Lars Hollmer’s first solo album, most of which was recorded at his Chickenhouse studio in June through October 1980 and March 1981 on an eight-track tape deck, is an amiable, fractured, and sometimes downright wacky endeavor that might have lacked a bit of cohesion but nevertheless signaled the emergence of a great composer, even if that last assertion is based upon a single two-and-a-half-minute track, the timeless “Boeves Psalm.” Overall,
XII Sibiriska Cyklar (named after the fable of a Siberian bicycle inventor) might have taken some fans of
Samla Mammas Manna/
Zamla Mammaz Manna,
Hollmer’s Rock in Opposition outfit of the preceding decade, a bit by surprise -- they might not have known that
Hollmer had begun playing accordion with the world/folk ensemble
Ramlösa Kvällar in the late ‘70s and had grown quite fond of the instrument. So here, after
Lars had become perhaps best known as a prog rock-ish electric keyboardist, he settled in alone at the Chickenhouse, happily strapped to a squeezebox (with other instruments and non-instruments within reach), ready to tackle a few folky forms -- waltzes, polskas, and the like -- and imbue them with his singular persona. As
Hollmer listeners over nearly the next three decades would learn, the Swede could tackle nearly any genre and make it his own -- and it all started here.