UR TROLLKARLENS HATT [AKA: MAGICIAN'S HAT]

Bo Hanson became widely known not long after Mike Oldfield had enjoyed astronomical success with "Tubular bells" and was therefore unfairly branded something of a copy cat. Hansson had in fact been around since the 1960's, initially as part of a duo who were taken under the wing of Jimi Hendrix, supporting him on tour.

His solo albums, while popular in his native Sweden, took some time to make any impact in the lucrative markets of the US and the UK, giving the impression he was a follower rather than a leader.

Like Oldfield, multi-instrumentalist Hanson's albums consist of long complex instrumental works, mostly performed by himself. "Magician's hat" find him allowing his jazz influences to come to the fore more than they do on albums such as "Lord of the rings" or "Attic thoughts".

The tracks tend to run together to form a coherent whole, with saxophone (played by Göran Freese and Gunnar Bergsten) regularly taking centre stage. Possibly because of this, the album, and especially the longer opening track "The city" has a much more improvised feel than might be expected. The other longer track on side one, "Divided reality" initially sounds like a cover version of the Moody Blues "Nights in white satin" before Hansson sets out on a decent virtuoso organ performance. There is a definite "Tubular bells" feel along the way here too. The side plays out with four short but diverse pieces, with side two opening in a similar manner. "Awakening" is among the more interesting of these, offering a strange mix of harmonica, guitar and organ.

The feature track on side two is "The sun" (subtitled "Parallel or 90 degrees", the name adopted by another band in this site), which sees Hansson moving into jazzier territory once more, the piece being centred around electric piano to which he adds some virtuoso guitar. The album plays out with an upbeat and rather funky "Excursion with complications".

Given my natural aversion to most things jazz, "Magician's hat" does not rank among my favourite Bo Hannson albums. That aside though, this is a finely crafted , well performed set, with good diversity and some enjoyable passages.

Bo Hansson is now in his 60's and has apparently retired from music due to ill health. That said, he has become something of a legendary figure in his homeland, first hand news of him being hard to come by.

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