Bo Hansson

• 1. Bo Hansson

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  Bo Hansson purloined his girlfriend's copy of The Lord of the Rings in 1969, then moved into a friend's vacant apartment to write music. The friend, upon returning home, found himself evicted after neighbors complained about the noise. This was characteristic of Hansson: a self-taught Swedish musician who followed obsessions wherever they led. Born on the 10th of April 1943, he had built a reputation in the Swedish music world before this Tolkien episode transformed his career. How a forest-raised Swede became a cult figure in British progressive rock is worth examining. Why he walked away from it before the 1970s were over is the stranger question. The story begins not in a recording studio but in a village in the pine forests of Jämtland, in northern Sweden.

• 2. Blues Roots

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  A change in his parents' fortunes forced them to move to Stockholm while Hansson was still young, leaving him in the care of family friends. As a teenager, he rejoined his parents in the capital, where he taught himself to play the guitar. His first band was Rock-Olga. He later joined Slim Notini's Blues Gang as a guitarist, and after that formed his own group, The Merrymen. That band secured a booking as support act for The Rolling Stones on an early Scandinavian tour.

• 3. Hansson and Karlsson

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  In 1966, Hansson saw American jazz organist Jack McDuff perform at Stockholm's Gyllene Cirkeln Club. The experience was decisive. He left The Merrymen to broaden his musical range and, encouraged by former Merrymen member Bill Öhrström, eventually acquired his own Hammond organ. Öhrström had since become an A&R man and producer at Polydor Sweden, and he introduced Hansson to drummer Janne Carlsson. The two immediately hit it off. Signed to Polydor under the name Hansson & Karlsson, they released three albums between 1967 and 1969. They built a large following across Sweden and parts of Europe. In late 1967, Jimi Hendrix took time away from his tour to jam with the duo at the Klub Filips in Stockholm. George Clemons played drums and Georg Wadenius played guitar at the session. Hendrix later recorded a Hansson composition called "Tax Free." The song appeared on War Heroes and South Saturn Delta, as well as on various live bootleg recordings.

• 4. Island Winter

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  By 1969, Janne Carlsson had built a successful career as a comedian and television host, and Hansson dissolved the duo. He retreated to a remote cottage on an island off Stockholm. There, with drummer Rune Carlsson and engineer Anders Lind, he spent the winter of 1969 recording on a borrowed four-track tape machine. Lind had previously worked with Hansson & Karlsson.

  The resourceful Lind then arranged access to additional equipment by unusual means. Sweden had only one eight-track recorder at the time, housed at the Swedish National Radio station. Lind told the station he was considering purchasing one and wanted to test it first. Once inside, he persuaded session musicians Gunnar Bergsten and Sten Bergman to fill out the recordings.

  Sagan Om Ringen was released on Silence Records in autumn 1970. Silence Records was Sweden's first independent record label, set up by Lind himself. The album became a large hit at home. Copies reached Britain and came to the attention of Tony Stratton Smith, who released the record on his Charisma Records label in September 1972 as Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings. It reached the Top 40 on the UK Album Chart.

• 5. The Reclusive Keyboard Player

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  Stockholm's Studio Decibel became Hansson's home base for his second album, where the same team worked alongside a new addition, guitarist Kenny Håkansson. The superior equipment noticeably improved the recordings. Ur Trollkarlens Hatt appeared on Silence Records in late 1972, and Charisma issued it in Britain in October 1973 as Magician's Hat. Critics responded warmly, but the album did not reach the charts in the UK.

  Success in Sweden brought pressure to tour. A touring band was hastily assembled, but Hansson cancelled the schedule, citing a lack of motivation. He returned instead to Studio Decibel for a third album, working again with his usual backing musicians. Mellanväsen appeared on Silence Records in October 1975. Charisma issued it in Britain in February 1976 as Attic Thoughts. Despite being the most accomplished work he had recorded, it was disappointingly received. One track from the album, "Rabbit Music," pointed toward where Hansson was heading next.

  In 1976, Hansson and Silence Records parted ways, and he negotiated a worldwide deal with Charisma Records. This time, the source of inspiration was Richard Adams' novel Watership Down. Working with a new producer, Pontus Olssen, and using the same session musicians, Hansson recorded a fourth album. It was released in September 1977 as El 'Ahrairah. Charisma distributed it in the UK and Canada as Music Inspired by Watership Down; Sire Records handled the release in the United States. Another disappointing chart result led Hansson to step back from the popular music scene. He worked on projects with friends, but little was heard from him publicly until 1985. That year he released Mitt I Livet in Sweden only, on Silence Records. After that album, he fell into obscurity.

• 6. A Living Legend

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  Swedish DJs discovered his back catalogue and began sampling his music, a development that apparently pleased Hansson enormously. Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings had reached CD by 1988. That release was a remixed version that included selected tracks from Magician's Hat and Attic Thoughts. In 2005, Silence Records, distributed through EMI, reissued all three of his other 1970s albums on CD, digitally remastered and with previously unreleased material added.

  In 1998, Hansson & Karlsson reunited for live concerts and released a compilation album. Among the Swedish independent music community, Hansson had become a living legend. The mysteries surrounding Hansson & Karlsson's rise and fall fed his reputation. He occasionally played live sets with fellow organist Eric Malmberg, who was greatly inspired by Hansson's work. Hansson died in Stockholm on the 23rd of April 2010. That same year, a Hansson & Karlsson compilation titled For People in Love was issued, drawing on studio and live recordings from 1967 to 1968.