Another couple of days has been spent in the studio in Söderhamn. This time the aims of the session were rather undefined. The approach was more to try and run through a couple of new songs in the studio to see how they worked and then maybe save some of the backing tracks for future projects.
Out of four tracks two were thought of as useful to keep but it remains to be seen whatever will come out of this, if anything. The main objective for the band now is to find a way to get the "About time" album released.
The new Sack Trick album "Sheep in Kiss make-up" was recently released. The album features some quite unique and extraordinary renditions of Kiss songs and has many guest musicians on it. Half of Book of Hours, for instance. Mattias and Henrik contributed with some vocal acrobatics and Florentine mandolin. The album can be obtained from the Sack Trick website.
The last recording for "About time" was made a few days ago. No final desicions have been made on any mix of any song yet but the end of the production process is definitely rising above the horizon.
All songs known for sure to be included on "About time" have now reached the mixing stage. There are a few numbers (see The list) that have been left out or saved for other purposes.
The mixing is well underway and the mixes of each song are hopefully only marginal adjustments from being fit for mastering.
As deducable from The list most songs are now recorded and in the mixing stage. The mixing process always reveals new angles of songs and this time the band has the opportunity to make the most out of the new ideas that crop up.
Meanwhile, why not pop, over to www.planetbass.co.uk and learn everything you might like know about bassplaying. There's even a spot of Book of Hours-bass on there!
A list of the remaining bits to be recorded for the new album has been put online. It will be removed the moment the last dub has been made. This will hopefully help in motivating the band to make an effort to get the protracted recording over with. The list is here.
The Patricia gig went great. We'd like to thank all our friends who turned up. The place was packed and it seemed people actually enjoyed the set. The band premiered a semi-new track called "Present tense" and it went really good, being the opening track 'n' all. The only confusing element was the bass going down in the last verse. The question on everybody's mind today is; "What the heck happened to the Wah-wah pedal?"
Pics from the gig will hopefully be up on this site in the future.
The recordings are slowly but steadily progressing. The odd guitar still remains to be recorded, and there are a few bits of other instruments waiting to be added to the brew, and after that there's only the vocals left to be recorded. Nothing has been decided about the mixing of the stuff but the band would really like to have someone with a fresh ear (i.e. someone outside of the band) to handle it.
Some of the recent material has been reviewed. The promo that was reviewed had the songs "Submergency", "Arrow" and "In-between" on it.
A three track promo of high quality. The music is exciting, suggestive and rather dark, though never gloomy. Scenery from the Lord of the rings movies pop up in my head. Maybe it's because of Anni Thulin's beautiful anglosaxon-ish vocals. The music gives me hints at bands like the Swedish Pain of Salvation and Paathos [sic] and Norwegian White Willow. On an earlier CD (Art to the blind 1999) the sound was a lot more noisy and heavy, more in the vein of King Crimson and Anekdoten. The attached letter promises that they have not abandoned that side of the music. Book of Hours seems to have found their musical home! More info can be found at www.bookofhours.tk
Mikael Bennerhed, ArtRock #3 2003
If you've been wanting to get your hands on the "Transmissions" EP, this is your chance. Despite the dreadful logo, they offer a pretty good deal!
Just go to cdbaby.com/bookofhours
The last studiosession was a study in how to waste valuable studio-time in the most efficient way. Out of the intention described in the last bit of news below came only a mix of the track "Submergency". And this one still has some flaws that makes it necesarry to mix it all over again. But we still want to express millions of thanks to Andreas Baglien for taking the time to help us out in the studio after working hours!
As this version of the track will not be making it onto any kind of release it will be available for download in it's entirety on the site. This also calls for a rectification about the use of the sound that wasn't supposed to be used for the track; The sound was used but the last second of it was timestretched to fit the rhythm of the track.
As if this piece of trivia wasn't enough, here are two short glimpses of what's been going on: Guitar | Noise
On October 8 - 10 the band will be entering the studio to record some new music. Two tracks, "Present tense" and "The third", will be recorded and mixed and the plan is also to be able to mix one of the tracks they have been recording on and off in the rehearsal room.
