Guided By The Light

Swedish proggers Gaupa have gone from five members to four, but it isn't holding them back. With new mini-album Fyr the group have started afresh - and as guitarist David Rosberg and bassist Erik Sävström tell Prog, change isn't always a bad thing.

- Chris cope

There’s something unusual in the water over in Scandinavia; it continues to excel as a hotbed of musical creativity. Sweden’s Gaupa have already staked their claim in recent years as one of the area’s hottest freethinking exports, and their current release is likely to cement their place in the progosphere further. It’s only a mini-album, but Fyr packs a powerful punch, and it’s perhaps all the more impressive given it comes after the quartet had to press the restart button when guitarist Daniel Nygren called it quits last year.

Prog is speaking to sole guitarist David Rosberg and bassist Erik Sävström on a video call ahead of Fyr’s release, but amid the celebration it soon appears that the recording process behind it - which was more fragmented than usual - wasn’t all joy and sunshine.

Sävström, who admits he is more of a stage man than a studio dweller, says it was a “trauma”, while Rosberg describes the process as “tough”.

“The previous recordings we’ve done,” says Sävström, “we’ve always done everything in one studio. But that dude who recorded us then, he stopped doing it. He recorded us and mixed everything and was co-producing everything, so he was a close friend. It was a loss not to be able to record at his place.”

“It was a very different approach this time,” adds Rosberg. “It was a bit hectic to get everything done as well, so everything was quite last minute. But I think we got some nice songs in the end, so I’m happy with it. The process was a bit too rushed for me, but I’m happy with the result.”

That end result is four songs - Lion’s Thorn, Heavy Lord, Ten Of Twelve and Elastic Sleep - which span 24 minutes and grab Gaupa’s atmospheric, freethinking and stoner-speckled rock by the neck and inject fresh chutzpah - a gift for die-hards and newbies alike. (The digital release also contains a bonus live version of Sömnen/Febersvan.)