Dungen

Boasting a blend of '60s-styled psychedelic rock, free jazz, Swedish folk, and instrumental ambience, the Scandinavian collective Dungen is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Gustav Ejstes. Raised in the small village of Lanna in Vastergotland, Sweden, Ejstes was weaned on regional folk music and '60s rock at a young age by his violin-playing father. He discovered the world of hip-hop as a teenager and quickly embraced the genre, later deeming it his "punk phase." An obsession with the science of sampling followed, and through his own experiments with the genre he was exposed to a wealth of '60s and '70s Swedish underground music. The organic nature of the recordings stirred something in Ejstes, who wanted to prove his capability in playing all of the instruments he'd previously been sampling. He subsequently moved to his mother's farm in the woods of nearby Smaland and began honing his craft in a studio in his grandmother's basement.

Ejstes made his debut with Dungen, an ambitious album that was released on his friend Stefan Kéry's label, Subliminal Sounds, in 2001. The record received enough attention from the underground community to attract the Dolores/Virgin label, and Ejstes found himself back in the studio to record a series of three Dungen singles, one of which appeared on the soundtrack for The Jungle Book 2. Dungen's breakthrough international album, Ta Det Lugnt, was then released by Subliminal Sounds in 2004, followed by a second release (this one accompanied by a bonus disc) by the American label Kemado in July 2005. Although Ejstes handled many of the album's instrumental passages himself, he also pieced together a lineup (including guitarist Reine Fiske, bassist Mattias Gustavsson, and drummer Fredrik Björling) to aid him during the recording process. The Dungen collective then hit the road in support of Ta Det Lugnt, whose psychedelic sound had won the band a number of fans in America. The follow-up effort, Tio Bitar, arrived in 2007, focusing on well-crafted songs as well as Dungen's traditional jams, and 4 appeared the following year. Featuring a newfound emphasis on piano, the album also featured percussion from a new drummer, Johan Holmegard. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide