
Trad, Gras Och Stenar
Live At Club 19 Pori, Finland 20th April 2005
Few bands carry the weight of history with such light-footed grace as Träd, Gräs och Stenar. More than just a group, they are a living conduit for the currents of collective expression, resistance, and transcendence that have defined Sweden's underground music landscape since the late 1960s. Their sound-raw, organic, and untamed-has pulsed through decades, defying the strictures of genre and time, thriving in the liminal space between rock's primal drive and the fluidity of communal improvisation. This live recording from Club 19 in Pori, Finland, captures the band in full flight in 2005, decades after their first sonic explorations with Pärson Sound, International Harvester, and the earliest incarnations of TGS. The lineup on this night - Bo Anders Persson (guitar & vocal), Mera Gartz (drums & vocal), Torbjörn Abelli (bass), and Jakob Sjöholm (guitar) - represents the last iteration of the classic group before Abelli's passing in 2010, making this document all the more poignant. The performance itself is a masterclass in controlled chaos, with molten guitar lines, hypnotic yet groovy bass figures, and percussive mantras that stretch like a breathing organism. Träd, Gräs och Stenar's music has always been deeply ritualistic, built not only on the architectures of conventional song structures, but on the trust and intuition of musicians locked in an unspoken dialogue. Here, that dialogue unfolds in expansive jams that nod to both traditional rock motifs and cosmic freeform explorations. Pori has long held a special place in the world of leftfield music, with its history as a stronghold for Finnish jazz, "erikoismusiikki" and experimental rock, and this night at Club 19 was no exception. The audience, no doubt attuned to the deeper resonances of trance-inducing repetition and distortion-washed musique, became part of the experience-a key participant in the feedback loop between musician and listener. Originally recorded by Aki Peltonen in 2005 and given a careful restoration by his son Tyko Tuulivaara, this release benefits from the sonic expertise of Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle), ensuring that every note, drone, and ecstatic climax is rendered to its vividest detail. The visual aspects of the record-assembled by Musta kirahvi using the original 2005 concert poster he made-further cements the feeling of temporal flux. Listening to Live at Club 19 is more than just experiencing a TGS concert through a physical medium; it is a reminder of music's ability to exist beyond the constraints, beyond expectation, or ego. It is the sound of four musicians surrendering to the moment, channeling something way older and way wilder than themselves personally, leaving behind a trail of sonic stardust that still burns slowly in contemporary rock-based music nearly two decades later. Limited to 500 copies.