A warm-hearted and exuberant composer and multi-instrumentalist, the late Lars Hollmer was a difficult musician to pigeonhole. Recording at his Chickenhouse studio outside Uppsala, Sweden and performing live in a wide variety of groupings worldwide, he had an anything-goes attitude as an avant-garde rock improviser but also penned disarmingly beautiful tunes, utterly devoid of irony or cynicism. The keyboardist with avant-proggers Samla Mammas Manna (and various offshoots) during the 1970s, Hollmer stepped out as a solo artist -- and a masterful accordionist -- with his 1981 debut album XII Sibiriska Cyklar, which featured his lovely composition "Boeves Psalm." While also collaborating with artists from Quebec to Japan, he recorded numerous inimitable solo outings over the next quarter century, including 1997's Grammis award-winning Andetag and 2007's Viandra, the last Hollmer album released during his lifetime. ~ Dave Lynch