Listen to The Amazing on Spotify
“The cream of Sweden’s psychedelic/neo-folk underground” MOJO.
The Amazing fell far from the tree. A natural process: coming together through affection, then slowly crystallizing into a folk-rock-psych-pop-collective slowly pushing, bending, then playing with any preconceived notions of pop. When a band take a name like The Amazing, they’d better have the chops to back it up. Happily, this Swedish outfit – a collective headed by Reine Fiske (also doubling in psych juggernauts Dungen and Trad Gras & Stenar) and singer-songwriter Christoffer Gunrup – are masterful enough to take that mantle on. Friends first and foremost, it’s this kindred spirit that imbues the band album with a feeling unlike that of most releases – one of natural harmony, persistent progression and with a panoramic gaze fixed on distant settings. The band’s music is widescreen, panoramic, horizon-reaching stuff. An elegantly constructed record of moody psychedelic majesty, it comes with a greater dose of CSNY-style Laurel Canyon bliss than those previous recordings. Its eight songs clock in at a luxurious 45 minutes long, during which astral guitars intertwine in serpentine solos, horns blast rainbow melodies and Gunrup’s flute-like voice floats elegantly over the sunset sounds. Nothing is introverted or overworked – everything is balanced, kept together by natural melodies, soulful vocals and just how perfect should be. The Amazing’s music is a feeling, an organic consequence of something that effortlessly came together. The line-up completed by Johan Holmegard, Fredrik Swahn, Alexis Benson and highly rated jazz musicians Moussa Fadera and Jonas Kullhammar, There are doubtless stories to be told. Including the one about playing a show for the Swedish Royal Family and Pink Floyd, where in the crowd Roger Waters appreciatively caught a bouquet thrown from the band during a standing ovation, but this mysterious band hold one principle dear to their hearts: “The music speaks for itself”.