Alrune Rod - Sonet Arene 69-72 (2002)

Vicky nos reseña un disco de los Alrune Rod, lo reseña porque tiene ganas, porque le gusta mucho y porque quiere compartirlo con todos los cabezone de buena voluntad que amen el mejor sonido en ésta tierra... A pura psicodelia, y de la mejor!

Artista: Alrune Rod

Álbum: Sonet Arene 69-72
Año: 2002
Género: rock psicodélico
Duración: 2:21:50
Nacionalidad: Dinamarca

Lista de Temas:
Disco 1:

1. Alrune Rod
2. Natskyggevej
3.  Hvor Skal Jeg Se Solen Stå Op
4. Bjergsangen
Fase1: Kom Og Tag Min Hånd
Fase2: Du Er Så Sød
Fase3: Når Yderst Er Inderst
5. Rejsen Hjem 
6. Du Taler Og Sir'  
7. Hej Du

Disco 2:
1. Perlesøen  
Prelude / Nu / Prøv / ? / Invitation / Neden/Under / Ny Dag / Finale 
2. Om At 
3. Kender Du Det 
4. Jeg Tænker Så Tit pt 1&2 
5. Rock Søster 
6. Ikke Forstyrre 
7. I Din Nabos Lys 
8. Tæl Aldrig 
9. Imorgen Med

Alineación:
- Giese / guitar & vocals
- Ole Poulsen / guitar (en el tercer álbum)
- Kurt Ziegler 'Pastor' / organ, piano
- Claus From / drums
- Karsten Host / drums (en el segundo álbum)
- Leif Roden / vocals, bass

He aquí a Alrune Rod (La Raíz de la Mandrágora), una banda de rock psicodélico danesa formada en 1968 y que fue un grupo sumamente importante dentro de la escena psicodélica y progresiva de esas heladas tierras. 

Para este post les traemos una edición que viene con los tres primeros trabajos del grupo publicados por el sello Sonet entre 1969 y 1972 (si no me equivoco después continuarían con su propio sello, Mandragora).
Como indica la descripción del comienzo, la banda estaba originalmente integrada por Leif Roden (voz, bajo y guitarra), Flemming Giese Rasmussen (guitarra), Kurt "Pastor" Ziegler Simonsen (órgano) y Claus From (batería). Debutaron en 1968 con su sencillo “Tæl Aldrig Imorgen Med”. Al año siguiente sacarían su primer disco,  Alrune Rod.

Personalmente, a mí me encantan los dos primeros discos. Su álbum debut (Alrune Rod), consiste en temas largos, con atmósferas bien oscuras y psicodélicas. Comienza con la canción “Alrune Rod”, donde ya esas primeras notas del órgano nos preparan un viaje espacial. La introducción me parece genial. En cierta forma acá se ve plasmada parte de esencia compositiva de la banda: largas improvisaciones cósmicas que vaya a saber uno a dónde lo dejan al acabar el álbum. Por lo que pude averiguar, se recuerda justamente que en sus recitales tocaban canciones interminables. Continuamos con “Natskyggevej”, la cual se desarrolla de una forma muy calmada y suave, en contraposición a “Alrune Rod”, aunque también tiene varios momentos de bastante tensión y en el final hace un giro muy bueno. Me recuerda mucho a las maravillas que hacía Pink Floyd por aquellos años, especialmente en Ummagumma. De hecho, es un poco curioso, pero hay una partecita que me hace acordar a The Wall. Volviendo al álbum, casi a la mitad del disco nos encontramos con “Hvor Skal Jeg Se Solen Sta Op”, una muy linda canción acústica. Seguimos con “Bjergsangen”, otra extensa canción, con una hermosa sección acústica (que incluye el canto de unos pájaros de fondo y otros sonidos naturales), regresando luego a la idea anterior. Finalmente, cierra este primer trabajo la canción “Rejsen Hjem”, con un desarrollo interesantísimo de la idea original. En resumen, como había dicho antes, se trata de un disco de psicodelia pesada y sombría, lleno de improvisaciones y pionero en la movida danesa. Me parecen muy destacables el trabajo que hacen la guitarra y el órgano, consiguiendo pasajes realmente muy, muy, muy buenos. Otro aspecto llamativo es la particular manera de cantar de Leif Roden, alternando susurros con sombrías y a veces esquizofrénicas exclamaciones.

