What the critics had to say:
 
  Garageland Records, the Swedish label that is very rapidly becoming one of Europe's prime distributors of untamed psychedelic vibes, completely surpassed its original "garage" standards with the release of this weird flight into unknown dimensions. The Spacious Mind are four young musicians who like to experiment with musical forms and symbolism. This debut cd contains four very long, very spaced-out jams, a bit in the old Amon Duul-mode. The build-up of each track is slow, but the progress each instrument or effect makes during its long journey is a fascinating process you don't want to miss. "To Earth With Love", "Sunchild", "Dnimehts Of Us" and "Seashore Trees" (the latter being subdivided into four parts) are the titles of the four phases of one (70 minutes long) continous flight to the outer regions of your unconscious mind. The mood of this head-trip varies from peaceful, folky bits with nature sounds and children's voices to wild, mind-warping synth/guitar outbursts and real "out-there" cosmic voids full of unstructured keys and effects.

  This is definitely one of the most "complete" psychedelic albums I've heard in a long time, a real stoned-out-of-your-mind voyage thru time and space. The four people responsible four all these glowing braincells are Jens Unosson (synthesizers, electronics, atmospheres), Henrik Oja and Thomas Brännström (both on guitar, vocals, whistles, glockenspiel etcetera) and David johansson (percussion). They were helped by a fair score of guestmusicians during the recording of it all.

  Very much recommended to anybody who likes "real" psychedelic music and a nice one to drop de ole tab to; there's a gentle come down, trust me.
(review of Cosmic Minds At Play, Marc Mushroom, Crohinga Well # 8)

  Mindblowing and breathtaking heavy guitar psych that is amongst the very best I can remember hearing in recent decades! Masterful fluid guitar and cerebral embracing sonic backing that ebbs and cascades. Comprised of four very long pieces, all but one instrumental. Everything that Pink Floyd wishes they could've been, a heavy "Meddle"!!!!! Absolutely brilliant and totally recommended!!!!!!
(on Cosmic Minds At Play; The Wild Places mailorder catalogue)

  The Spacious Mind is the latest band to emerge from the burgeoning progressive scene in Sweden. Abandoning the more symphonic influences of countrymen Änglagård, Manticore and Landberk, The Spacious Mind play a very spacy and atmospheric style of psychedelic prog. Using e-bowed and fuzz guitar,  synths, and a variety of percussion, they evoke the sound of bands like early Pink Floyd, Ash Ra Tempel, PLJ Band, and Agitation Free over the four long tracks which compromise this 70 minute cd. The mood is relatively mellow and laidback througout, though there are some very intense moments and powerful jams here as well.

  Most listeners will be blown away by the first track - the sonicatmosphere created here is quite stunning, and is made all the more effective by some excellent use of reverb and spatial imaging. The entire mix has a vast spacious quality to it; rather appropriate given the name of the band and the album. The music alternates between more intense sections, featuring haunting e-bow leads over echoed fuzz guitar and low synth pads, and calm, reflective sections with sparser instrumentation and a more atmospheric sound. Often there are voices and other effects mixed low in the background, and at least one section includes backwards-recorded speech and guitar. For a majority of the album, the four members do a decent job of avoiding the repetitive drum patterns and aimles noodling that too much psychedelic prog suffers from, but in some places, especially in the second and third song, they try to stretch a few minutes worth of material into too long a piece. The second track features a Gilmour-ish echoed lead and a sound quite reminescent of some of the instrumental section from Floyd's last two albums, but the mellow middlesection goes absolutely nowhere and drags on for seven long minutes. The spacy e-bow noodling would probably work well if it had some direction and dynamics; the lack of these two elements at certain points during the album is my main criticism.

  The third track, the only one with vocals, will instantly remind you of "Fearless" or "A Pillow Of Winds" from Floyd's "Meddle" album, but again, what could have been a nice short acoustic piece is stretched into a ten minute track that may begin to outwear its welcome for some listeners. Fortunately, the better two tracks are the first and last, both over 20 minutes in time, and featuring some very powerful and engaging music. The most intense moment on the cd, the opening few minutes of the fourth track, reminds me of a live free-form Ozrics jam, albeit with a less metronomic drummer. This album will surely turn more than a few heads, and is one of the better new releases so far in 1994. (review of Cosmic Minds At Play, Rob Walker, Exposé # 3)

When we first played this, little were we prepared for the sonic mind blast, that issued forth frthe speakers. Endless stretched guitarsolos, washes of synth, drugged lyrics, combining into a swirling Scandinavian headfuck that's even better than their debut album.
(on Organic Mind Solution; The Freak Emporium mailorder list)

