BO HANSSON – Sagan om ringen (Silence, 1970)

Instrumental 

International relevance: ***

 Ranked #3 on the blog's Top 25 list

The beauty of Bo Hansson's solo debut is unfathomable. Few albums are as evocative and visual as ”Sagan om ringen”. It's no wonder that Anders Lind founded Silence for the simple reason of releasing it. (Gudibrallan's ”Uti vår hage” was recorded earlier but released after ”Sagan om ringen” was out.)

Based, of course, on J.R.R. Tolkien's ”Lord of the Rings” trilogy, Hansson's music takes my mind on a much longer and a much more vivid journey through the fantastic and the splendorous than Tolkien ever has and ever will. It's the sound of one spectacular man's spectacular vision, so perfectly moulded that it's impossible not to get carried away by it. So richly textured that you could almost touch the sounds with your fingers, smell the scents of that other world he shows you through notes and timbres, hear the sounds that will forever surprise your ears in utter wonder.

Hansson already used his Hammond organ like a painting tool as one half of the psych prog jazz duo Hansson & Karlsson, but compared to ”Sagan om ringen”, the Hansson & Karlsson albums sound restricted and two dimensional. Here he opens everything up to a dynamic experience of brooding darkness and jubilant light.

So much has been written about this album, so much has been said, so much love has been poured over it, and still no-one has been able to fully explain its grandeur. Neither have I. The only way to approach it properly is to listen to it, to give in to it, to fall in love with it again and again and again. This is a masterpiece of a magnificence that time can never diminish.

However, be aware of the different versions of ”Sagan om ringen”. Its release history is a mess, but I'll try to explain it to the best of my knowledge. Corrections/clarifications are much welcome!

First Silence pressing with the first and exclusive mix lacks ”En vandring i mörkret” and has no musicians credits on the back cover. The 1971 reissue adds the missing track, and has the credits, but is remixed. The international versions retitled ”Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings” have track titles in English, and a different cheesier cover that makes it look like rejected Genesis cover art. Some tracks are also shortened, and the album is remixed by Bo Hansson himself. Subsequent releases have this version. International cover variations exist.

 Original international version

First Swedish CD release from 1988 has a new remix version of the album, adding unnecessary and bad reverb, plus bonus tracks from Hansson's subsequent albums, plus the worst cover version of them all. Later CD reissues have the 1988 mix, but also previously unreleased bonus tracks recorded around the same time as the original album, plus the original cover art.

1988 CD version

The 2018 Silence CD is a reissue of the previous one including the unreleased track but with the international 70's cover art scaled down to fit within a too large and cheap looking frame.

 

 2018 CD version

Full album playlist 2018 CD version with bonus track