Su siguiente trabajo, Hej Du, fue publicado poco después en 1970, y está compuesto nada más por tres canciones. Aquí la banda sufrió un pequeño cambio en la formación: Karsten Host reemplazó a Claus From. En esta edición, tenemos los dos primeros temas en el disco 1 (“Du Taler Og Sir'” y “Hej Du”), mientras que el restante está en el segundo. Si bien sigue una línea parecida a la del disco anterior, no es tan oscuro. Además, hay un desarrollo diferente en las canciones (esta vez consiguieron cierto equilibrio entre la improvisación y la construcción de éstas). Ya lo había mencionado, pero es importante no perder de vista el contexto. Nos encontramos en Dinamarca, entre fines de los 60’ y principios de los 70’ y con una escena musical llena de bandas de rock psicodélico como Steppeulvene, Ache, Burnin’ Red Ivanhoe, Gasolin’, TømrerClaus (Claus Pedersen) y Secret Oyster, entre muchas otras. Definitivamente Alrune Rod y este disco en particular fueron muy influyentes en el desarrollo musical hacia lo progresivo. Volviendo al disco, ya con los dos primeros temas podemos notar esto que estaba diciendo sobre la evolución compositiva. Comienzan y terminan de una forma más coherente, por así decirlo. Éstos tienen mucho de hard rock y de psicodelia, sobre todo “Du Taler Og Sir”. Y nuevamente, es extraordinario el trabajo del órgano y de la guitarra. Lo más atractivo del álbum está en “Perlesøen”, sin lugar a dudas lo más espacial del disco (ya de entrada me hace recordar muchísimo a los contemporáneos krautrockers de Ash Ra Tempel). Aparte hay unos coros re lindos!! En fin, otro gran álbum!

Finalmente, terminamos con el tercer disco llamado Alrune Rock. Para este LP, Kurt Ziegler abandonó el grupo y se sumó como guitarrista rítmico Ole Poulsen. Además, contó con algunos músicos invitados. Ya podemos notar algunas diferencias con respecto a los dos trabajos anteriores. Supongo que en parte porque al irse Kurt Ziegler, el órgano, el cual había cumplido un rol importantísimo, dejó de tener el protagonismo que tenía. Si bien para mí ya no es el mismo Alrune Rod, de todas formas tiene buenas canciones con momentos muy lindos.

Espero que los disfruten mucho!!
Y muchas gracias a Moe por conseguir los discos!!! 

Siguiendo la costumbre del blog, dejo por acá unos comentarios más.

Sobre Alrune Rod (1969):

"Eponymous debut album from this quintessential Danish group Alrune Rod (Mandrake Root), which was highly touted in the underground scene for their disregard to commercial aspects of the music business. Indeed their heavy psych-prog, sung in Danish (apparently a first), sounds like a darker Vanilla Fudge or Floyd (between Saucerful and Atom Heart) was full of lengthy tracks with elongated solos, dark brooding vocals and multi-movement tracks. Graced with a very sexy psychedelic gatefold artwork, the album has gained a cult status in its homeland and the vinyl is fetching considerable price.From the very first notes of the opening eponymous track (10-mins long), it is clear that this album is not wedding dancing party music, and should you find a woman willing to make out to it, get a grip on her and marry her! ;o)p) And if the AR track was not enough, wait till you get a load of the following 10-min Natskyggevej (yeah, bless you too! ;o), which is definitely even deeper and sombre with the ever-present organ. Even if sombre, the ambiances are actually often beautiful and sometimes solemn, but also menacing and spellbinding. Closing the A-side is the short and unusual Hvor Skalwhatchymacallit with some acoustic guitars and congas. Bassist Roden's voice can be an acquired taste, especially on tracks were vocals take a more upfront role.The flipside only contains two more epics, starting with the 12-min 3-phase Bjergsangen which sounds much like its cousins, searing guitar lines, good base work and enthralling drum playing, but the middle section is a bit awkward and add to the feeling that the music also has an anaemic side to it. Ziegler's organ sounds like a cross of Banton meeting Jon Lord through Kaye or Wright, but fails to take the lead from Giese's fuzzed-out guitar lines. Closing the album is the 13-min+ Rejsen Hejm (Pardon my Danish) is the most dramatic of the album, and its dynamics are adding a bit of a third dimension to the album.AR's debut album is not a really easy listen, especially given that the album is rather long, (approaching the 50 minutes), but should ravish organ-driven hard rock with a psych edge! Although likely to please most progheads, I'd warn those liking very complex symphonic rock (ala Yes or ELP), that they might not find what they're looking usually for in this group. Very close to being essential hippie icon, and to file next to Vanillage Fudge."

Sean Trane 

"ALRUNE ROD were one of the pioneers of Psychedelic music in Denmark, they even sing in their native language. I really like some of the early spacey / psychedelic albums from the late sixties but to be honest this one seemed to lack something. The one song "Natskyggevej" is the exception as we get some dynamic playing and good guitar. Not a fan of the vocals either although I don't mind them most of the time."Alrune Rod" has an energetic intro with organ before settling right down with vocals a minute in. Contrasts continue right into the next track "Natskyggevej". Not a fan of the vocals 5 minutes in but the guitar that follows more than makes up for it. Organ follows the guitar. Heavy 10 1/2 minutes in followed by a calm with almost spoken vocals. It's heavy again before 13 1/2 minutes and I like the tasteful guitar solo before 15 minutes. Vocals sound poor late."Hvor Skal Jeg Se Solen Sta Op" is a short tune with strummed guitar, percussion and reserved vocals. "Bjergsangen" is divided into 3 parts and is a good example of "not much going on". Some good contrasts and I like the floating organ sections. At one point we get a sample of birds and water sounds. "Rejsen Hjem" is mellow to start but it builds before settling again. Some passionate vocals here.Overall a good album but I had trouble getting into it."

