ad dios

Our interest for Arthurian and Celtic legends was, besides the litterature mentioned before, also a result of a musical impact; Myths and legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Rick Wakeman (also known as the keyboard wizard from YES). There was in fact a rare show on Swedish television in 1975 from Wembley arena, where Rick & Co performed the entire album on ice! Something only for the true Wakeman fan to view, though… : ) When watching the brilliant TV-series Cosmos by Carl Sagan in the early 80s, it was of course impossible not to notice the theme music by Vangelis. As being doubtlessly one of the most talanted, and successful, composers of electronic music, he has ever since been a continuous source of inspiration for ad dios! Another major influence appeared when, in 1985, attendning the performance of the opera Akhnaten at ENO in London. The American composer Philip Glass had created something we had never heard before. We found it so fascinating, that we extendend our stay one night to see the performance once again! From that moment there has been a constant presence of Mr Glass in our composing… : )

It is of course always nice to realise that someone has taken the effort and made a cover or a new arrangement from a song of ours. This has not been the case very often with ad dios, but there are a few examples though! : ) The latest representatives has in fact not yet been heard at all, because the performances will take place in April. It is a youth symphony orchestra in Lund who during their concerts in both Lomma Church, 25th April, and Stadshallen in Lund, 26th April, will play classical arrangments of Spiral Dance (Avalon) and Overlooking (Echoes in Stone). We will update you with more information about the concerts as soon as possible… But, there is another cover example as well; a very early song, Battle of Mount Badon. This piece never made it for an album mainly because it did not really fit in with the other tracks. But, it was always on our set list when performing live. Our good friend and cooperation partner, Anders Widell, found the song so intriguing that he made a version of his own! Listen to both the original and the cover below – indeed nostalgic gems from the past…

Combining myths and legends from both Celtic and Nordic traditions, you will end up in the magnificent landscape of J R R Tolkien. This is exactly the ideal surroundings for ad dios, and where we have been lurking around the last year and a half! : ) To no great surprise our new album will be entitled: A Journey through Middle-Earth… We are of course not the first ones to find musical inspiration from The Lord of the Rings. Other Swedish groups have walked down the same path many years before us; Bo Hansson and Isildurs Bane, to mention the two most notable. The treats we present you this time, are a preliminary version of the last track, Anduin, as well as a draft of the cover. And, why not, since there is lots of time for listening during the weekend; we also publish a somewhat updated version of the title track! : ) Middle-Earth – mp3 Anduin – mp3 Regards from Middle-Earth, ad dios Further listening: Bo Hansson – Sagan om Ringen Isildurs Bane – Sagan om Ringen See also: Bo Hansson Isildurs Bane

One major source of inspiration is nature. This is why ad dios regularly goes travelling, bringing synthesizers and computers along. After a brisk walk alongside the coastline in Cornwall or in the Welsh mountains, the inspiration comes flooding like ale from a vat… : ) The idea to bring our gear to a remote place on the British coast was born in Tintagel (also King Arthurs mythical birthplace) in the mid 80s. While sitting on the cliffs watching the waves roll in from the Irish sea, we realised an urgent need to write music, but our instruments were back in the studio in Sweden. A year later we packed all our equipment (really bulky and heavy back then) in an old Volvo, and made it to Cornwall! And it was just as good as we had hoped for; since then ad dios has been on the road almost every year! The result is both to be heard and seen on all albums (most pictures on the inner sleeves are from these journeys), from Avalon to the coming Middle-Earth. Behold a nostalgic photograph from the very first trip to Cornwall, with the Volvo in front of our beloved Penallick Hotel in

Believe it or not; long before Avalon, and any thoughts of albums, ad dios actually performed as a “live band”! And the demand for recordings from people listening to our gigs was a major factor when the decision was taken to make our first album. The little treat we offer, are two recordings from “Kulturnatten” (The Night of Culture) in Lund 1991. We did performances at this event several times during the late 80s and early 90s. As the recordings are tapped directly from the mixer, you will not hear the audience reactions, but all the wrong notes proves that a good show outweighs a week performance! : ) During the show we projected slides behind the band, some of which are found in the Avalon and Ancient Landscapes CD booklets. Regarding the slides, remember that this was back in the days when the highlight of computer graphics was Tetris and Brick Out… : ) One of the live tracks, Myrddin, has been released on the limited edition CD, Excavations from 1998. The other one, Beltane Fires, is previoulsy unreleased (no to be confused with Beltane Fires on The Endless Knot album though; a completely different song). Myrddin live –