Swedish fusion masters EGBA in 9 albums

The kind of eurofusion I always talk about, and yearn for, with the mix of classical and very emotional pieces and the warmth and energy of electric fusion although to be honest they never quite get up to the maximum stress test heart rate of others such as Scope or German Katamaran.  Obviously, they were distinctive in their latin influence which I personally detest (mostly due to its sad tendency to descend into musical simplicity) but thankfully it doesn't permeate the whole albums.

Although I thought maybe the name of the artist denotes the E minor chord it actually is an acronym for Electronic Groove and Beat Academy.  What's most tragic about these guys is the fact none of their albums, even the first two masterpieces, were ever released to CD, and they collectively must have put a ton of work into these well crafted compositions, from 1974 all the way up to the 1989 full-named-ST release, a fifteen year tour of duty!  And not even an honorable discharge.

As an example of the highly emotional fusion of which they were capable, which was rare on the North American side of things, Bland Tomtar etc., from Jungle Jam:





It's too bad that spacey solo synth is no longer heard today, it just seems so designed to tug at the heart strings, doesn't it?

The title track of Bryter Upp always surprised me with its ingenious modal jazz hints of Gil Evans + Miles Davis, done in a more abstract and advanced style:





Note that a terrible mono rip of Omen is still circulating online, which is the one I used here down below. I'm going to buy it and rerip it (not at all an expensive investment this time, my wife will be happy about that, not that she will ever find out of course), since it really deserves better.  The track about the Tour de France always really thrilled me, even with left and right channels playing identical sounds thus making it an entirely one-dimensional ride on le vélo:





Finally, notice how attractive the first few covers were compared to the later 80s ones, perfectly coordinated with the musical quality as time passed.