Mellotrom Storm  

Sobre Hej Du (1970):

"If AR's debut was a dark and un-commercial album, wait 'til you get a load of Hej Du with its three tracks only (we are in '70, well before CTTE or other landmarks), and multi-movement pieces. Sporting a naïve childlike artwork, fans usually regard this album as the group's definitive statement, and I must say that it does make quite an impression on me, still more than 10 years after discovering it. Actually the group will experience their first line-up change during the recording of this album, with original drummer From leaving the stool to Karsten Host.Starting with the distorted guitars of Du Taler Sumthinalongthisline (You Talk And Say), the album gives a shot in the anthill of your certainties, but the track is actually fairly weak as the over-powering vocals are not exactly well thought out. The following 15-min+ title track is quite an improvement, as it is reminiscent of the dynamics of the closer Hjem of the debut album. Indeed, the organ and guitar are clashing wildly while Host's drumming is at times breathtaking.The sidelong 8-movement almost-22min suite Perlesoen is clearly the album's centerpiece (even if it stands as its last track ;o), with its interesting mixture of dark organ-based progressive (ala Uriah Heep), psychedelic music (early Pink Floyd), and space rock (early Hawkwind) and bits of soul music (reworked ala Vanilla Fudge), with loads of riffing guitars and wild drumming. Even having some flute parts in one movement, this epic is truly progressive with each chapter developing its own mood, but adding to the whole structure. One of the assets of this track is that a second drummer Klaus From helps out, giving more depth to it. Just past the halfway mark, as the track stops for umpteenth time, the bass picks up with the searing guitar, soon joined by the drums and organs to build a lengthy crescendo, then suddenly, bass and guitar break away some more, before eventually dying out. As soon as gone, an organ line is to be heard lazily followed by another, then almost whispering vocals (at first anyway) with Appice-like drums, the whole thing ending in chaos!Although marginally better than their eponymous debut album, Hej Du is one of Denmark's most definitive albums in its genre (if you except the vocally ambitious but ultimately poor opening track), and only topped progressively (but in a very different genre) by Secret Oyster's outstanding jazz-rock of Sea Son. Highly recommended piece of somber hippie rock especially to most of those symphonic progheads claiming psych rock is not part of "prog"."

Sean Trane

 "For me ALRUNE ROD's second album is a definite step up from the debut. Maybe it's just that the almost 22 minute side long closing track stands above everything on the debut and above the other two songs on this album, in my opinion of course. It's an incredible piece though and keep in mind this was released in 1970 by these Danes."Du Taler Og Sir" opens with some good old fashion feedback before a beat with vocal expressions take over around a minute. It then kicks in with vocals. It settles just before 3 minutes with organ, reserved vocals and more. The tempo continues to shift as themes are repeated. "Hej Du" has a good beat as the organ floods in. Reserved vocals after a minute. It starts to build then settles back as contrasts continue. Passionate vocals and organ after 4 minutes then the guitar rips it up. A calm before 5 1/2 minutes as the organ, a beat and vocals lead until it kicks back in after 9 1/2 minutes. The guitar then starts to light it up. The organ is killing it before 12 minutes. The guitar is back making some noise."Perleseoen" features floating organ, acoustic guitar and cymbals early. It picks up with a beat, organ, strummed guitar and vocals. Great sound 3 minutes in then we get a calm. It picks up again after 4 minutes with vocals. Another calm after 6 minutes with reserved vocals. The vocals stop as it becomes somewhat haunting before 10 minutes. It continues to be dark with sparse flute. There's some whispering after 12 1/2 minutes followed by silence. A beat comes in after 13 minutes as we get some acid soaked guitar then the organ joins in. Another silent calm after 17 minutes then reserved vocals come in along with a mellow sound. It kicks back in after 19 minutes to end it. Nice.An excellent addition to anyone's Psychedelic collection to be sure, and a solid 4 stars. And thanks to the Dane himself Guldbamsen for his passion for this record."

