Music Inspired by Watership Down | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1977 | |||
Recorded | 1976 | |||
Genre | Progressive rock | |||
Length | 47:03 | |||
Label | Charisma (UK) Sire (USA) | |||
Producer | Bo Hansson, Pontus Olsson | |||
Bo Hansson chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Music Inspired by Watership Down is a 1977 progressive rock album by Swedish musician Bo Hansson. The album is Hansson's fourth solo album and is, as its name suggests, built around musical ideas inspired by Richard Adams' heroic fantasy novel Watership Down . [2]
Music Inspired by Watership Down was the second album of Hansson's to have been based on a novel; his first solo album, Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings , had likewise been based on J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings . [3] [4] Hansson had already composed and released a musical suite inspired by Watership Down on his previous album, Attic Thoughts . [5] However, beyond its title, the Music Inspired by Watership Down album contains few overt references to the novel and instead features excerpts from the works of various poets, such as John Keats and Alexander Pope. [2]
The album was originally released in Sweden as El-Ahrairah by YTF Records in 1977. [2] [6] This title was taken directly from the pages of Watership Down, with El-Ahrairah being the name of a trickster, folk hero-deity rabbit, known as "The Prince with a Thousand Enemies". [2] [7] The album was subsequently released with its English title by Charisma Records in the United Kingdom [8] and Sire Records in the United States, [9] but it failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic. [10] [11] Music Inspired by Watership Down was reissued on CD in 2004 by Virgin Records. [12]
All tracks composed by Bo Hansson except where indicated.
Bo Hansson was a Swedish musician best known for his four instrumental progressive rock studio albums released throughout the 1970s.
Watership Down is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Hampshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural wild environment, with burrows, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel follows the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way.
Camel are an English progressive rock band formed in Guildford, Surrey, in 1971. Led by guitarist Andrew Latimer, they have released fourteen studio albums and fourteen singles, plus numerous live albums and DVDs. Without achieving mass popularity, the band gained a cult following in the 1970s with albums such as Mirage (1974) and The Snow Goose (1975). They moved into a jazzier, more commercial direction in the early 1980s, but then went on an extended hiatus. Since 1991 the band has been independent, releasing albums on their own label.
Heavy Horses is the eleventh studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released on 10 April 1978.
Kebnekajse is a Swedish band that was most active during the 1970s after its members left the Mecki Mark Men. The band was greatly influenced by both traditional Swedish folk music and African music. The name is taken from Kebnekaise, the highest mountain in Sweden. The spelling of the band name was originally the correct spelling of the mountain, but for the last two albums, it was changed it to the present spelling.
Phideaux Xavier is an American television director, and composer of modern technological music that he describes as 'psychedelic progressive gothic rock', who grew up near New York City but now lives in Los Angeles.
Rock & Roll Is Dead is the sixth studio album released by the Swedish rock band The Hellacopters. The first edition of the CD came with a 25-minute bonus DVD entitled Poking at the Stiff and chronicled the second of the two weeks of recording the album. The vinyl release had seven different colors of the vinyl: brown, green, white, clear, orange, red and black. There was also picture disc from Sacred Heart Recordings available in a limited run of 200 units with the inner sleeve artwork printed on the vinyl and the songs "It Might Mean Something To You" and "Positively So Naive" as bonus tracks.
Träd, Gräs & Stenar is a Swedish rock band formed in 1969, from previous incarnations Pärson Sound, International Harvester and Harvester. The group was one of the front acts of the Swedish progg scene, although noticeably less political than their contemporary counterparts. Their sound has been described as raw, psych rock jam, by the writer David Pescovitz, who also notes the band would invite their audiences to improvise and collaborate.
Caravan is the debut album by the British Canterbury scene and progressive rock band Caravan. It was released by Verve Forecast in January 1969 and was the group's only album for the label.
French Skyline is the second full-length album by the American electronic band Earthstar. It was their first release for Hamburg, Germany–based Sky Records.
Magician's Hat is an instrumental progressive rock album by Swedish musician Bo Hansson. It is his second solo album, following the successful Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings, and was originally released in Sweden by Silence Records in 1972, with the title Ur trollkarlens hatt.
Attic Thoughts is a 1975 instrumental progressive rock album by Swedish musician Bo Hansson.
The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse is a studio album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington recorded in 1971 and released on the Fantasy label in 1975. Like other world music-influenced suites composed in the last decade of his life, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse was called by NPR music critic David Brent Johnson one of Ellington's "late-period masterpieces."
Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings is an instrumental progressive rock album by Swedish musician Bo Hansson. As its title suggests, it is a concept album based on author J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings. The album was originally issued in Sweden in late 1970, under the Swedish title of Sagan om ringen, and was subsequently re-released internationally as Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings in September 1972.
Up the Street, 'Round the Corner, Down the Block is an album by guitarist Kenny Burrell recorded in 1974 and released on the Fantasy Records label.
Fall of Efrafa was a British crust punk band formed in Brighton, England in 2005. They disbanded in 2009 after completing a trilogy of concept albums - Owsla (2006), Elil (2007), and Inlé (2009) - inspired by the mythology of the 1972 novel Watership Down.
Fredrik Norén was a Swedish jazz drummer and band leader.
Watership Down is an adult CGI-animated adventure fantasy drama mini-series directed by Noam Murro. It is based on the 1972 novel of the same name by Richard Adams and adapted by Tom Bidwell. It was released on 22 December 2018 in the United Kingdom and internationally on Netflix the next day. The BBC broadcast comprised two back-to-back episodes per day.
The Baby Grandmothers were a Swedish psychedelic rock band formed in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1967. Established after the dissolution of the R&B band, the T-Boones, the group enjoyed a cult following as the house band at the popular psychedelic music club Filips. Although the Baby Grandmothers rarely performed outside Sweden, the band did tour alongside Jimi Hendrix in 1968. In the same year, the group recorded an album's worth of material, which appeared years later on their eponymous album. The album is now considered an underground classic of experimental psychedelia.
Mecki Mark Men were a Swedish rock band fronted by keyboardist Claes "Mecki" Bodemark. The group originally formed as a dansband in the mid-1960s, then called Mecki Mark Five, before adopting elements of psychedelic rock, jazz, and experimental music. A breakthrough performance at Stockholm's Experimental Jazz Festival in July 1967 helped establish the group, placing them at the forefront of Swedish psychedelic rock and its fledgling progg subgenre.