BJÖRN AND BENNY OF ABBA
"FINALLY FREED FROM THOSE THREE MINUTES"
Since
ABBA won the Eurovision Songcontest with Waterloo in 1974, hit after hit
poured in and money, money, money was made. Never before, a non-British
or non-American formation had such big succes. Apart from creating
the perfect popsound from the Stockholm-based Polar Studio's, ABBA also
became Sweden's most lucrative export product. Nevertheless, the
illustrious quartet seem to fall apart now.
Frida and Agnetha keep making solo albums with varying
succes and prove with this that they can't make it without their songwriters,
arrangers and producers Björn and Benny. The men from ABBA
have recently broken a long period of silence with one-and-a-half hour
of symphonic music for the musicial "Chess".
This concert- and recordproduction, provided with lyrics
from Tim Rice (the maker of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita"), doesn't
have Agnetha and Frida's voices. Stars of this musical are among
others Elaine Paige, Murray Head, Tommy Körberg en the London Symphonic
Orchestra.
Björn and Benny: "Besides our pop-background we
mainly drew from European classical music for Chess. Mozart and
Strauss had a big influence, both harmoniously and qua form. The
part-singing of the choir and the orchestra are classical. The melodies
and sound, we put on record in our own Polar Studio's, remind unmistakable
of ABBA.
"The ambiguousness of Chess is clearly heard through
the voices and the use of instruments; there's a classic orchestra and
a rock band, there are pop-vocalists and classic-skilled singers. "Chess
was not written with the American musical tradition as a model.
It's ABBA music we couldn't perform as pop-group ABBA. The songs
are too long and complicated for that. You should listen to Chess
in full as a complete concert
"Early 1983 we looked up to composing such a long piece
of music. In retrospect we did better than with many ABBA Top 40
songs. The countless conditions the hitmachine ABBA claimed, fell
off our shoulders as a burden. It was relieving that you didn't
have to summarize your ideas in a limited framework of three minutes and
some seconds anymore. Finally, we were able to compose unimpedingly.
Chess gave us more satisfaction than a pop-album for ABBA. If the
musical appears to be a succes, than we will continue on the same footing.
"The only problem of a concert and theatre production
like this that you can only bring the perfect studio sound on stage with
a truckload of equipment. This is, altogether with the 230 people
who work on the show, a very expensive business. Reason enough to
attract 'Saab-Scania' to sponsor the concert tour (London, Paris, Amsterdam,
Hamburg and Stockhom).
"In Stockholm, we have our studio complex with our
own sound engineer Michael Tretow. We have a tape archive with over
3000 special sound effects in the Polar Studio's . What the exact
attractive power of our sound is, remains a mystery for us too.
It's the combination and mixture of sounds that was determinative.
We were never able to give the recipe of the ABBA-sound. We compose
on guitar, piano and synthesizer. How it will sound in the end is
always a surprise to us.
"Chess is our first own musical. The London musical
"Abracadabra" is a collage of our ABBA-hits. We had nothing to do
with the design and performance. The story of Chess is about two
important chess games. One in Merano and the other in Bangkok.
America, performed by pop-vocalists, and Russia, sung by classic skilled
voices are opponents. The main character is Florence (Elaine Paige)
who stands above everyone. She's on nobody's side. The musical
itself is not a coverage of the chess game or the relation between East
and West, but the story of the players and Florence.
"We chose Elaine Paige, who became a star after Evita
and Cats, because she's a singer with a good technique as well as a threatre
actress: a combination you hardly find in pop business. We needed
her because we also work with classic skilled singers.
The biggest question that rises now is if "The Day
Before You Came" from 1982 will remain the last complete ABBA-hit.
Björn and Benny aren't optimistic. "At this moment we are lack
of plans and inspiration for a new ABBA-album."
ELSEVIERS MAGAZINE, 22 DECEMBER
1984
(translated from Dutch to English)
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