Meanwhile, here's a sound intended for use on the track "Submergency" but which will not be used due to too high levels on the swell-knob on the WEM Copicat.
Mattias felt the urge to put this excerpt of an interview with Iron Maiden's
Bruce Dickinson on the site:
(taken from http://www.musicchoice.com)
What do you listen to for enjoyment?
Well I have this radio show that I do for the BBC so I get loads and loads of
stuff the listen to. What I brought out with me on the road is a demo from a
Swedish band called The Book of Hours, an unreleased album that's awesome and
sounds like a cross between Deep Purple, Cream, and The Doors by a band called
Pleasure Beach who actually came on my radio show and I'm blown away by the
record and they don't have a manager so I'm trying to talk to them, and an old
Ian Gillan solo record from the 70's, some of Ritchie Blackmore's strange
folkie Blackmore's Night stuff, and some prog-rock samplers from the late 60's.
The entire interview can be found at this page.
On a more interesting note, the recordings are slowly but steadily progressing. Drums and bass have now been recorded for four tracks, "Submergency", "Arrow", "A day of release" and an as yet untitled track and a couple more will follow shortly.
The recent gig in Stockholm saw the band managing to squeeze in three songs into a fifteen minute set. Two of the tracks "The third" and "Pendulum Spring" had been edited just to fit the time limit and it was the first time the band played "Pendulum spring" live. Pics from this event can be found at the Photos page.
Moving on, the first basic tracks for what will hopefully become their second full length
album has been recorded. As the band are doing this using their own equipment
they will have the ability to make these recordings as they find time and
inspiration for it. There is another session in a "proper studio" scheduled for
early October and the plan is to use this time to record a couple of full tracks
and mix some of the stuff they have been recording in the rehearsal room.
What's happening?
Not much, really, but if everything works out as planned Book of Hours will
have a busy period of recording to look forward to. The idea is to record
new material using their own equipment and then taking it all into a proper
studio for mixing. They have been doing some test-recordings and this method
has proved to work out rather well. Time and energy will decide how many of the
dozen new songs that will be recorded and if the result meets the high quality-standards
of the band (i.e. can pass uncommented by Henrik during playback) they will be
put onto the next full length album. Meanwhile, we give you a pic of the persons
that are to dive headlong into this project; the current BoH line-up:
What is even less known than Book of Hours itself is the fact that Henrik and Mattias actually are part of another band, Sack Trick! This London-based band is run by a guy called Chris Dale who (amongst other bands) has been playing bass with none other than Bruce Dickinson. Sack Trick is a band, or rather, a project, that has a multitude of members and Mattias and Henrik qualified into their line-up by recording a version of one of their songs translating the lyrics to Swedish. This song, "Inga tomater för mig, tack" can be found on the RawPowerUK issue of the CD "Penguins on the moon" and is available through the Sack Trick website.
Back to normal!
Book of Hours played the second round of the
Emergenza - The Newcomers Festival
at Kägelbanan in Stockholm on May 27. It was a good gig but unfortunately they had
not been able to drum up enough support to get the sufficient amount of audience
votes to proceed to the final. Many thanks to the few who came though!
June will be a more or less inactive month for the band, and who likes to dwell in a cramped up rehearsalroom during warm and sunny days, anyway? There are however plans to try and get some serious recording done as there is plenty of material to commit to tape, or, as in this case, harddrive.
Meanwhile, why don't you check out Jonas' profile on the members page. He's been playing guitar with the band the past months and has now been enthusiasticly tied to the merry ensemble.
The next level of the competition will take place at Kägelbanan (Mosebacke) in Stockholm May 27-29. Info on the exact date will be added to the gigs page as soon as it's decided.
While waiting for something fruitful to happen the band has decided to make the "Transmissions" EP available on CD-R. The music on the EP encapsulates the band with Adam on guitar and it would be a waste to just let it reside in the vaults to gather dust. To read more on the songs on the EP click here.
Recorded February 28 - March 3 2002 by Roger Andersson.
Send an e-mail to henkej@hotmail.com if you
want to get a copy.