Mellotron Storm

"Hej Du is the second album by one of the most familiar danish prog bands Alrune Rod. The album was released as early as 1970 and it is basically a continuation of their first 1969 album. While their debut was a little unfocused and featured long and jammy tracks, this album continues that line only this time the material is much more consistent and coherent. Reminds me of Amon Duul II Yeti compared to Phallus Dei which also coincidentally released simultaneously as Alrune Rod's first two albums. It seems like the band have found the right balance between improvisation and more constructed material and utilized it for the best. The album consists of three tracks, one of them is a 22 minute epic which is considered as one of the band's crowning achievements, with only three tracks the band finds a lot of time to experiment and explore that unmarked prog/psych territory. I must add that not a lot of side long tracks were released up to that point, especially not in Denmark. Their sound is not versatile due to the fact that there are no prominent additional instruments used and secondly the keys are somewhat in "low profile" ,they are always there and there is much to enjoy but just don't expect anything like Emerson, Manfred Mann or other RPI keyboardists. Sound quality is good concerning the year of recording and is warm and enjoyable.The music is psychedelic hard rock with prominent distorted guitars, my kind of sound actually, definitely resembles Hawkwind or early Floyd, though I wouldn't call this Space Rock. Keys are usually in the back serving the purpose of the song but never comes to the front to solo, they overall strengthen the psychedelic atmosphere. Vocals are in danish and if you can't understand them and I'm sure most of you can't, they are still very good and not that strange sounding. Flemming Giese Rasmussen is the star here which handles those wild guitars, which goes from hard rock to psychedelic jamming, all very good with delicious 70's sounding. Drummer Claus From is quite good but sometimes misses the beat and stumbles for a second, but it overall doesn't ruin my enjoyment.Du Taler Og Sir' is the album's opener, and it is more hard rock than psychedelic. It starts with some feedback noises and the sound gradually picks up building some tension, and as you think you're gonna be hit with a ton of bricks it changes to a happy beatles-like riff only with distortion, it took me some time to get used to that but it all flows very good from here with good vocals and excellent 70's hard rock guitars. A good starter to get you tuned in.Hej Du is a 15 minute track. The first 5 minutes are dominated by vocals which I find them to be quite enjoyable, guitars are in the back filling in with all kinds of licks and then breaks out beautifuly just to end the first part and leads you to the psychedelic part, this is where you feel the band really nails it. echoing reverbed guitars, haunting vocals, soft psychedelic organ, what can you possibly need more? This part also builds the tension slowly and breaks it down with a howling scream and some wild guitar a la Hendrix. It continues with some more vocals and more guitars and then ends. Very good stuff indeed!Perles'en is the main piece here, comprised of several different parts, it goes from one part to the other easily without giving you a feel of a patch work. The band's diving to another successful good psychedelic middle part here with an additional flute to sweeten things up, only this one is darker and more haunting which resembles early Pink Floyd, it slides into my favorite part of the album, fantastic guitar playing again by Geise which totally nails that slow paced rhythm with dazzling fuzzed guitar runs.So this is another great album from the psychedelic camp that shouldn't be overlooked no more just because of its origins. Those four danes certainly knows their job and would appeal not only to psych fans but to a wider prog audience. Very accessible stuff and definitely worth searching for. Their next album would see the band changing their attitude and experiment much less, so basically this is the one to get. solid 4 stars!"

Sagichim 

"It’s the Spring of 1970 (cue feedback guitars and doomy riff organ), and two longhairs are walking down Stroget, Copenhagen’s King’s Road, talking it like they’re walking it and wondering how long it’s all gonna last. Both are musicians but one is the poet too, and he says to his mate:

“Brother, today you have that same manic gleam in your eyes that I saw first time I met you. Here we are lucky to be striding down Stroget, but you still spend half the time neurotic that all this is an illusion. How much more free can you get? Get on with being it NOW! You crow about not being tied to your missus, but where would you live without her flat? You say you’re not scared of the police, but you’d never have the guts to go to a country where losing your freedom would be a real possibility.”

And so this classic album HEJ DU begins amidst hippie idealism, the new Danish youth realism, and a joyously abandoned musical soundtrack that vibrates like the Sum Total of all of the West’s best underground psychedelic soul music. Themes, man, this band has a fucking plethora of great themes. Most especially uber catchy is the song playing out as they stride down Stroget entitled “Du Taler Og S’ir” (“You Talk And Say”) and the aforementioned poet is Leif Roden, a tall ultra skinny longhair with a Holger Czukay moustache and a sunburst Fender P-bass that propels what the Danish press have dubbed Alrune Rod’s ‘Neverending Compositions’, long psychedelicised T.C.B. soul revues of ever-building epiphanies and cascading angelic vocal refrains, occasionally re-grouping into ambulant drifts of rhythmless formless stillwaterscapes. The joy of HEJ DU is that it sounds like all late 60s heavy music simultaneously AND like none of it specifically. Organ, guitar, bass and drums were rarely used more sparingly than here on Alrune Rod’s records, with no real lead instruments at all, and lots of ‘ooh’ angelick vocals and plane, train, automobile sound FX thrown in. This is deffo predominantly a band of groovers informed equally by the Chambers Brothers’ epic “Time Has Come Today” workout AND British organ-dominated art rock such as Pink Floyd, The Nice and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. So despite its being 1970, these are guys who still wanna look ultra-cool and score with the dollies. Which means the so-called lead guitar is in reality more of an FX extravaganza-cum-shrine to the tasty lick - Davy O’List from The Nice springs to mind, or Yes’ Pete Banks-period, or maybe what Steve Winwood did on the first couple of Traffic LPs. In Alrune Rod’s music, fuzz riffs and noises proliferate, and throw off kilter the overdriven curtains of dirge and stewing Hammond organ, which is itself a cross between the drones of ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’ Rick Wright and the R&B-based driving riffs of Yes’ Tony Kaye, Jon Lord of Deep Purple and Van Der Graaf Generator’s Hugh Banton all throw in. But the main reason that Leif Roden has such a spring in his step as he navigates the Stroget pavements is because he’s full of hope for the Rod’s future. Alrune Rod’s first LP has done well on the Danish scene and now Roden’s working on copping some more hip Anglo-Americanisms to Danskify for instalment number two - indeed, even the album title HEJ DU (literally ‘Hey You’) was the popular Danish hippie greeting of the time, reflecting Roden’s drive to give it all a local context.

