PANTA REI

One great thing of modern times is that we can find otherwise rare music in streaming services. That is the case with Panta Rei, a band that is largely unknown even between prog fans and now can be enjoyed by anyone easily.

It is also a great thing because their sole album is very enjoyable. It is one of those bands that you feel that could have made great things if they have remained together for more time, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. Their debut has great songs played by great musicians, and it has that characteristic of many debut albums, where the bands are still trying to find their footing.

The first song, Five Steps, for example, is not representative of the album. It shows some good musicianship with busy bass lines and drum fills, but it is largely a straightforward rock song that was probably meant to be a single. Not bad, but could scare away prog fans that were looking for more.

Fortunately, the rest of the album is filled with gems. White Bells is a favorite of mine, starting folksy and ending jazzy. Then we have Five O' Clock Freak and The Knight, which are very similar in structure, although they are very different in sound. These two songs have many different changes in style, going through jazzy, bluesy, psychedelic, hard and even symphonic prog and a almost mandatory percusive solo on the later. Both songs are pretty good, and the highlight is the excellent guitar work. To finish, there is The Turk, which is shorter and has a bit of eastern influences and is the most psychedelic/space rock song of the album.

Unfortunately, this was the only album of the band, so we don't know if they would settle in one or two main styles or if they would keep throwing lots of things in the mix for each song (which is something original that pleases me). The production of the album was very good too, so I think it is worth listening from time to time, specially now that you don't need to chase rare records to enjoy this great album.

The term "panta rhei" refers to the concept that everything flows in the philosophy of Heraclitus from Greek mythology and is also a term that has been adopted as a band name for several groups including a Hungarian prog rock band, a German jazz-rock band, a Belgian folk band and once you remove the "h" and forming the alternative spelling PANTA REI, a short-lived Swedish prog band that emerged from the fertile city of Uppsala some 60 km north of Stockholm which is most famous for being the birthplace of Samla Mammas Manna but due to the wealth of support for the arts in Sweden also produced a huge number of lesser known bands including PANTA REI.

PANTA REI formed in 1970 and released this one and only self-titled album in 1973 but failed to make an impression most likely in part at least to hosting one of the hardest to look at album covers in music history. The band consisted of Georg Trolin (vocals, harmonica), Thomas Arnesen (guitar), Leif Östman (guitar), Cary Wihma (bass, percussion), Tomo Wihma (drums), Lennart Backwall (guitar), Zeke Öhrn (bass), Gunnar Lindqvist (flute) and Göran Freese (saxophone) and performed an amazingly eclectic style that is hard to peg as each of the five tracks on this album are fairly different from each other almost making it sound like a bunch of different bands but the common denominator is the twin guitar attacks that sound somewhat like a more laid back and tripped out version of the Allman Brothers.

While the opening "Five Steps" sounds like a somewhat garagy version of 70s hard bluesy rock, the following "White Bells" adopts a slow folky approach with acoustic guitars and more earnest vocals much in the vein of Traffic meanwhile the near 10 minute "Five O'Clock Freak" takes a bit of the heavy rock guitars and mixes it with a rather Mahavishnu Orchestra style of jazz-rock that t makes things into the world of psychedelia. The lengthiest track on the album is the near 14 minute prog behemoth "The Knight" which jumps back into the hard rock guitar riffs and then proceeds to tackle a wide range of stylistic shifts that mixes Baroque classical, excellent fuzzed out wah-wah peddles and some sensual flute runs and then sprints into a sprawling jam session. The track does seem a little discombobulated as PANTA REI very much sounds like a novice act trying to learn how to juggle too many elements without mastering the cohesive effect as did their more famous town mates.