When I first listened to "Cosmic Minds At Play", the 1993 debut cd by The Spacious Mind, I instantly realized that this northern Swedish psychedelic outfit was something special, a band that took their musical scope far beyond the borders of standard progressive/alternative rock. The long spaced-out jamming format is kept alive on this 74 minutes long cd, but the formula is more refined this time, giving more profile to the subtle mind-levitating nuances. The cd starts with "Introduction/River Of Two Returns", a short semi-acoustic piece with that typical Scandinavian "open air" feeling, reminescent of International Harvester. This is only the lift-off for "Interplanetarian Lovemachine pt.II", an over 25 minutes long guitars and keyboards extravaganza with rags of drugged-out vocals in the best Amon Duul II/Hapsash And The Coloured Coat tradition. Next comes "Time Re-Circle", a Syd Barrett-like soundscape of acoustic guitar, out-there vocals and mysteriously humming keyboards. And there's yet more to come: "The Cavesong-Adanech" is about seven minutes of cosmic, splashed-out, very stoned psychedelic rock. "Victorian Gardens" is a short mind-oasis for all glowing brain-cells; a sort of antique music box plays a delicate folky tune, a fantastic and subtle interlude before the album roars off into space with "The One That Really Won The War": over 14 minutes of Hawkwind/Omnia Opera-like space rock, a track that slowly transgresses into a Pink Floydish "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" instrumental with guitar flashes like exploding supernovas. The last track is a 15 minutes long ambient instrumental journey through the galaxies and and clouds of time and space, featuring layers of melodic keyboards, distorted guitars and echoing vocals.

  Believe me, you need a few moments of silence after the last tones of this cd have died down, giving you time to realize what a fantastic masterpiece you have just heard. "Organic Mind Solution" is a candidate for the top-10 of 1995 and The Spacious Mind is presently on of Europe's ultimate psychedelic bands (extracting its inspiration from a wide musical heritage). The group can be seen live on stage in Belgium (four times) and Holland (once) during Crohinga Well's second Tribal Space-tour in March. (review of Organic Mind Solution, Marc Mushroom, Crohinga Well # 10)

The Spacious Mind are a contemporary Swedish band, who've released two cd's on the Garageland label. This US-only double-lp compiles a couple of the longest, best tracks off the first cd, and adds an lp's worth of new material exclusive to this release. The band is five-piece, and they complement standard  electric rock instrumentation with bells, tin whistle, hurdy-gurdy, glockenspiel etcetera. Plus there's "atmospherics performed by the Sons And Daughters Of The Space Tribe". The sound is a unique, very early 70's-ish range of psychedelic space rock, combining elements found in prime Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh etcetera. Electric and acoustic guitar mixtures, soaring keyboards of prime cosmic persuasion and enough exotic percussion to shut you eyes for good.
(on Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies; Forced Exposure mailorder list)

  Everybody talks about the new psychedelia, but too much 90's trip music comes from a stale head space: flimsy ambient variations of Pink Floyd's "Meddle"; raindrop synth squiggles copped from old Tangerine Dream lp's; the same tired rain-forest bird songs. The Spacious Mind have a better idea. In the five extended pieces splayed across the four sides of "Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies" (Gates Of Dwan, double-lp), this fine interstellar jam band from Sweden fires up the liquid distortion of its twin guitars over arctic keyboards and distant-thunder percussion. There are echoes of early Floyd, The Grateful Dead ("Dark Star" under a midnight sun) and the mad science of Germany's Amon Duul II in the Mind's wide-open grooves, but there's real meat and motion as well.
(review of Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies, David Fricke, Rolling Stone # 720)

   Way back in 1993 we knew that Swedish psychedelic music was on the rise, but there was nothing that could prepare us for "Cosmic Minds At Play", the first cd by The Spacious Mind. The combination of psychedelic, progressive, cosmic, folk, blues and various ethnic musical elements, formed such an impressive total sound that it swept away most contemporary bands in the psychedelic discipline. "Organic Mind Solution" (also on Garageland Records) was their next cd and it showed even more clearly how spontaneous and unique the musical formula of these northern Swedish youngsters is. We organised a Tribal Space tour for them in March 1995, saw them play and were even more amazed (you bet./L) Michael Piper (of The Wild Places mailorder fame) liked the band so much that he offered them a contract for a vinyl album and the result is a double-lp. Disc one contains two tracks from "Cosmic Minds At Play" ("To Earth With Love" and "Seashore Trees", both over 23 minutes long). The other platter offers three long tracks exclusive to this release. "Alice Of Strange" (eleven minutes) and "Your Mind And Mine" (fourteen minutes) are examples of a more folky side of their music. These compositions show a lighter, less dense musical "texture" with a morning dew-fresh nature vibe running through it. "Space Blues - Diary Of The Sun" (17 minutes) is the most tripped-out psychedelic piece we've ever recorded", says keyboard player Jens Unosson. It's a complete brainmelter indeed, which will launch your mind on a genuine deep space journey, the type of entertainment "cosmic travel agencies" like Ash Ra Tempel, Cosmic Jokers or Tangerine Dream used to provide in the early 70's. "Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies" is pressed on thick vinyl and housed in a solid cardboard gatefold sleeve with glossy psychedelic artwork; a real "old-fashioned" release. One of the ten best vinyl albums of the past few years by one of this planet's ultimate psychedelic bands ( go see 'em live if you can, they're the best./L). Essential and mega-recommended.
(review of Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies, Marc Mushroom, Crohinga Well # 11)