Meanwhile, here in the early 21st century, I gots to admit that the main reason HEJ DU has been so heavily rotated these past months (even listened to almost all 21-minutes of “Perlesoen (Pearly Lake)” in the carwash the other day around two in the afternoon, when no-one was behind me waiting), is because it takes me back sonically without merely being something I listened to as a kid. Like, sometimes when I feel the need to play punk rock without all the attendant associations of the past, I put MINUTES TO GO on by The Sods, and right at that moment their late arrival swoop of breathless stupidity sums up punk better in one twenty minutes side of vinyl than all the originators could. Similarly, playing the title-track from The Sweet’s SWEET FANNY ADAMS does Glam better for me in 5 minutes than umpteen repeated listenings to “The Jean (yawn yawn) Genie” ever could. And for Alrune Rod, being Danish allowed them to retain in their sonic mash certain ingredients that had by 1970 become shut out and shunned as ‘old gimmickry’ in the lands of the originators. Guitar phasing, organ phasing, ‘Astronomie Dominie’-style howling-at-the-Moon, all these add-ons might hide short-comings in the musicians themselves, but their presence also allowed the overall musical effect to be one of psychedelia rather than progressive rock. Hell, HEJ DU even gets a long, rambling and very mid-‘60s set of poetic sleevenotes for stoners to giggle at as they listen.

And all three epic tunes on this record remind me of Amon Duul 2’s title track from YETI, insofar as they shift from beacon to terrific beacon of raging sun worship via valley pathways of intriguing low-key mystery. Did you ever wish that the four piece Soft Machine of the “Love Make Sweet Music” 45 had made an entire LP of that exquisite psychedelic soul, rather than just padding out the sublime “Why Are We Sleeping?” with 30-minutes of so-jazz/so-what freeform drywank-o-thon? Or wished that organ-grinding behemoths such as Mountain and Vanilla Sludge had – rather than indulging in some typically undignified and seemingly endless 12-minute ‘Heavy Rigby” en suite cover version du jour – had instead dared to knee popular music in the nuts by slinging out such semi-coagulated spittoon fodder as the ultra-monolithic Iron Butterfly’s 17-minute “In A Gadda Da Vidda”? Yeah, me too. Which is why this particular Alrune Rod LP deserves its place as an Album of the Month… not because of the many musical barriers it broke at the time of its release, but instead because of the confident manner in which its Danish creators accepted all the various ingredients in the menu being served up to them by the various chefs of British and American rock’n’roll. Just as William Burroughs suggested that an author in a dry spell is best engaged in creative reading, so Leif Roden took on the job of creative hoarding. Riffage, rhythms, intros, tail-outs, you name it – they were all grist to Roden’s Alrune Rod mill. But, like the cultural kleptomania of T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”, the songs of Alrune Rod that annexed so shamelessly sections of other peoples’ work did it so seamlessly and with such witty craftsmanship that the listener quickly gives up yelling “Oi, I know that bit” and just gets on with enjoyment of the overall piece. There’s little point in my telling you precisely where I reckon Leif Roden got all his source material from, because I’m not enough of a know-it-all to be up for the job, nor is Leif Roden merely the smart sonic cut’n’paster I’m in danger of accusing him of being. The strength of this record is the manner in which it all hangs together, building, dipping, dropping down, swaying, re-grouping then building again and again. 

Moreover, Alrune Rod had the luxury of being able to stretch out their material over two 20-minutes long LP sides only after Sonet Records had in mid-1969 sought to kick-start the band’s career with a nice safe piece of Institutional Psychedelia as their first single, a five minute long “Excerpt from a Teenage Opera” equivalent to show they meant business. Typically of the time, this first 45 ‘Pigen Pa Stranden’ was a bit of a curveball and quite unlike their real direction. Just as Van Der Graaf Generator hiccupped their way into existence via a doom 45 especially for them by George ‘The Beatles’ Martin, so Alrune Rod’s earliest commercial venture was a Danish Tin Pan Alley re-write of Cat Stevens’ hoary doom vehicle ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’. Written by Danish singer/songwriter Bent Birkholm, its huge stop-start organ cross-pollinated the aforementioned with Procol Harem’s ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’, without laying to rest the spectre of either. Much better was the Rod’s own gleeful B-side ‘Tael Aldrig I Morgen Med’ which conjures up the same Daft Vader atmosphere of Hammill’s later ‘Imperial Zeppelin’. Fucking beautiful, man!

However, I’ll conclude this by telling y’all that HEJ DU is damned listenable and refreshing and stonkingly groovy. Alrune Rod’s self-titled debut LP was also quite killer but this second LP is definitely the real shit, right? The later LPs have their moments (especially ALRUNE ROCK) but are in most ways too generic. Focus now on the largeness of HEJ DU and allow its riffs to cascade over your melted plastic brain and tell me these gentlemen achieved one delightful motherfucker of a long-playing record. And whilst I try hard not to become ensnared in cosiness in my rock’n’roll, something about the pulse, the heartbeat of HEJ DU, for me really captures how marvellously soul music and psychedelically-styled music could occasionally unite. As Leif himself says in the title track:

'Your ears are used to lies,

But your body can find its way towards yourself.'" 

