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Just in time for Träd Gräs och Stenar's ("Trees Grass and Stones") 40-year anniversary, the Swedish psychedelic trance-rock pioneers release a new album, Homeless Cats. The first one in 7 years, and the seventh since they began in 1969. Eleven boundless tracks with organic music for open minds. Back in 1967, the guitarist BoAnders Persson had already started his Terry Riley-inspired underground band Pärson Sound with the bass player Torbjorn Abelli and drummer Thomas Mera Gartz, amongst others. They evolved into International Harvester, then Harvester, finally striking root as Träd Gräs och Stenar. In 1970, they arranged, and performed at, the legendary Swedish Gardes-Festivals that pioneered the Swedish alternative music movement. Today, Träd Gräs och Stenar create their own contemporary music, even if they have been compared to Krautrockers like Can and Faust, internationally. Rhythmic, and heart-pounding for sure -- but at the same time, peculiarly Swedish, with their roots in the mold and soil, and with branches that reach high up into the clear air. Homeless Cats was recorded by the band themselves during the period between 2002-2007, mostly while jamming in the band's rehearsal house and studio in Viksund, Sweden, but also live at gigs. During this period, they also toured Europe, USA, Russia and Japan. In the meaty album booklet, they give us a couple of personal travelogues. Träd Gräs och Stenar have evolved a clear and mature sound with space enough for both suggestive heaviness and mind-expansion. These tracks bubble and seethe, growing forth freely. Sometimes, the mostly instrumental tracks are irresistibly captivating, as in the trance-inducing "Summer Disco," at other times, they are weightless, as on the loop-like "The Most Beautiful Moment Of The Dream," which breathtakingly floats into "Thorns Of Solitude," which could be an earthy, space-rock movie soundtrack. "Wedding Reel" is a slight divergence from traditional Swedish folk music, with rhythms and melodies that are played brutally, like a plow wrenching deep furrows into a field of stone. Homeless Cats makes its mark. Heavy, vertiginous, and, just like Träd Gräs och Stenar themselves, timeless.
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