DOOR FLOOR SOMETHING WINDOW: LOOPING HOME ORCHESTRA LIVE 92-93

Lars Hollmer was the keyboardist and accordion player for SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA and it's various incarnations. Lars had a nice solo career releasing ten studio albums, four in the eighties, two in the nineties, and four in the 00's. Plus he had this project called LOOPING HOME ORCHESTRA. He released one studio album in 1987 under this name, along with a followup live recording that I'm reviewing now. This was released in 1993 and consists of songs from three different countries they were on tour at. Germany, Sweden and Canada. The shows were performed between October 1992 and May 1993.

This has a different lineup than the studio release other than Ollie Sundin who is back on keyboards and percussion. This is a six piece with Lars playing keyboards and accordion, we get the guitarist and bass player from SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA(Eino Haapala and Lars Krantz), Jean Derome on flute, baryton and sax, and finally Fred Frith on guitar and violin. I was surprised with the Canadian connections as they played in Victoriaville, Quebec and this is released on the Victo label out of this city. The Victo label lists in the liner notes some 33 cds they had released including ones by Zeena Parkins, Lindsay Cooper, Fred Frith, NON CREDO, Keith Tippett and so on. Impressive!

So we get 15 tracks worth over 63 minutes. Eight tracks from the German concerts, two from Sweden, and five from Quebec. I have a top four including "Quickstep" from the Uppsala concert. Dissonant sax and it's humerous as a fast paced rhythm section kicks in. Some flute here as well before the accordion leads. It turns chaotic and avant before that impressive guitar solo around 4 minutes. Also "Parallell Angostura" makes that four. This one is from Canada and is a powerful violin driven piece. My favourite is "Ett Tungt Ok" from Germany. Again, I love the violin and again, it's powerful but darker as well. "Plinga" from Germany rounds out my top four. Piano leads early and it's uptempo but there's so much going on. The last couple of minutes are avant and very impressive.

I would highly recommend Lars' final solo album before his passing from 2008 called "Viandra'. It has Michel Berckmans adding bassoon and Lars himself playing harmonium, it is a dark record. Also this live recording is something I highly recommend as well when it comes to music from Hollmer, other than SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA of course. I like that Fred Frith(HENRY COW) and Michel Berckmans(UNIVERS ZERO) and other members of the original five RIO bands still had relationships long after that first RIO concert they were all at in 1978.