GROVJOBB – Nallebjorn Ar Dod (2025, LP Sound Effect Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Sound Effect Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Gatefold, Black Vinyl

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Gatefold, Blood Red Vinyl

Release Date: 28 Nov 2025

There’s a particular kind of shimmer that only the Swedish progressive underground ever truly mastered – a moss-damp, star-gazing glow that once radiated wildly from the instrumental mystics known as Grovjobb. After more than two decades of silence, the quartet has stepped once more into the worlds of Now, rekindling their cosmic flame with a “resurrected” performance at Psykstämman in the summer of 2023. What followed was less a comeback than a conjuring: old devotees and wide-eyed newcomers alike watched that long-dormant spark flare back into full celestial blaze. And from that blaze, as if wished into existence eight times toward Saturn, a brand-new LP has materialized, “Nallebjörn är död” (Teddy Bear is Dead), ready to land in the hands of the faithful.

For those who remember, Grovjobb’s 90s-era trilogy of albums on Garageland Records became cult artifacts, revered by psychedelic pilgrims from Ptolemaic Terrascope to Crohinga Well. For those arriving now, the band’s return is both a continuation and an awakening: the sun still gleams beneath our Mother Sun, the troll mother still smiles from the shadowed moss, and Grovjobb’s strange, glowing magic once again hums through the roots of the forest. At the center stands guitarist, sitar conjurer, and composer Jerry Johansson, whose Indian-coloured vision swirls with drifting wisps of Swedish folk, all carried by the pulsating interplay of Jesper Jarold’s bass, Thomas Nyström’s Rhodes and keys, and Ola Wolfhechel Jensen’s percussive spellwork. The unicorns dance, the trees lean in, and the air thickens with promise. Grovjobb have returned and “Nallebjörn är död” is the portal through which we follow…

The album opens with a serene, folk-tinted prog drift, an instant teleportation to the mid-70s British underground with “Nallebjörn Är Trött” (15:56). The piece unfolds patiently, weaving jazzy currents and early-Wishbone Ash guitar textures before diving deeper into a mist of early-Vertigo atmospheres. A true neo-prog instrumental anthem, never overstaying a moment. Midway, the track dissolves into a trippy, space-expanding haze, only to slowly circle back to its gentle main theme, now guided by a Rhodes-lit, Doors-like mirage. It rises in a glowing neo-prog crescendo, this is pure future cult material!

“Nallebjörn Är Röd” (7:22) starts and a sudden shift of scenery brings a more “classical,” cinematic kind of prog. It begins slow and contemplative, with a faint futuristic shimmer, then blooms into a stunning interplay of lyrical guitar and radiant keys. The atmosphere remains unmistakably neo-prog, but never sterile, alive with melody and intention. Another dazzling instrumental statement!

Side ‘B’ opens with “Nallebjörn Är Död Pt. I” (5:02), here the sitar takes the throne. An acoustic, improvisational invocation that feels like a rediscovered raga from the Eastern-soaked psych years of the late 60s. A gentle, luminous entry into Grovjobb’s renewed kingdom, intimate, hypnotic, beautifully unhurried…

The sitar now fully blossoms on “Nallebjörn Är Död Pt. II” (3:43), with the remaining instruments breathing softly around it, guiding the piece toward a subtly neo-prog soundscape. Still acoustic, still drenched in psychedelic vapor, but slowly expanding in form and color…

The three-part suite concludes in an acoustically trippy, melodically rich journey with “Nallebjörn Är Död Pt. III” (10:20). Grovjobb shape an “easy-listening” variant of neo-prog, accessible yet intriguing, never dull. The electric guitar emerges as the central storyteller, pushing outward into adventurous territory without ever losing the band’s enduring magical spark, a flame first lit in the mid-90s that somehow keeps burning brighter.

In conclusion, “Nallebjörn är död” doesn’t just mark Grovjobb’s return, it affirms their strange, glowing continuity. Two decades of silence haven’t dimmed their pulse; if anything, the band sounds as though they’ve been communing all this time with hidden currents beneath the forest floor, waiting for the right cosmic alignment to emerge again. What they offer here is neither nostalgia nor reinvention, but something rarer: a rekindled voice speaking fluently in its original tongue, yet resonating with new clarity. From serene prog meanderings to sitar-lit raga visions, from mossy folk roots to shimmering neo-prog horizons, Grovjobb deliver an album that breathes, wanders, and glows. It feels like a message slipped across decades, a reminder that certain sparks, once lit, refuse to die. And as this record proves, the teddy bear may be dead, but the magic most definitely isn’t! TimeLord Michalis

Tracklist

Links

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