SBB - 2016 - Hofors 1975

SBB 

2016

Hofors 1975

01. Works In Iron I 21:23

02. Works In Iron II 19:57

Drums – Jerzy Piotrowski

Guitar – Apostolis Anthimos

Vocals, Keyboards, Electric Organ , Piano, Synth – Józef Skrzek

Recorded live in Sweden during "Europop" tour Hofors, May 1975.

In May 1975 SBB went to Sweden. Legendary tour ended up in offering the world the famous for years to come, breath-taking concert in Karlstad – over forty minutes of improvised progressive rock of the world standard. Now, after years, it turns out that Karlstad was not the only eye-opener of the tour…

The most significant Polish rock band of 70s, during the Swedish tour in 1975, was in their top form. They could play literally anything and… they did. The tape, just discovered, with the recording of the performance in a small, industrial town of Hofors, is a confirmation that SBB could easily create a forty-minute rock suite full of mood changes and sensational solo parts of the Hammond organ of Józef Skrzek and the guitar of Apostolis Anthimos. The idea of the early aggressive-progressive SBB is here mastered to perfection: the band sounds like one, coherent organism driven by the nervous rhythms of Jerzy Piotrowski, whose perfection of play might bewilder more than one metronome.

A complete recording of the concert in Hofors was found after years in Sweden and remastered from the original tape by original FOH engineer from this tour, Anders Oredson. On the cover, this time, a great photo portrait of whole band taken by Tomasz Sikora. And in booklet – reminiscences from the Swedish tour and previously unknown photographs of SBB by Zygmunt Drużbicki.

This is the third archival album on the GAD Records label, which presents live material by the seminal Polish Jazz-Rock Fusion group SBB. The material was recorded during the group's tour in Sweden in May of 1975 and presents the original lineup of the group: bassist / keyboardist Jozef Skrzek, guitarist Apostolis Anthimos and drummer Jerzy Piotrowski performing a long improvised version of just one composition ("Works In Iron"), split into two parts, both lasting close to twenty minutes.

At the time this recording was made the group already had a very intensive period of activity behind them and managed to create their own style and coherent stage act, based on lengthy instrumental improvisations on basic riffs and tunes, which often moved into hypnotic repetition and intensive ventures, sometimes even flirting with Free Form.

As this recording clearly proves, they had no competition to the title of top Fusion act in Poland at the time and honestly very little competition from any other European bands as well. The intensity of their act and the virtuosity of their respective instrumental abilities were truly unparalleled. Therefore the discovery of previously unheard material from that period is an absolute blessing, in spite of the fact that there is a plethora of live SBB material on the market already.

Although the sound quality of this recording, which was of course never meant for release in the first place, is a little muddy, it is definitely good enough to be enjoyable and manages to convey the authentic sound experience at the time. Overall this is of course a must to all SBB fans all over the world and a significant addition to their early period recording legacy.