Caramba
When I was 11 years old I spent a Christmas away from my folks. I flew to Norway and stayed with my aunt, uncle and numerous cousins in a blissfully quaint house in the sub-rural enclaves outside Oslo. The family had just bought an album by a zany Swedish group called Caramba. On the surface it’s a ludicrous ensemble of music. All of the lyrics are nonsense words, crafted to have phonetic resonance to certain regions of the world. But for an 11 year it was pure Christmas bliss – an age when being with family, fed, warm, clothed, surrounded by the magic of lights and Scandinavian wonder, created an emotional euphoria I’ve rarely experienced since. So finding this music recently, via YouTube has been a real treat. If you don’t know this album you’ll probably cringe and look at your computer with a WTF expression stretching the features of your face. It’s not something I can claim is fantastic. But I love it from a nostalgic point of view.
They’re actually a bit of an enigma. With a host of musicians of the era reputedly involved, only one album was ever released. Produced by ABBA’s engineer Michael B. Tretow, the only vocalist with a named credit is Ted Gärdestad.
The original track listing is:
- Ali Baba
- Spottnjik
- Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot
- Eine Feine
- Fido
- Aitho
- Anna Kapoe
- Donna Maya
- Ahllo
- Carhumba
I’ve found most of them on YouTube. Embedded below.
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Apologies for the video on this one. Somebody’s done screen capture of a game or something. It’s the soundtrack that counts.
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