Dedicated to the Bird We Love

Upon its release in 1970, this debut LP from Norwegian psychedelic-folk trio Oriental Sunshine was called by a reviewer in a newspaper ‘the best Norwegian-produced record I have ever heard.’ Its reissue emphasises not just how far Scandinavian music has come, but how significantly the dialogue between different musical cultures has deepened.

A teenaged Rune Walle was in possession of possibly the only sitar in Norway when he began to duet with singer and guitarist Nina Johansen. A chance encounter in Bergen with Indian student and bansuri (flute) player Satnam Singh completed Oriental Sunshine. The group's first and only album not only conforms to the flower-power 60s stereotypes, but pushes them beyond parody. The chorus in ‘Let it Be My Birth’ pleads, ‘Send me back to Mother Earth/Let it be my golden birth.’ Singh's flute flurries and Walle's sitar work place the album's musical fusion a level above its lyrics, but the record is ultimately an artefact from a time of naïve whimsy. Its vinyl reissue makes for an intriguing odyssey.