Julian Cope

Sobre Alrune Rock (1971):

"With their third album AR made some concessions to commercial issues, even releasing an English-sung variant of the album, but shorter writing songs (no longer than 8 mins) where vocals take on a much more important and upfront role. With a comparatively bland (but wiser commercially) artwork featuring a bucolic landscape with a farmhouse, there still only six tracks on the album, but the mood is definitely set on more concise songs, allowing much less interplay than on the two previous albums. The group will again have line-up changes with Ziegler leaving, not really being replaced by another keyboardist, but by a second (rhythm) guitarist Ole Poulsen (who will co-write on all tracks) and a bunch of guest musicians to fill Ziegler's shoes!Starting on fairly strong Om At, sounding a bit like an average Spirit track, partly because of Giese's guitar tone resembling Randy California's, the album is a bit of a pot-pourri, as the next track, a rather dumb-sounding ballad overstaying its welcome. The two- part JegTaenker is definitely more reminiscent of the group's previous two albums, but much more in its intro than in the latter parts, which can sound symphonic with the addition of a flute on a piano background, but ends in a fishtail fade-out.On the flipside, Rock Sister features some sax parts, but the songwriting is weak and uninspired, not being helped much by some awful vocals that most amateur bands would avoid. Easily the group's first three album's weakest track! Fortunately the follow-up track Ikke Forstyrre is much more promising, sounding like Quicksilver Messenger Service's debut album, Giese's guitars is sounding a bit like Cipollina's superb twangy wahwah guitar throughout much of the album. This track and Om At are the two highlights and just about save the album from sinking. Closing the album is a short and insignificant track, not bringing much more to the album.On the whole, the album is a much livelier, happier collection of songs, (some of which are fairly good), but it is clear that AR lost a good deal of its soul in this metamorphosis. Significantly, electric and acoustic guitar are more upfront on this album at the expense of the keyboards, and Roden's vocals are simply too weak to endure a whole album, especially for the sake of the listener's ear.This would prove to be their last album for the Sonet label as the group would create its own label Mandragora (but distributed by Sonet, if memory serves) and release three more albums in so many years. In the meantime, their third album is much less essential affair, but most progheads will not escape it, since early AZR works are on the Sonet Arene compilation, which seems to be the handiest and most easily available AR record around."

Sean Trane 

Y para nuestros cabezones daneses: 

"Alrune Rod var det største og bedste psykedeliske syrerock orkester Danmark nogensinde har haft. Orkesteret blev dannet i 1968 og blev opløst i 1975, for så atter at genopstå flere gange igennem de næste 35 år.
I 1968 mødte Leif Roden gruppen Beauty Fools hvor bla. a. Flemming Giese Rasmussen, Kurt Paster Ziegler og Claus From spillede, Beauty Fools var kendt for nogle gevaldige syrede koncerter og happenings sammen med kunstneren Maler-Hans, men var klar til at prøve noget nyt. Leif Roden havde været sanger i The Stomps som var gået i opløsning, så derfor besluttede de sig for at danne et helt nyt orkester, Alrune Rod.Musikerne var hermed : Leif Roden, sang, bas og guitar, Flemming Giese, guitar og sang , Kurt Paster Ziegler, orgel og    Claus From, trommer.
D. 4. januar 1969 havde Alrune Rod premiere og deres første indspilning blev single pladen 'Pigen På Stranden' skrevet af Laus Bengtsson og Bent Birkholm og på bagsiden Tæl Aldrig I Morgen Med af Leif Roden. Leif havde svært ved at acceptere nummeret Pigen På Stranden, men blev til sidst overtalt, hvad han sikkert ikke fortrød da singlen blev en milepæl i dansk musik. Ret hurtig derefter blev den første LP udgivet med titlen 'Alrune Rod' pladen blev en stor succes og solgte omkring 12000 eksemplarer. Efter en række koncerter, bla.a. Stakladen i Aarhus d. 9. nov 1969D. 4. januar 1969 havde Alrune Rod premiere og deres første indspilning blev single pladen 'Pigen På Stranden' skrevet af Laus Bengtsson og Bent Birkholm og på bagsiden Tæl Aldrig I Morgen Med af Leif Roden. Leif havde svært ved at acceptere nummeret Pigen På Stranden, men blev til sidst overtalt, hvad han sikkert ikke fortrød da singlen blev en milepæl i dansk musik. Ret hurtig derefter blev den første LP udgivet med titlen 'Alrune Rod' pladen blev en stor succes og solgte omkring 12000 eksemplarer. Efter en række koncerter, bla.a. Stakladen i Aarhus d. 9. nov 1969 og en koncert fra 1. marts 1970 i RadioensKoncertsal, bliver deres anden LP indspillet og udkommer i 1970, pladen hedder 'Hej Du' en fantastisk plade der kun indeholder 3 numre, Du Taler Og Si`r, Hej Du og Perlesøen som er en fantastisk smuk rejse ind i underbevidstheden hvor alt går op i en højere enhed.
På dette tidspunkt var der flere ting der var begyndt at skride fra hinanden, og det endte med at På dette tidspunkt var der flere ting der var begyndt at skride fra hinanden, og det endte med at Flemming Giese Rasmussen, Kurt Paster Ziegler og Claus From forlod orkestret.

