Fleur De Lis - Facing Morning - 1972 (Den) Progressive Rock

Fleur De Lis was a Danish band which was formed in Skive in the spring of 1970 by Kai Olesen (drums) and Leif Nielsen (guitar, vocals & clavinet). These two had previously been playing in the progressive blues-acts "The Fog" and "The False Image". They teamed up with Bjarne Pedersen (guitar), Peder Pedersen (bass & acoustic guitar) and Svend Thomsen (organ). On the album a different drummer, Per Schou (drums & clarinet) can be heard on the bonus tracks. The album was recorded in 1971, but released in 1972. It is perhaps the most valueable Danish obscure record of the 1970's progressive rock records, according to the Danish newspaper "Politiken" who released a Danish rock Encyclopaedia in 2002 the album is sold for between 8000DKK (876,85£) and 10.000DKK (1096,06£) on auctions. One of the main reasons this album is so spectacular and rare is, that it was released on a small label located in Aalborg called Qualisound and was limited to 500 copies, an original is near impossible to track, but the album was re-released in 1995 with bonus tracks. Leif Nielsen is still an active musician today, but he is not very well known to the Danish people of today.

This curiosity is actually pretty good. It is far from the best record in progressive rock, but it had potential. Fuzz and improvisation reigns on this record. It is full of down-to-earth, laid back tracks from which you can almost smell the weed that must have been smoked while writing and recording these songs. Many progressive elements are covered. An example of this could be the mixing of styles the title track. Which feature opera vocals performed by an unknown woman. Speaking of the vocals, the vocals performed by the (then) twenty year old Leif Nielsen are actually pretty good. They fit very well to the style of gloomy, depressive progressive rock which the band delivers on most of the tracks. These stoners must have really had a downer. The moaning vocals, weeping guitar, suicidal drums, mourning bass and groaning organ works really well together, while these adjectives may not be of positive origin, the album is still very good. It is like a mix between Van Der Graaf Generator and early Pink Floyd.  

1. Home of Mind
2. Har I Set (Have You Seen)
3. Facing Morning
4. In Love
5. Why
6. Bad Loser
7. Sympathetic Attitude
8. Sneen (the Snow)
Bonus tracks:
9. East Hill Rag
10. Settlement
11. After the Settlement
12. Gensyn 1 (Reunion 1)
13. Gensyn 111 (Reunion 111)
14. WBN
15.  Mood

Bitrate: 256kbps
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Pan - s/t - 1970 (Den) Heavy Psych

Before Arne Würgler joined up with the other members of Blast Furnace, he was a part of the Danish heavy pscych act called simply "Pan". The band was formed in October, 1969 by Arne Würgler (bass, cello) and Robert Lelièvre (vocals). Robert Lelièvre had come to Denmark in 1965 after he deserted from the French army. He was a part of different projects including the Danish/English/French folktrio Cy, Maia & Robert with Cy Nicklin (Culpeper's Orchard). Robert and Arne met up with two brothers Thomas Puggaard-Müller (guitar) and Michael Puggard-Müller (drums). They joined forces with the jazz-organist Henning Verner (organ, piano, guitar) who had previously been playing with Dexter Gordon. In the Pan's early life, the famous Danish singer/songwriter Niels Skousen was also a part of the group and handled the lead-vocals along with Robert Lelièvre, but he left the group in January, but he can be heard singing on the band's single In A Simple Way/Right Across My Bed, which they released I in the same month as the band was formed. Niels Skousen departed from Pan in January 1970. The band's debut (and only) record was very well received and praised by the media. The Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information even called the album "the best rock record of all so far". After releasing the album the band toured Denmark and Germany heavily and appeared in two radio broadcasts as well as a television show. By this time the band had achieved a huge success in the media and on stage, despite their success on stage and in the media, the promotion of the record did not go well, not a lot of copies were sold and the band started to crumble in the fall of 1970. Here is some great footage of the band jamming the song We Must Do Something Before the End of the Day.

While Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia is not remembered much for their heavy psych bands and albums, this record along with Hair's marvelous album really could help to place Denmark on the map when speaking of heavy psych. The record features songs in both English and Robert Lelièvre's native language French. Overall it is very easy to hear why the media was impressed by this record. It has literally everything you would expect from a 1970 heavy psych record. The album is leaning on the borders between progressive rock and heavy psych with lots of variation in musical genres and instruments. It has the more heavy songs with the classic overdriven guitar and also more mellow songs featuring more clean guitars and piano. It mixes genres like jazz, rock, folk and even a little bit of classical. This record is spectacular and really good and much worth listening to. A must for the heavy psych fan.

1. My Time
2. If
3. Song To France
4. They Make Money With The Stars
5. Il Ny Pas Se Longtemps De Ca
6. Many Songs Have Been Lost
7. Tristesse
8. To Get Along Alone
9. We Must Do Something Before the End of the Day
10. Lady of the Sand
Bonus tracks:
11. In A Simple Way
12. Right Across My Bed
13. To Get Along Alone (Alternate Version)
14. Eternally
15. Such A Hard Way
16. Tristesse
17. Don't You Know

Bitrate: 256kbps
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