Åke Hodell

Spirit of Ecstasy is a very lively composition, being serious and humorous at the same time – ingeniously dramatized and well constructed, the history of the car is used to tell of the most important events in the history of the 20th century. The creator himself wrote: “What I wanted to do was to tell the story of the car, from the Oldsmobile of 1902, until today’s prodigy of speed, the Ferrari. The composition’s car-name voices become not only poetic and musical components, but also characterize the class to which the driver belongs, economically, politically and socially. In other words: the make of car as a status symbol, individually and nationally, a sex symbol etc.”

The way to Nepal (1971) is an exploration in sound, which confronts the listener with a dramatic process shifting between a meditative soundscape and disturbing motor noise. The composition offers a vision of a primeval state, in which animals and humans live in harmony with nature. Thereafter follow different stages of disintegration.

The album is mastered from the original tapes (a different mix from the CD-compilation of works by Hodell on Fylkingen Records), pressed on 180 gram vinyl, including a booklet with new liner notes and the libretto to Spirit of Ecstasy.