Herefter blev Karsten Høst, Ole Poulsen og Peter "Lübber" Nielsen nu en del af Alrune Rod, de kom alle fra bandet
R & B Section, Peter "Lübber" Nielsen var dog kun med i kort tid.
Leif Roden,
Herefter blev Karsten Høst, Ole Poulsen og Peter "Lübber" Nielsen nu en del af Alrune Rod, de kom alle fra bandet
R & B Section, Peter "Lübber" Nielsen var dog kun med i kort tid.
Leif Roden,R & B Section, Peter "Lübber" Nielsen var dog kun med i kort tid.Leif Roden, Karsten Høst og Ole Poulsen kan her høres sammen første gang de i 1970 øvede sammen.
I 1971 er Kenneth Kjær Carter også kommet med på guitar.

1972 kommer så Alrunens tredje LP 'Alrune Rock' med den ny besætning - Leif Roden, Ole Poulsen, Karsten Høst, Frank Lauridsen, Hvide, Kurt Paster Ziegler, Bent Hesselmann og Thomas Offer. Nu gik det efterhånden så godt at Alrune Rod lavede deres eget pladeselskab Mandragora, de første plader var udsendt på Sonet, herefter kunne de selv bestemme alt omkring deres udgivelser og i 1973 kom så deres første Mandragora LP 'Spredt For Vinden' igen en fantastisk plade med virkelig flotte numre. Mikael Miller var nu kommet med og på pladen medvirkede desuden Karsten Høst, Ole Poulsen, Leif Roden, Jesper Nehammer, Palle Mikkelborg og Ivan Oehlenschler. Fra en ukendt koncert i 1973 kan her høres 'Jeg Tænker Så Tit På' og 'Ikke Forstyrre'. 1973 var også året hvor 'Alrune Rock' udkom i en engelsksproget version, måske havde Alrunen en drøm om at slå igennem i udlandet, for allerede i januar 1974 gav de koncert på Fabrik i Hamburg, her blev flere af sangene sunget på engelsk, der blev ligeledes arbejdet på koncerter i Holland, men desværre blev de aldrig til noget.
Sidst på året i 1974 blev Alrune Rods anden Mandragora LP udgivet '4-Vejs' ´her fandt man 7 numre der var noget anderledes end de mere syrede på de første plader, men det var stadig virkelig flotte stykker musik. Her var også Torben Andersen og Tom Lundèn med.

Utallige gange havde Alrunen spillet i HIPS i Hvidovre og den 7. marts 1975 spillede de der for sidste gang, koncerten blev optaget og kan høres her. Sidst i marts mdr. tog Alrune Rod på en afskeds turné hvor de bla. a. spillede i Ørstedspavillonen iRudkøbing onsdag d. 26. marts 1975. 3 dage senere d. 29. marts blev deres tredje og sidste Mandragora LP 'Tatuba Tapes' optaget på Klub Tatuba, hvor Kurt Paster Ziegler igen er med  ligeledes Tom Lundèn og Torben Andersen.
Alrune Rod gik hermed i opløsning, en fantastisk epoke var slut, Alrune Rod var fortid, ville man nogensinde kunne høre en koncert med dem igen....efter en del år så blomstrede Alrunen atter.

