Lars Hollmer

Description

Lars Gustav Gabriel Hollmer (born 1948) is a Swedish accordionist, keyboardist and composer whose work draws on influences ranging from Nordic folk tunes to progressive rock. 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 low-tech studio in Uppsala. His work with the band Samla Mammas Manna, in the late 1960s-early 1970s and up to 2002 when the re-formed group played at the two-day Progfest festival in North Carolina, was and is considered progressive rock. However, he is most centrally an empathetic and generous collaborator: whether as a member of Accordion Tribe, while working with the experimental guitarist Fred Frith, or while spending several months with Japanese jazz 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, he won a Swedish Grammy award in 1999 for his record Andetag. He has...