The five records that inspired the Swedish neo-psychedelia of Sunnan’s ‘Spaghetti Soul’
The roving Swedish band, Sunnan, have been tinkering with Spaghetti Soul for a while now, crafting a new branch of psychedelia.
Two years ago, their YouTube channel hailed it as the “manifestation of a new genre, praising classical aesthetics and Morricone-esque soundscapes.” That’s certainly ambitious. But Sunnan don’t get caught overstretching. Their sound is as easily intoxicating as a Mimosa on a roof terrace in Malaga.
Now, it has been committed to a full-length LP. But this sophomore offering didn’t appear out of nowhere. “We’ve found a musical world of our own through the cinematic influences of a vast variety of artists,” they explain. At the core of that tapestry are five key disparate figures, which they’ve picked out and explained, “These are ingredients to what we’ve come to call Spaghetti Soul.”
Music of an unconventional disposition is often described as ‘escapist’. By and large, I see this as a misnomer. More often than not, music of unbridled creativity vivifies the world around us. That’s how Sunnan assess their output.
“Music can sometimes create a dense fiction of a living mystic world,” the band inform Far Out.
Adding, “Through listening you can feel the moist in the air, smell the narrow streets or watch a sunrise in the sunset. These following artist all created these individual microcosms and offered it to anyone willing to travel.” Spaghetti Soul captures the saudade of the world around you in enriched tones.
They’ve arrived at this knack thanks to the likes of Lee Hazlewood and Martin Denny, as they inform us in the list below.
Five albums that inspired Spaghetti Soul:
‘Exotic Moog’ – Martin Denny
Created back in 1969, Exotic Moog is an experimental album in the truest sense of the world. The record was made solely using synthesisers, still a relatively novel technology at the time. But with this inventive outlook, Martin Denny, who was already 58 and an established composer in ’69, would become ‘The Father of Exotica’.
That sentiment of searching for new horizons is writ large across Spaghetti Soul with Sunnan explaining, “Through this album Martin Denny paints the 18th century fantasy of a ‘mystical far east’. A completely fictional world comes to life with early adaptations of Moog sounds and field recordings of tropical birds.”
‘Mezzanine’ – Massive Attack
With a welter of samples, from The Velvet Underground to Isaac Hayes and Turkish folk, in 1998, just as Massive Attack looked like they were on the brink of breaking up, they delivered their masterpiece. It remains a bold album that starkly creates its own world, still used heavily in film and TV to invoke a feeling of foreboding and drama.
To Sunnan, that sense of vastness is essential. “The industrial dub of Massive Attack is a key to Spaghetti Soul,” the band explains. “Resample the world around you to make it tell your story from a fresh point of view.”
‘The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood’ – Lee Hazlewood
Lee Hazlewood is undoubtedly one of the greatest American songwriters of all time. While his music career might have begun in 1953, he was one of the few artists from this period who adroitly managed to adapt to the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
In fact, Sunnan claim that this 1966 album is his best. “On Lee’s masterpiece, every song is an entire movie. The stoic sadness of cowboy psychedelia, narrated with intense presence,” they say.
Adding, “We founded our band in a barn on the Swedish countryside, creating with the views of woodlands and grazing fields. This album resonated so effortlessly with the surroundings and our music. It became an essential companion to us.”
‘Play’ – Moby
Even in 1999, Play was ahead of its time. “The week Play was released, it sold, worldwide, around 6,000 copies,” Moby said when looking back. “Eleven months after Play was released, it was selling 150,000 copies a week.” That’s the issue that comes with inventing a new genre; sometimes it takes a little while to seed.
Perhaps that’s why this belated classic has connected with Sunnan. “Moby’s use of old soul recordings to create something new and catchy is a tool we’ve carried with us through the creation of our world,” they explain. “Recording ourselves in old-school settings and sampling our own performances.”
‘The Band’ – The Band
Sunnan are far from the only group to heap praise on The Band from 1969. In fact, from experience, it may well be the most positively peer-reviewed album of all time when it comes to musicians. Everyone from Paul McCartney to Eric Clapton has hailed it as a masterpiece thanks to the way it seamlessly blends the sounds of America into one anthemic wail.
Sunnan add to this by saying, “The songwriting and the vocal harmonies bring you to the core of Western rural solitude. Personal frustration as energy into collective choral arrangements creates nuance and depth to the music. Harmonies are the foundation of Sunnans creative process.”