  ...Jens is right when he says the music on "Sailing The Seagoat" reveals a new side of the band; throughout the lyrics an air of sadness and desperation is evident which wells up into almost painful self-consciousness on the eerie "Time Is Like A Promise" and "Waiting For You In The Woods Of Dawn", the latter of which is an acoustic number featuring some dream-fuelled backing vocals from Linda Åkerlund. The folk-rock influence seeps through on the opening couplet "Valley Holy To Me" and "Next To The Water Hard To Believe", albeit with that haunting, howling guitarsound which has already become something of a TSM trademark much in evidence behind the flutes and understated percussion, and "Seagoat" closes with the previous unheard titletrack of their earlier album, the gorgeous "Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies", with its modal slide guitar passages and catchy vocal refrain.

  Although by their own admission a mere punctuation mark in The Spacious Mind ouvre, "Sailing The Seagoat" throws an interesting light on the continuing development of the band's music. Poised on the brink of folk-rock, space-rock, psychedelic-rock and in that respect alone, a genuinely progressive sounding outfit, The Spacious Mind could go almost anywhere from here. The one thing that's for certain is that I won't be far behind them, trying as ever to make up for the fact that I was so slow off the mark to begin with.
(article on The Spacious Mind, Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope # 20)

Had The Spacious Mind been a bigger name in Sweden, they'd probably have been known for being one of the country's most outrageous liveacts. Not only due to the explosive feeling in their music, but also because of the stuff the band's using on stage, to turn the event into a happening - which it most often becomes...
  Not to be forgotten, however, is the fact that there's a more controlled side of this band. This is evident during their acoustic gigs, when they let the dresses hang safely in the wardrobe, when the songs are resting on more solid ground and last less than 45 minutes. This record is like that. Acoustic, that is. In the interview published in Popöga # 145, the group said that there were three different bands under the monicker of TSM: live, on record, and acoustic. "Acoustically we sound like Bob Dylan on Jupiter", they said. The five pieces on "Sailing The Seagoat" have a strong basic build-up, that is made all the stronger with help of beautiful vocal- and flutelines and hurdy-gurdy. This is music to relax to, preferably with closed eyes in a dark room, and of course played on very high volume. Though it may sound ridiculous, the feeling is one of blue-skies-running- water-green-grass-and- freedom, you know. Hard to define, in other words. That the Umeå/Skellefteå-based-quintet are big fans of, and also influenced by, psychedelic band The Grateful Dead, is something that's not only obvious in the music, because in the booklet you may read that the record is "for Jerry and the Dead". The Spacious Mind also has a fan-club, SpaceHead, which I guess refer to the DeadHeads. The music of these North-Swedish patriotes has its roots in a distant time, when the hair was long and the beards uncut. That's probably why they haven't reached bigger audiences in their native country. A shame. (review of Sailing the Seagoat, Katarina Sjöström, Popöga # 151. Translated by Wilmot Clawson)

