What happens if you mix the Everly Brothers and Kraftwerk? The answer you’re supposed to hear should be: Adolphson-Falk’s Med Rymden I Blodet. However, I don’t think it quite is. Taking inspiration from both those iconic bands yet doing something decidedly different, is what led me to write about one of Sweden’s least heralded pop maestros.
The duo of Tomas Adolphson and Anders Falk began not in the ‘80s but in the late ‘60s. Back in 1968, while fulfilling their mandatory national service at Sweden’s Försvarets Radioanstalt (FRA), when not spending long hours listening to potential, communist radio signals, they’d pass time along dark corridors and alleyways keeping themselves occupied by singing together. It’s not often one finds a partner in perfect vocal harmony but in reality that’s how their friendship began.
Once the duo went back to civilian life, in 1972, they decided to pursue an artistic career together, crafting about an album’s worth of songs as demos. In the beginning they were met with frequent declines. Everyone thought they were far too green. Of those that were willing to give them a chance, they did so on the idea that they should stay behind the scenes, writing songs for others. It would take years before a record company would be willing to get behind anything with their names out in front.
From the late ‘70s onward, the duo then known as Tomas & Anders, honed their pop craft releasing singles on Decca, that begat a whole album with them, 1978’s Nattexpressen, with a whole legion of financial and production backing trying to tip the scales of radio in their favor. Diane Warren-like, Swedish songwriter Ingela Forsman was assigned to remake their originals. Then, in 1979, an English version of their song “Tillsammans (Kan Vi Nå Nånstans)”, somehow, became a contender for Sweden’s entry to Eurovision 1979. Tomas & Anders were supposed to become huge label-controlled pop stars…but that destiny wasn’t meant to be. They were dropped from their label a year later after none of this panned out for all involved.
Somewhere else, a year later, though, Telex’s own entry to Eurovision (the aptly named: “Euro-vision”) pointed to a direction they truly wanted to head to. Hoping to start a new, they rechristened themselves Adolphson & Falk, and found in Scandinavian label Air Music who saw potential on the sound of a single they’ve been knocking around with American expat musician Greg Fitzpatrick who had been heard of as a one-man Teutonic-influenced artist in his own right working in styles like RIO (rock-in-opposition) or in experimental prog groups. Producer Lars-Göran Nilsson would encourage them to pursue songs based on technology, space, and futurism.
“Blinkar Blå” would be the result of their first work together in Stockholm, under these new modern pop ideas and arrangements. Ideas of sparse, ambient, techno pop with elevated harmonies singing about man’s role within the universe, were born here. After the addition of audio tech-turned-sound engineer Dagge Lundquist from these sessions as another quiet member behind these two minds, the born again Adolphson-Falk was relaunched as an electro-pop duo.
Med Rymden I Blodet, or Space In The Blood, stills fascinating ahead of its time production-wise. No technological advances were untapped as early Emulator sample workstations from E-mu seemed driven to the hilt. Largely driven by Kraftwerkian-style melodic patterns and the duo’s ingenious quasi-Orwellian songwriting chops, it predicted a lot of the future pop we’d eventually hear from others and hid some dark, technophilic ideas well under the surface. On a single like “Krafter Vi Aldrig Känner” a surprising dance floor techno masterpiece hid something very close to that ideal of cosmic electro-pop.
Using percussive drum machines as their main sonic tool, somehow, the influence of hip-hop and electro (of the urban kind) on Med Rymden I Blodet treated us listeners to something that wasn’t entirely New Wave or facelessly robotic, it was of the next generation inspired by the Krauts but aware of other spheres advancing in their own orbit. It’s no wonder tracks like it are easily slotable in Balearic mixes. Ambient pop meeting post-disco would rear its head on surprising tracks like the B-side, also heard on the album, “Stockholmsserenad”.
Although, this core group would work together until 1987’s Det Svåra Valet and the subsequent release Över Tid Och Rum found them with more time to really dedicate themselves to their craft. I believe in songs like “Mr Jones’ Maskin”, the aforementioned single, and “5:e Avenyn” we find them both at their most hungry, willing to try more stuff that just worked the best to their advantage.
You’d still find gorgeous hits in future releases but to my ears Med Rymden I Blodet just has something special I can’t quite pinpoint. It’s raw and a bit dirt-filled. It’s wonderfully produced and forward-thinking. Maybe some of that unplaceable will be “gotten” for English listeners, who can listen to it in its alternate form as the album: From Here To Eternity. Thankfully, though, it’s this version of the duo that allowed them to build a new following in Sweden and to get within our reach, somehow, across time and space.