It was with great pleasure that I read Eden Hemming Rose?s Tape review in the last Foxy Digitalis update. Not only because I happen to be a an avid supporter of Tape?s organically evolving improvisations, seemingly constructed with the sole purpose of being the perfect companion for your winter dreams and fall reveries, but also because the review so accurately grasped what the Swedish landscape is all about. Just like Tape, the label companions in Sagor & Swing have always been true masters at illustrating dense mystical forests, narrow parkways that not long ago were nothing but muddy tracks and the feel of finding yourself in a remote cabin the day after a particularly wet midsummer feast. The aural results have always been mind-cleansing and soothing, sound images filled with such a stark beauty that they?re impossible to escape. But at the same time this Swedish duo?s music has also been laced with a healthy dose of nostalgia, glimpses of folk songs of the past draped in a tapestry of more contemporary instrumentation. That being said I could never see Sagor & Swing?s music be created anywhere else but in Sweden. So if you ever have felt an urge to visit the cold north but until now didn?t have the time and money needed, this sort of music is a better introduction and preview than any extensive guidebook ever could provide.

Although Sagor & Swing?s characteristic organ sounds and drum patterns still are here, Orgelplaneten is in fact very much a side step from their previous efforts. The sense of timeless melancholy is still present and so is the overwhelming power of walking through a majestic pine forest at dawn, but this one actually points just as much in the direction of the outer galaxies and peripheral pop music as it nods towards the soil. This somewhat spacey feel has a lot to do with the ample use of Moog but probably also with the higher tempo, the more frequent (relatively speaking) loud sections and the great sense for dynamics.

The influence of Bo Hansson is still very much evident (which hardly is surprising given that Eric Malmberg even was given an organ from this legendary organ player at one point) but with what seems to be the band?s final release, they?ve finally earned their own place in the all-instrumental prog-rock/art rock/pop/forest minimalism/electronica pantheon, and certainly will be sorely missed. 7/10 -- Mats Gustafsson (25 May, 2005)