WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . HARRY GARTH JONES: Or perhaps the master of Scandinavian exotica?

Actually we can make this column about strange and unusual characters in music pretty brief.

There is no Harry Garth Jones.

But thank you for reading.

Oh, there is however Mattias Uneback who is the man behind the album Harry Garth Jones Presents Music For Love.

The album sits at the vague border of MOR, exotica and Latin jazz.

It's cocktail music in a parallel lifetime for that Tiki bar where every drink comes shaken and poured into a glass before being topped by a paper umbrella.

It's cool, smooth semi-jazz with the occasional vocal part which suggests spaced-out bachelor pad muzak from the days when people dreamed of having their own jetpack.

It's fun . . . but comes from a surprising source, a former percussionist in the Royal Swedish Army Drum Corp . . . Mattias Uneback.

After his short stint in the military he got a degree at the Music University of Gothenburg and was proficient on vibes (perfect for exotica), guitar, percussion and double bass.

Given all that it's easy to see why he is an in-demand session musician for Swedish television and radio productions as well as for sitting in with jazz groups.

In fact he leads his own exotica band Ìxtahuele – as Mattias, not Harry Garth – and sings with the Malihini Serenaders.

In 2024 Ìxtahuele released their Pathways to Paradise album of original exotica instrumentals with evocative titles like Zebra Limbo, The Mistress and the Foreigner, Jungle Chase, The Hookah Parlour and Komodo.

It's fine collection although Uneback let himself down with the cover.

And also that of the more recent single House of the Gods.

Albums before that – Voyage Beneath the Sea, Dharmaland, Call of the Islands and Pagan Rites all had more traditional exotica covers.

Uneback clearly enjoys himself because he has also released a couple of flexidiscs, although we here don't think that format is going to come back any time soon.

Because exotica collectors can be finicky, most will sniff at these albums as not being “authentic” in the way that Martin Denny, Korla Pandit (we've told his great story), Les Baxter, Esquivel, Geoff Love and Raymond Scott were.

But give it time because in a decade or so Uneback's Ìxtahuele ensemble will be considered “old” and therefore collector's items.

Especially because they are on limited edition vinyl, which means they're already rare.

Maybe it's time to snap them up and vinyl-bank for the future?

Meantime though you can just settle down with a fruit-flavoured cocktail and enjoy the awful cover of Harry Garth Jones presenting the strings, horns, harp and synth sound of Music for Love.

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Albums by Ìxtahuele and Mattias Uneback are available at bandcamp here

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For other articles in the series of strange, sad or interesting characters in music, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . go here.