Fra 1973 til 1976 kørte Leif Roden sideløbende et 'fritids band' der hed Kalechen, som bestod af Finn Jensen sang og guitar,I 1971 er Kenneth Kjær Carter også kommet med på guitar.
1972 kommer så Alrunens tredje LP 'Alrune Rock' med den ny besætning - Leif Roden, Ole Poulsen, Karsten Høst, Frank Lauridsen, Hvide, Kurt Paster Ziegler, Bent Hesselmann og Thomas Offer. Nu gik det efterhånden så godt at Alrune Rod lavede deres eget pladeselskab Mandragora, de første plader var udsendt på Sonet, herefter kunne de selv bestemme alt omkring deres udgivelser og i 1973 kom så deres første Mandragora LP 'Spredt For Vinden' igen en fantastisk plade med virkelig flotte numre. Mikael Miller var nu kommet med og på pladen medvirkede desuden Karsten Høst, Ole Poulsen, Leif Roden, Jesper Nehammer, Palle Mikkelborg og Ivan Oehlenschler. Fra en ukendt koncert i 1973 kan her høres 'Jeg Tænker Så Tit På' og 'Ikke Forstyrre'. 1973 var også året hvor 'Alrune Rock' udkom i en engelsksproget version, måske havde Alrunen en drøm om at slå igennem i udlandet, for allerede i januar 1974 gav de koncert på Fabrik i Hamburg, her blev flere af sangene sunget på engelsk, der blev ligeledes arbejdet på koncerter i Holland, men desværre blev de aldrig til noget.Sidst på året i 1974 blev Alrune Rods anden Mandragora LP udgivet '4-Vejs' ´her fandt man 7 numre der var noget anderledes end de mere syrede på de første plader, men det var stadig virkelig flotte stykker musik. Her var også Torben Andersen og Tom Lundèn med.
Utallige gange havde Alrunen spillet i HIPS i Hvidovre og den 7. marts 1975 spillede de der for sidste gang, koncerten blev optaget og kan høres her. Sidst i marts mdr. tog Alrune Rod på en afskeds turné hvor de bla. a. spillede i Ørstedspavillonen iRudkøbing onsdag d. 26. marts 1975. 3 dage senere d. 29. marts blev deres tredje og sidste Mandragora LP 'Tatuba Tapes' optaget på Klub Tatuba, hvor Kurt Paster Ziegler igen er med  ligeledes Tom Lundèn og Torben Andersen. Alrune Rod gik hermed i opløsning, en fantastisk epoke var slut, Alrune Rod var fortid, ville man nogensinde kunne høre en koncert med dem igen....efter en del år så blomstrede Alrunen atter.
Fra 1973 til 1976 kørte Leif Roden sideløbende et 'fritids band' der hed Kalechen, som bestod af Finn Jensen sang og guitar,Flemming Ostermann  guitar, Jens Breum trommer, Jesper Nehammer, Jens Hack og Anders Gaardmand sax, de kaldte sig  'All days sleepers' Torben Andersen, hammondorgel og Leif Roden bas. Bandet spillede mest i Huset i Magstræde og Saltlageret.
Leif Roden udgiver i 1980 solo LPen 'Roden' Leif havde samlet flere af de gamle medlemmer af Alrune Rod, Ole Poulsen guitar, Mikael Miller guitar, Torben Andersen hammondorgel, desuden var Leif Roden udgiver i 1980 solo LPen 'Roden' Leif havde samlet flere af de gamle medlemmer af Alrune Rod, Ole Poulsen guitar, Mikael Miller guitar, Torben Andersen hammondorgel, desuden var Jens Breum og Jeppe Reipurth med på trommer samtidig. Bandet spillede meget på Musikcafeen.I 1985 trak det igen i Leif og han fik arrangeret en række jobs rundt i landet. Her var konstellationen nu noget anderledes, igen var det Jens Breum og Jeppe Reipurth på trommer samtidig, Ole Poulsen guitar, men ikke Torben Andersen på orgel, men i stedet Flemming Steen Pedersen på keyboards ( Yamaha DX7, Roland JX8P og Minimoog ) Mikael Miller var heller ikke med mere.
Der efter var derDer efter var der en lang pause til 1994 hvor Michael Falck fik Alrune Rod samlet igen til en reunion koncert på Oure højskole, her var Torben Andersen med igen på hammondorgel og Mikael Miller var også med igen på guitar, samme besætning stod også på scenen i 1995 på Langelandsfestivalen.

I november 2001 indspillede Alrune Rod Cd'en, Live i Aalborg på Fedtebrød i Aalborg og det blev samtidig starten
på en gendannelse af Alrune Rod efter 26 år med de store navne fra dengang. 
I november 2001 indspillede Alrune Rod Cd'en, Live i Aalborg på Fedtebrød i Aalborg og det blev samtidig starten på en gendannelse af Alrune Rod efter 26 år med de store navne fra dengang. Leif Roden, bas og sang, Ole Poulsen, guitar, Mikael Miller, guitar og sang, Torben Andersen, orgel, Anders Gaardmand tenorsax og Jens Breum, trommer.9 helt fantastiske år blev det til, med mange flotte koncerter bla. a. på Nibe Festivalen, Loppen Christiania, Hillerød Slotsbio, Stars i Vordingborg, Dexter Odense, Industrien Aarup, Torvet i Roskilde og mange gange på hjemme banen Amager Bio.
Desværre måtte Alrune Rod melde afbud til HIPS40 Festivalen i august 2009, Leif var blevet syg, men fik det bedre igen og en ny koncert i Amager Bio skulle finde sted 29. januar 2010, men endnu engang måtte der aflyses, Leif var igen syg.
Jeg hørte fra Leif et par gange i påsken, hvor han kunne fortælle at det gik fremad og han havde det godt....
                                                              
Mandag d. 3. maj 2010 kom chokket som lyn fra en klar himmel, Leif Roden var sovet ind.
En æra er slut, Alrune Rod er uigenkaldelig og definitiv fortid. Her på siden kan man mindes det største Jeg hørte fra Leif et par gange i påsken, hvor han kunne fortælle at det gik fremad og han havde det godt....                                                                   Mandag d. 3. maj 2010 kom chokket som lyn fra en klar himmel, Leif Roden var sovet ind.En æra er slut, Alrune Rod er uigenkaldelig og definitiv fortid. Her på siden kan man mindes det største psykedeliske syrerock orkester Danmark nogensinde har haft."

Sacado de aquí 

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