The album ends with another curve ball titled "The Turk" which mixes Turkish folk music in with hard rock. In the end PANTA REI wasn't really ready for primetime as the album comes very much across as amateur hour but does offer a lot of interesting ideas that would've been more interesting had they been gestated fully. Unfortunately this band broke up in 1974 and never had the change to redeem itself but this bizarre little artifact serves as an excellent reminder of the lesser known bands of the Swedish prog scene that haven't gone down on the top of lists from the decades of yore. Very much worth checking out a time or two but clearly not one of the more essential examples of Swedish prog. The band does have the honor of making it onto those more comprehensive various artists compilation of 70s Swedish prog but as an act in its own right is a bit underwhelming despite some excellent musicianship.

This is an album that really took me by surprise for three essential reasons, it was good, it was consistent and (perhaps most surprisingly) the recording quality was good. I'm not going to say that this is a genre defining record (unless you insist that this is space rock / psychedelia -- in reality this is likely canterbury more than anything else). That being said this is a solid and consistent (if at times a tad hokey record).

The real problem with this record however is that there is little that sets it apart from other records and it is not memorable enough to grab the attention of the listener beyond base enjoyment. Thus, this is an album that falls into the immense category (what I feel the majority of three star ratings are) of "yeah, this is a good album but I'll probably never listen to it again".

I think the best song on here is likely 'Five O'Clock Freak', to me this is the most memorable track but all the songs are solid. It's a shame the band never released more music because there is strong musicianship and songwriting, but, at the end of the day this is a pretty forgettable album that I don't think anyone would call bad but would end up as a shelf-sitter, part of a collection, collecting dust.

3/5 stars

A strange, obscure little album from Sweden which I would definitely agree is more of a fusion piece (with Canterbury and Zappa influences) than a psych or space rock album. A bit of a Middle Eastern influence creeps in on The Turk, but otherwise the album boasts the usual influences for an offbeat fusion band of this type - Mothers of Invention, Soft Machine, Mahavishnu Orchestra and so on. A pleasant listen which will get your foot tapping but which I can't see myself coming back to again and again. It's a shame they never made any more albums, because I can tell there's a spark of talent here, but it doesn't quite shine through.

Well... What can one say about this album then? First off I really object to the labeling of Panta Rei as spacerock or even psychedelia. It lacks the noise of bands like Hawkwind and the sound-experiments of Pink Floyd. In my opinion it's just a typical example of the jazz-rock or fusion of the era, albeit very good indeed. The musicianship is excellent and the english vocals are sung in really good english, without any noticeable accent at all, which is nice. The music ranges from the quite intense upbeat-tempo of "Five steps" to the balladry of "White bells". (Nice flutes on that one!) There aren't a lot of over-distorted guitars but they do hammer it out on a couple of tracks such as the Zappa-esque "Five o'clock freak" and "The turk". Both songs heads off into great, seriously groovy jams which I find to be spellbinding in every sense of the word. In short it's a really good album, filled with extraordinary jazz-rock/fusion of the time and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in good music in general but to people in to prog and prog-related music in particular. I'd advice you to go out and buy a copy.

It's sad to see, that nobody yet reviewed this album. So, I will be the first. This band from Sweden is not too much psychedelic/sace rock in my opinion. First track - Five Steps is much Canterbury scene type of prog. Good melodies, not very distorted guitars. Souns even a bit like Fuzzy Duck. White Bells is a gentle, softly track with a bit of a psychedelic felling. Nice flute parts here. But I must say that production of this lp isn't too good. We can't hear all instruments on a satisfying level. Ok, next we have Five O'Clock Freak. It's a next track that would fit good with Canterbury Scene. An instrumental track with saxophones, so it sound a bit like Colosseum. The Knight is the longest track here. Starts with a guitar melody that is in style of medieval music. Then it goes more into Mahavischnu Orchestra jazz rock sounds. Very good track, with lots of changes of atmosphere. The last number is called The Turk. It's the most psychedelic number on ths lp, and it's also an instumental track. Some heavy guitars, and even a suprize that sounds like Grobschnitt. Very good album, be sure to have it in your collection.