Lars Gustav Gabriel Hollmer (21 July 1948 – 25 December 2008) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

accordionist Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed i ...

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, whose work drew on music ranging from Nordic

folk tunes Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

. He has been a member and/or founder of over half a dozen groups, most of whose work has been recorded at The Chickenhouse, his well outfitted home studio in his hometown of

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

. His work with the band

Samla Mammas Manna Samla Mammas Manna was a Swedish progressive rock band often characterized by virtuosic musicianship, circus references and silly humour, similar in many ways to the song-writing style of Frank Zappa. They were one of the founding members of t ...

, in the late 1960s and early 1970s and up to 2002, when the re-formed group played at the two-day ProgDay festival in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, was and is considered

. However, he is most centrally an empathetic and generous collaborator: whether as a member of Accordion Tribe, while working with the experimental

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

, or while spending several months with

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

players, he seems to find a style that brings his partners to the fore while remaining identifiably himself. Though his work is little known in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, he won a Swedish

Grammis The Grammis are music awards presented annually to musicians and songwriters in Sweden. The oldest Swedish music awards, they were instituted as a local equivalent of the Grammy Awards given in the United States. The awards ceremony is generall ...

award in 1999 for his record ''Andetag''. He has also composed extensively for Swedish film, as well as for theatre and dance productions. Consistent elements of his music throughout his career included use of irregular

time signatures The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

(often changing several times within a piece), a daring sense of

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

(particularly

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...

improvisation that utilized nonsense syllables), and used complex

polyrhythms Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

. Hollmer died in December 2008 of cancer, aged 60. He is buried in Berthåga Cemetery in Uppsala.

Discography

With Samla Mammas Manna

*Samla Mammas Manna 1971 *Måltid 1973 *Klossa Knapitatet 1974 *Snorungarnas Symfoni 1976 *Kaka 1999 *Dear mamma 2002

With Zamla Mammaz Manna

*Schlagerns Mystik / För Äldre Nybegynnare (The Mystery of Popular Music / For Older Beginners) 1977 *Familjesprickor (Family Cracks) 1980

With von Zamla

*Zamlaranamma 1982 * "1983" (Live) 1983 *No Make Up 1984

With Ramlösa Kvällar

* Ramlösa Kvällar (Nights Without Frames) 1977

With Fem Söker En Skatt

*Fem Söker En Skatt 1995

With Looping Home Orchestra

*Vendeltid 1987 *Lars Hollmer. Looping Home Orchestra Live 92–93 (DOOR FLOOR SOMETHING WINDOW) 1994

With Accordion Tribe

*''Accordion Tribe'' (live, 1998) *''Sea of Reeds'' (2002) *''Lunghorn Twist'' (2006)

With Japanese jazz players

* SOLA 2000

With Fanfare Pourpour

* Karusell musik 2007

With
Lindsay Cooper Lindsay Cooper (3 March 1951 – 18 September 2013) was an English bassoon and oboe player and composer. Best known for her work with the band Henry Cow, she was also a member of Comus, National Health, News from Babel and David Thomas and the ...
,
Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...
and Gianni Gebbia

*'' Angels on the Edge of Time'' (2015, CD, I Dischi di Angelica, Italy) – recorded at the 1992 Angelica Festival

Solo albums

*XII Sibiriska Cyklar 1981 *Vill Du Höra Mer 1982 *Från Natt Idag 1983 *Joggingcharleston (Single, 1984) *Tonöga 1985 *The Siberian Circus 1993 *Vandelmässa 1995 *Andetag 1998 *Utsikter 2000 *Autokomp A(nd) More 2001 *Viandra 2007 *Med mjölad hand (skisser) 2012

References

External links

*
Krax
recorded by

Guy Klucevsek Guy Klucevsek (born February 26, 1947) is an American-born accordionist and composer. Klucevsek is one of relatively few accordion players active in new music, jazz and free improvisation. Klucevsek was born in New York City, and raised outside ...

Lars Hollmer Tribute
on the Accordion Noir Radio show. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollmer, Lars 1948 births 2008 deaths Swedish composers Swedish male composers Swedish accordionists Swedish keyboardists Deaths from cancer in Sweden 20th-century accordionists 20th-century Swedish male musicians 20th-century Swedish musicians