded by many as Blod’s most overlooked and underappreciated body of work. The album was also a crucial turning point for the project. Where many of the album’s predecessors had been defined by the spirited irreverence and explicit radicalism for which the Gothenburg scene has become known, here we encounter a quieter, more inward-looking dimension of creative possibility.

Despite the range of territories that the album covers, at the center of the 8 tracks that comprise “Leendet Från Helvetet” is the intoxicating presence of melody, taking form in a number of highly individualized ways. Even the open-ended moments, like the album’s opener, Håll Dem Borta and pieces like Satan, both of which flirt on the borders of free jazz, feel deeply connected to the characters of songwriting. Incorporating elements of tape music and forthright experimentalism, across the length of “Leendet Från Helvetet” Blod synthesises the temperaments of dreamy hippie folk, bedroom DIY, and left-field pop into startlingly personal presentations of endless creative possibility.

An absolute joy in listening, while being endlessly surprising, Blod’s “Leendet Från Helvetet” is a true masterstroke that helps unlock the mysteries swirling at the centre of Gothenburg’s incredible scene.

Aguirre’s second release dedicated to the back catalog of Blod, “Knutna Nävar”, is the perfect counterpoint to “Leendet Från Helvetet”. Originally released by Förlag För Fri Musik in 2018 in a tiny edition of 150 copies, it is also among the scarcest in the project’s output. Like its predecessor, the album channels the temperaments of 1970s Swedish folk and prog, but here the sound has grown larger and more refined, without totally abandoning the DIY bedroom sensibilities that make the project what it is.

If encountered without context, “Knutna Nävar” might sound like an artefact of another era, as though a warped body of home recordings produced in a commune in the Swedish countryside during the 70s had emerged from the shadows. Harmonious vocalisations intertwine with staggering beats, flute melodies, and jangly guitars producing an unmistakably hippie sound. But, as the listening process unfolds, certain truths begin to unfold and all is not what it seems.

While fairly forward facing and brash in its relation to folk rock, “Knutna Nävar” is in fact a strange piece of experimentalism that rests heavily within the realms of tape music. Much of its defining character is built from samples taken from unknown sources, interwoven with Gustaf Dicksson’s own playing. As such, despite its remarkably inviting - if not explicitly intoxicating sound - the album poses a contentious challenge - not unlike the current work of artists like Carl Stone - to the aesthetic presumptions that tend to be attached to experimental music. Is this fashioned pop, or something far more radical and new?

Rollicking, fun, while remarkably challenging through what it proposes, it’s hard not to love “Knutna Nävar”, a defining moment in the output of Blod, and the Gothenburg scene at large.