Swedish psychedelic proggers Dungen are back with their first full-band studio album since 2015. En Är För Mycket Och Tusen Aldrig Nog was recorded over a five-year period and finds them embracing a plethora of musical genres, but as bandleader Gustav Ejstes and guitarist Reine Fiske reveal, its creation owes more than just a tip of the hat to radical 60s counterculture.

Words: Jeremy Allen

Dungen, L-R: Mattias Gustavsson, Reine Fiske, Gustav Ejstes and Johan Holmegard.

Portrait: Tomi Palsa

It’s been three decades since Gustav Ejstes emerged from the psychedelic Stockholm underground under the nom-de-guerre Dungen. His 2001 eponymous debut was an elaborate mission statement, full of epic tracks where genres intermingle and sonics dovetail within the same song. Dungen quickly grew into a band and then, in 2004, third album Ta Det Lugnt went global, receiving acclaim from respected music publications on both sides of the Atlantic and even as far away as Australia.

Something about the group’s eclectic mix of garage-psych-jazz, off-kilter pastoral folk and infectious Swedish pop resonated with Anglo-Saxons at a time when non-English language music was being held at arm’s length by the vast majority. From thereon in, the group became more than just an outlet for the considerable talents of Ejstes as vocalist, flautist, organist, pianist, percussionist, producer and engineer. Naturally, he plays guitar as well, but not like Dungen’s Reine Fiske, whose scything, lysergic lead lines are almost as immediately identifiable as Carlos Santana’s, even when flipped backwards on some two-inch tape.