As precursors to International Harvester, Harvester, and Träd, Gräs & Stenar, Parson Sound are of historical importance to the Swedish underground experimental rock scene. These archival recordings date from 1966 to 1968, and except for part of “Sov Gott Rose-Marie,” which appeared on the International Harvester album of the same name, none of this has previously been released. This double-CD offers up over two hours of mind-bending music that draws on the Velvet Underground, West Coast psychedelic bands, and Terry Riley and 1960′s minimalism, as filtered through a Krautrock-like angst and with some Swedish folk influences thrown in. Most tracks are droning, lumbering raga-rock with moaning group vocals and a prominent electric cello, coming off something like early bootleg Velvet Underground trance jamming, with the band often locking into a single repetitive riff for 15 or 20 minutes. At five cuts per disc, most of the pieces are quite long, and most lack any song structure. No Stones or Yardbirds covers here either, though the first part of “Sov Gott Rose-Marie” does sport a “Wild Thing”/”Louie Louie” type riff, though hyped up and with strange chanting. For diversity there’s the track “On How to Live,” a weird acoustic folk instrumental with bird noises, and “Blastlaten,” with processed horns and flutes similar to Terry Riley in his Poppy Nogood phase. There is also an early solo piece by Parson founder Bo Anders Persson, “A Glimpse Inside the Glyptotec-66,” consisting of drones created by modified tape recorders and voice. Most of the CD was recorded professionally, either by the band or for Swedish radio, so the sound quality is very good for the era, matching that of Träd, Gräs’s Gardet 12.6.1970. – Rolf Semprebon