Klyfta

The band's logo

Ralph Stig Dalin (1972-1974)

Anders Strand (1972-1974)

Ralph Jackson (1979-1985)

**Klyfta** was a cosmic music jazz-rock band from Sweden, founded by Casper Sundberg, who was the only consistent member throughout the band's existence.

## History

Klyfta was first formed sometime before 1971, as in December of that year they were scouted by a British jazz label called Cerebellum Records while playing at a festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band signed a three-record deal, and the following year, their first album, "A," was released to poor sales in Europe. Despite this, it had minor success in the US and mostly positive critical reviews.

Klyfta's next album, "B", was released in 1974 and despite positive reviews, it was a commercial failure. Cerebellum Records were financially troubled and released Klyfta from their contract before filing for bankruptcy.

After B's commercial failure, Klyfta sought any means to make money, including one instance where they produced music for an arcade cabinet called Rotor, the first machine of its kind with a "magnetic tape music playback system". The Rotor cabinet remained a prototype, however, and its music was not publicly released.

With this, Klyfta disbanded, with Sundberg moving to California in 1975 and finding work in a recording studio. Over the next four years, he recorded what would be the third Klyfta album (although Sundberg himself was the only member at this point), "C". As the album was self-released, it only garnered attention from local media outlets, all of which reviewed the album negatively.

The negative reception caused Sundberg to spiral into depression and there would be zero musical output from Klyfta for the next 5 years. He was eventually encouraged by a friend to sign a deal with the QPL company which produced interstitial music for TV shows. However, after the first day of recording, Sundberg left the project, citing creative differences with the QPL engineers. QPL used what scraps Sundberg had recorded, overdubbed them with session musicians and in 1985 Klyfta's final album, "KLYFTA", was recorded. QPL's conduct humiliated Casper Sundberg, who then left the music industry to focus on his vehicle airbrushing business. Royalties from the song "Sport Anthem" allowed Sundberg to avoid financial ruin after it was adopted as the official anthem of the National Trennis Association in 1988.

However, in an interview with Bill from Aldrin's House of Sound, Casper expressed a renewed interest in digital synthesis after rediscovering the previously lost Rotor Tapes at his parent's home in Sweden. At the end of the interview, he made the album publicly available for free.

## Discography

### Albums

* A (1972, Cerebellum Records)
	+ Side A
		1. Be Alive (6:12)
		2. Father Ocean (8:55)
		3. Sage of Lifetimes (5:45)
	+ Side B
		1. Human Constellations (4:41)
		2. Hello Little Hare (2:52)
		3. Heaven (4:59)
		4. Cosmos Eternal (10:32)

* B (1974, Cerebellum Records)
	+ Side A
		1. Ruins Calling (9:30)
		2. Forever Forest (11:12
	+ Side B
		1. Deep Cavern of Peril (10:56)
		2. Voice of the Earthcore (12:18)

* C (1979, Sundberg Productions)
	+ Side A
		1. Chain (5:26)
		2. Night Cry pt. 1 (3:33)
		3. Dark Eye (6:44)
		4. Dream Chant (6:01)
	+ Side B
		1. Night Cry pt. 2 (21:04)

* KLYFTA (1985, QPL)
	+ Side A
		1. Back to Life (3:52)
		2. New World (4:01)
		3. Breath of Nature (3:26)
		4. Sport Anthem (4:17)
		5. Glamour (5:08)
	+ Side B
		1. Doing Business (4:44)
		2. Industry Motion (3:41)
		3. Natural Globe (3:45)
		4. Action Feeling (5:53)
		5. News Flash (3:15)

* The Rotor Tapes (1999)
	1. The Rotor Tapes - (T1A)
	2. The Rotor Tapes - (T1B)
	3. The Rotor Tapes - (T2A)
	4. The Rotor Tapes - (T2B)

1. ↑ ROTOR from 1974, music released publicly on Hypnospace in 1999
2. ↑ Named "Pillars of Creation" on Cosmic Pilgrimage
3. ↑ Named "Journey In Saturn And A Star" on Cosmic Pilgrimage
4. ↑ Named "Goodbye Planet Earth" on Cosmic Pilgrimage

## Lineup

### 1972-1974

* Capser Sundberg - Guitar
* Anders Strand - Bass
* Ralph Stig Dalin - Keyboards
* Philip Grondahl - Violin, Keyboards
* Tore Allin - Drums, Percussion

### 1979-1985

* Casper Sundberg - Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals
* Ralph Jackson - Co-Producer

## Trivia

* Klyfta means "gap/gorge", "(fruit) clove/segment" and "cleft/cleavage" in Swedish.
* The release of Cosmic Pilgrimage includes an in-universe description written by Hypnospace character Bill Aldrin. Bill mentions bassist Ari Orduño and keyboardist Tomas Rindle filling in for Anders Strand and Ralph Stig Dalin, respectively, for The Rotor Tapes.