Freddie Wadling - The Uni Dexter Melody Hour

Facts Seven years after his death, Freddie Wadling increasingly stands out as a one-of-a-kind figure in Swedish music history. From the early punk days with Liket Lever, The Leather Nun and Cortex, through the eighties with Blue For Two and Fläskkvartetten, to a broad public breakthrough with the solo album ''En skiva till kaffet'' at the turn of the millennium, Wadling was a musical chameleon, always moving on to the next idea.

In the late 1990s, multi-instrumentalist Henrik Cederblom and Wadling met while Wadling was recording an album of John Dowland compositions with The Forge Players. Cederblom, who played classical guitar, performed a number of concerts with the material, together with Wadling, as a duo. That was the start of a long-running collaboration.

The two met regularly in Wadling's garden to play songs they both loved. There was no plan and no finished idea. The setting was unpretentious and full of ideas. Everything was about the love of music and the material they had both grown up with: Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, King Crimson and much more.

Between 2002 and 2006, Wadling and Cederblom recorded a number of these songs in a studio in Gothenburg. Some songs were done just once, a take without preparation, while others - such as ''The Bogus Man'' (Roxy Music), ''Life Of Surprises'' (Prefab Sprout) and an early version of Wadling's own "Fade Away" - appeared more regularly in the duo's live repertoire and so had a more arranged character. What they all share is the feeling that now is now, the music created and happening in the moment.

The recordings were for a while intended for release, but other projects and records came in between. Henrik Cederblom finally mixed an album version as a gift to Wadling for his 60th birthday in 2011, but since then the songs have lain forgotten and unheard.

On May 31, 2024, ''The Uni Dexter Melody Hour'' is finally released, consisting of 12 songs selected from the extensive material, in a new mix by Cederblom. The album is released exclusively on vinyl via Knippla Records, as this was one of Freddie Wadling's wishes, including because no one made vinyl in 2002! However, a digital preview in the form of three songs arrives on April 19.