Fair Play is the instrumental musical project of Swedes Mats Sannetorp (guitarist/ keyboardist; been in several bands over the years, with a preference towards Hard Rock and Blues – other band: Sannetorp Bluesband) and Leif Carlsson (studio technician/ producer, also plays guitar & keyboards; been in several bands, the last being Magic, active in the '90s), both from Brunflo, a small town situated some 15 SW from Östersund (Jamtlands Ian, Middle of Sweden).
Both had been working for a couple of years at Östersund's Medborgarskolan, Mats as responsible for musical activities, and Leif was engaged to improve the school's recording studio in November 2010. Both had some old ideas for music which had never been recorded, and in May of 2011 the duo started recording. While in the middle of their recordings, Leif's son Andreas came to the studio with a request to make a Rock song for a short-movie entitled Amazoner Och Foppatofflor, in which he wanted a mouth harmonica. After a short search, they not only found one Stefan Swen to perform that task on the track ”On The Road Again”...but also got acquainted with bass player Martin Wassenius, whom would end up playing his instrument on 3 of the album's tracks (including the aforementioned – on which Andreas also guested as extra guitarist). Later, the duo hired the services of Per Norbin and Per Fröling, to play the bass on one track each. Until now, the guys had filled in the drum parts electronically, but they felt a live drummer would really give the music a warmer and fuller sound, so they contacted Erik Edlund, whom was happy enough to help out on most of the album...as one track was left aside for Niclas Rängefors.
Stylistically talking, the music is somewhat diverse. From twin guitar and keyboard-driven Hard Rockers to semi-acoustic sensitive tracks, over a truly Bluesy track (that mouth harmonica, you know). Beware of the description at the band's facebook page, for it says “some old...” (check...they were mostly old ideas!), “...some new...” (well, that goes for “On The Road Again”, but for “some”, you need more than one, eh?), one borrowed (in the form of the traditional “Jamtlandssängen”), and concludes with “...but no blues...”...and that's obviously where a mistake was made. Otherwize...gréat instrumental Rock with Bluesy and Jazzy elements with varied intensities. The kind of which I'll be happy to hear more...and probably will too, as the duo have already started recording more material. Samples of the album's songs can be heard at the album's page on (www.) cdbaby.com...perhaps there's even full-length material at the band's facebook page (www.) facebook.com/fairplay.se?