01	Attic Thoughts (March/Repose/Wandering)						05:33
	02	Time And Space						01:39
	03	Waiting...						07:34
	04	Waltz For Interbeings						03:26
	05	Time For Great Achievements						03:11
	06	The Hybrills						01:24
	07	Rabbit Music (General Woundwort/Fiver)						06:30
	08	Day And Night						04:33
	09	A Happy Prank						03:15

Bo Hansson - Attic Thoughts
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Once again a completely instrumental album. All tracks by Bo Hansson. First released as 'Mellanvasen' in 1973 on Sience SRS4625 in Sweden. then as Attic Thoughts on Sire 7527 in the USA.
Charisma CAS 1113 1975

Bo Hansson: Organs, guitars, bass, syntheziser, mellotrone and special effects
Rune Carlsson: Drums
Kenny Hakansson: Electric guitar
Joran Lagerberg: Bass and acoustic guitar Gunnar Bergsten: Saxophone
Rolf Scherrer: Acoustic guitar
Thomas Netzler: Bass
Mats Glenngard: Violin
Recorded now and then during 1974/75 - sometimes at Bo's home,
but mostly in Studio Decibel, Stockholm, Sweden.

Coverpaintings by Jan Ternald. Coverdesign by Frequent Form. (CD)

Silence Records SRS 4625 - 1975 LP
Silence Records SRSCD 3625 - 1995 CD



Bo Hansson - "Mellanvasen" (1975) Hansson's third album was for me the culmination of all the promises of the two first albums. Hansson took all the elements of his signature sound a step further and melted them into far more complex, involving and longer compositions than on the two first albums, with a much better, tighter and more professional sound. And he did all this without sacrificing a bit of the charm and fairy-tale atmosphere. The synths were now also an integrated part of the sound, and not just some experimental noodling between the tracks. The compositions are all flawless and featured some of the most beautiful themes Hansson ever wrote. For the first time he also wrote suites that were divided into several parts. The first one, "Funderingar pе vinden" is easily one of his strongest tracks ever, featuring wonderful flute-melodies, powerful guitar-work, beautiful piano-fanfares and a finale stuffed with a very typical Hansson-sounding fairy-tale theme. After a short interlude ("Tid och rum") we're taken into the synth-drenched "Vдntan...". This is also one of Hansson's best themes and demonstrated his ability to develop his sound without actually changing it much at all. The title-track experiments with both waltz and jazz-influences! "Dags fцr stordеd" features mighty Mellotron and complex time-changes. "Hybrillerna" is just like the title-track experimenting with weird chords. "Kaninmusik" is a two-part suite that really showed Hansson's maturing as a composer of complex progressive rock instrumentals. "Dag och natt" went on the other hand back to the most basic and simple parts of "Sagan om ringen". The closing number "Lyckat upptеg" is another proof of the growing complexity in Hansson's music, even if it's just three and a half minutes long. "Sagan om ringen" is with no doubt Bo Hansson's best known and most commercial successful album, but I see no reason why "Mellanvдsen" shouldn't be regarded as his best from a musical point of view.




Bo Hansson: Attic Thoughts (1975)
Reviewer: Ben Miler | See all reviews by Ben Miler
Section: Reviews | Category: Music | Area: Sweden | Topic: Music
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While Lord of the Rings remains Bo Hansson's best known, not to mention best selling (sold quite well in Europe and Australia), I really believe that Attic Thoughts (known in Sweden as Mellanvasen), which is his third solo album, to be by far his best album. After the somewhat lacklustre (but still worth having) Magician's Hat (1972, aka Ur Trollkarlens Hatt) he really rebounded big time with this album in a huge way.
By this point, he started using synthesizers less in the manner of noodling between passages, he started using them in the music itself. The production has became more professional by this point, but the great thing, is the fairytale atmosphere of Lord of the Rings has returned. Only now, the music doesn't suffer so much the repetition syndrome that might turn off certain listeners from Lord of the Rings (which I enjoy, in spite of that).

At this point, Hansson was including Kenny Hakansson of Kebnekaise (I seen it also spelled Kebnekajse) on guitar, as well as Mats Glenngard on violin, Rune Carlsson on drums, jazz saxist Gunnar Bergsten (he was also a member of a progressive jazz rock band Flasket Brinner), bassist Joran Lagerberg, Rolf Scherrer on acoustic guitar and Thomas Netzler on bass. Gunnar Bergsten and Rune Carlsson were on Lord of the Rings. The minute I was to believe that Attic Thoughts was to be Hansson's best album is that first song, "Attic Thoughts". This is a three piece suite, and the minute it got to the second movement, I knew this was going to be a great album. I especially dig the flute on that song.

The next song, "Time and Space" is basically a short interlude on string synth, before coming to "Waiting...". From just listening to this song, you can tell how much his music has advanced from his previous two albums (but it's not entirely too surprising, unlike a lot of bands/artists from the 1970s who seem to always release an album every year, sometimes more, Bo Hansson only released an album every three years or so).

It's real easy to tell "Waiting..." is from the mid '70s, especially the use of the Solina string ensemble synthesizer. "Waltz For Interbeing" is a great one. If you want a song with a truly Nordic feel to it, you can't go wrong here. I particularly dig the violin solo that gives this song that uniquely Scandinavian touch to it. The song is in 3/4, else the song wouldn't bear the "Waltz" title. "Day and Night" is one of the more experimental numbers on this album. The second half is very laid back, with that mystical atmosphere. Mostly that piece is played on acoustic guitar and synthesizer.

The final cut, "A Happy Prank" is a wonderful way to end the album. I don't know how to describe it. Bo Hansson is just about the only prog rock artist out of Scandinavia whose albums are real easy to come by in America (his albums had American releases), so Attic Thoughts is a great place to start if you want to get in to Swedish prog rock. This album, along with Anglagard's Epilog (1994) are amongst the best prog rock I have heard out of Sweden. If you like Lord of the Rings, you need Attic Thoughts.



More Info

- Bo Hansson: organ, guitars, bass, synthesizer, Mellotron, special effects
- Rune Carlsson: drums
- Kenny Hakansson: electric guitar
- Joran Lagerberg: bass and acoustic guitar
- Gunnar Bergsten: sax
- Rolf Scherrer: acoustic guitar
- Thomas Netzler: bass
- Mats Glenngard: violin