  Their third cd, but not the final piece of the "Love to Earth from Space People" trilogy (for full story: see interview elesewhere in this issue). "Sailing The Seagoat" is material The Spacious Mind recorded not long after their return to Sweden following the Tribal Space tour Crohinga Well arranged for them in Belgium and the Netherlands. Due to the size of the some of the venues, the band had to play semi-acoustic sets (tablas, acoustic guitars, small keyboards, e-bow) on a few occasions. This turned out to be such a satisfying experience that a whole album was recorded with this instrumental line-up. Jens Unosson gave the following concise history of it: "When we got home from Belgium we immediately recorded the acoustic stuff for a cassette release, but we couldn't afford to release it, so we asked Garageland to do a cd of it, and this is what happened. However, "Sailing The Seagoat" is not the last part of the concept. This concept of a Utopian Dream will be concluded on "The Mind Of A Brother", when we get to record it, whereas "Seagoat" deals with a matter of a more personal nature." The result is five tracks (ranging in length from eight to twelve minutes) of brilliant folk-edged psychedelic rock. "Valley Holy To Me" sets the tone and brings a surreal folky fairytale with floating keyboards, flute play, acoustic guitars and...vocals! Yes, a lot more singing goes on on this cd than on all the previous ones. "Next To The Water Hard To Believe" is a long, stoned singer/songwriter folksong with a drifting instrumental midsection. "Time Is Like A Promise" offers a wealth of intervowen keys and guitars, light and delightful, like a "Pink Floyd meet Dr.Strangely Strange" psych/folk-experience. "Waiting For You In The Woods Of Dawn" is another slab of psychedelic folkrock of the highest echelon, a dreamy fairytale in the best Sun Dial/Flyte Reaction tradition. "Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies" drifts away on tablas, electronics and singer/songwriter vocals. "Sailing The Seagoat" differs from previous releases, but this cd is at least as stunning, charming and friendly psychedelic as their other recordings. One of the very best European psychalbums around for the moment - megarecommended.
(review of Sailing The Seagoat, Marc Mushroom, Crohinga Well # 12)

Two album's worth of headtwisting mayhem from Sweden's finest, a band who some of you might be familiar with from last year's "Let Your Freak Flag Fly" compilation. I always felt they were just a little mis-represented on there, the collection being sub-divided "Swedish psychedelic pop and progressive sounds" - and The Spacious Mind are neither. Or perhaps they are both, and yet manage to somehow transcend both categories. Certainly they share none of the pompousness which so often renders progressive music into so much neo-classical clap-trap, and at the same time the songs are so stretched and genuinely spacious as to turn the phrase "pop" into a laughably inappropriate misnomer. The band's offering on "Freak flag" was a ten-minute long splodge of shimmering oil-on-water entitled "Interplanetarian Lovemachine Part One", and I was pleased to see that on "Organic Mind Solution" they quickly got down to Part 2, which runs in at twenty-five minutes and consists of layers of sliding guitars, swirling keyboards and stoned rambling vocals which at times sound distinctly germanic and at others vaguely middle-Eastern; shades of Amon Duul II with just a touch of Kaleidoscope thrown in for good measure, and truly wonderful to behold. On this album the band are occasionally playful, as per the acoustic ramble "Time Re-Circle" and "Victorian Gardens", and are sometimes too cosmic for their own good (as on "The Cavesong - Adanech" and the closing "Leaving For Kacrakash"), and although it's good overall, I find it to be somewhat short of being a masterpiece. A little more care and attention in the sleeve lettering/artwork department would also do the band some favours. However, all that goes completely out of the window when faced with The Spacious Mind double lp set put together by Michael Piper at the Gates Of dawn (a new subsidiary label of his Wild Places organisation). From the satisfyingly lavish sleeve and vinyl quality, through the superb production and all the way up to the varied music contained therein this is a faintly incredible album, one which for me is potentially amongst the very highest echelon of psychedelic releases by mainland European bands in the past decade. Having said that, I think a convincing argument could be made for saying that the strongest material on here is the lengthy "Seashore Trees" suite, a sprawling, uncontrived and yet complex morass of psychedelic sounds, and "To Earth With Love", which takes up the whole of the first side. Unfortunately all of this material was released on The Spacious Mind's debut-album "Cosmic Minds At Play" back in 1993, so "Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies" has to fall back on the second record of the set in its quest for immortality. And here we are faced with a problem. The one weak track of the entire set is unquestionably "Your Mind And Mine" which concludes the third side, although in fairness even that delivers what it promises: it starts out going nowhere, and promptly goes there. The same applies to a lesser extent to "Space Blues - Diary Of The Sun" which takes up the fourth side. Here again the band (with the assistance of The Gracious Pond, an in-band duo duo which recorded a cassette's worth of acceptable cosmic electronic bleeps in the germanic tradition a year or so ago) take one idea and stretch it out to almost unimaginable proportions, in this instance a splash of backwards drums that underline a simple, melancholic guitarcoda; the difference being that this time everything builds to an explosive finale, and that it loses its way beautifully somewhere halfthrough. The superb "Alice Of Strange" on the third side likewise falls over and picks itself up again in a most fascinating manner, the way the sound hovers before diving onto the short vocal refrain being one of the genuine highlights of the set. Great stuff, anyway. Interesting photo of someone watching four blokes taking a piss in a hedge on the inner sleeve too.
(review of Organic Mind Solution and Sleepy Eyes And Butterflies, Phil McMullen, Ptolemaic Terrascope # 19)