''Attic Thoughts'' is a 1975
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
album by Swedish
musician
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...
Bo Hansson
Bo Hansson (10 April 1943 – 23 April 2010) was a Swedish musician best known for his four instrumental progressive rock studio albums released throughout the 1970s.
Early life and musical career
Hansson spent his early life in a remote vil ...
.
Recording and release
The album was recorded during 1974 and 1975 at Studio Decibel in Stockholm, and at Hansson's home, which had virtually become a studio by this point in his career.
The album featured contributions from many of the same
session musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
s and friends that had played on Hansson's previous album, ''
Magician's Hat''.
In addition to featuring Hansson's usual blend of other-worldly progressive rock and
fairy tale-like ambiance, ''Attic Thoughts'' includes a
suite
Suite may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition
** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach
** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó
** ''Suite' ...
named "Rabbit Music", which was inspired by
Richard Adams
Richard George Adams (9 May 1920 – 24 December 2016) was an English novelist and writer of the books '' Watership Down'', '' Maia'', '' Shardik'' and '' The Plague Dogs''. He studied modern history at university before serving in the British ...
' novel ''
Watership Down
''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Berkshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural w ...
'', a subject which Hansson would explore further on his 1977 album ''
Music Inspired by Watership Down''.
In Hansson's native Sweden, ''Attic Thoughts'' was released with the Swedish title of ''Mellanväsen''. It was released with its English title in April 1975 by
Charisma Records
Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van de ...
,
but was less commercially successful than Hansson's preceding solo albums and failed to reach the charts in the UK or the United States.
Track listing
All tracks composed by
Bo Hansson
Bo Hansson (10 April 1943 – 23 April 2010) was a Swedish musician best known for his four instrumental progressive rock studio albums released throughout the 1970s.
Early life and musical career
Hansson spent his early life in a remote vil ...
except where indicated.
Side 1
#"Attic Thoughts: a) March b) Repose c) Wandering" – 5:33
#"Time and Space" – 1:39
#"Waiting..." (Bo Hansson, Kenny Håkansson) – 7:34
#"Waltz for Interbeings" – 3:26
Side 2
#"Time for Great Achievements" – 3:11
#"The Hybrills" – 1:24
#"Rabbit Music: a) General Woundwort b) Fiver" – 6:30
#"Day and Night" – 4:33
#"A Happy Prank" – 3:17
2004 CD reissue bonus track
#
"The Crystal Suite: a) Crystals b) Memories of Darkness c) Light Again" – 6:21
Personnel
* Bo Hansson
Bo Hansson (10 April 1943 – 23 April 2010) was a Swedish musician best known for his four instrumental progressive rock studio albums released throughout the 1970s.
Early life and musical career
Hansson spent his early life in a remote vil ...
– organs
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...
, guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
s, bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...
, synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...
, mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. ...
, special effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual w ...
* Rune Carlsson – drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...
* Kenny Håkansson
Kenny Håkansson is a Swedish musician, best known as the bassist for the Hellacopters. The Hellacopters were founded by Håkansson's childhood friend Nicke Andersson as a side project to his role as a drummer in the heavy metal band Entombe ...
– electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
* Jöran Lagerberg – bass guitar, acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
* Gunnar Bergsten – saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
* Rolf Scherrer – acoustic guitar
* Tomas Netzler – bass guitar
* Mats Glenngård – violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
* Anders Oredsson – mixing on "Waiting..."
* Jan Ternald – cover painting
* Barry Lester and Company – artwork
Releases
* CD Attic Thoughts One Way Records
One Way Records was an independent record label based in Albany, New York that specialized in budget reissues of classic rock albums. In the 1990s, it gained business pressing reissues of those records that had "fallen through the cracks" in th ...
1996
* CD Attic Thoughts EMI Music
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, ...
Distribution 2004
* CD Attic Thoughts Virgin 2004
* CD Attic Thoughts onus Track
Onus, from Latin, indicates accountability/responsibility
Onus may also refer to:
* Blame
* Burden (disambiguation)
* Legal burden of proof (''onus probandi'')
As a surname
* Bill Onus
William Townsend Onus Jnr (15 November 1906 – ...
EMI Music
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, ...
Distribution 2005
References
1975 albums
Bo Hansson albums
Charisma Records albums
Instrumental rock albums
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