“They come in and they just, you know, ‘Here you go guys, we can still do this,’” Andersson said. There, they put down their vocals on the ballad “I Still Have Faith in You” and the string-laden disco of “Don’t Shut Me Down.” The two singers, who have been out of the music business for several years, picked up right where they left off. In 2017 Faltskog, who lives outside Stockholm, and Lyngstad, who lives in Switzerland, traveled to RMV studio, a hundred yards from Andersson’s base on Skeppsholmen. Ulvaeus, who has always had an entrepreneurial bent, continues to pursue various projects with his production and hospitality company Pophouse Entertainment (and pilots a red Tesla).Īndersson and Ulvaeus decided that the Abbatars should have some fresh material because that’s what would have happened before a tour back in the day.
The duo still complement each other almost comically perfectly: Andersson is a musician’s musician who goes to his studio almost every day (and drives an ultracompact Toyota). “They’ll still play ‘Dancing Queen’ next year.” Just ask Madonna, who directly appealed to the group for a sample of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” for her 2005 hit “Hung Up.”Īndersson and Ulvaeus could easily have just sat on their piles of kronor, with the knowledge that their place in the record books was secure: “What is there to prove?” Andersson said. The band’s classic songcraft and studio wizardry continues to bridge musical allegiances, drawing fans as diverse as Elvis Costello, Carly Rae Jepsen, Jarvis Cocker, Kylie Minogue and Dave Grohl. “They are truly a global phenomenon, and have been so since they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with ‘Waterloo.’”Īnd every decade or so, something has rekindled interest, starting with the 1992 compilation “Abba Gold,” which is still on the British charts more than 1,000 weeks after its release (I wrote the liner notes to a 2010 reissue). “Abba is simply one of the biggest groups in the history of popular music,” Michelle Jubelirer, president and chief operating officer of Capitol Music Group, wrote in an email.
Starting in a custom-built London venue next May, the group will perform as highly sophisticated avatars (or in this case, Abbatars) designed to replicate their 1979 look - the era of feathered hair and flamboyant stage wear. Now Abba is risking perhaps its most valuable asset - its legacy - by not only releasing a fresh addition to its catalog, but creating a stage show that features none of its members in the flesh. The 1999 jukebox musical “Mamma Mia!” paired the group’s hits with an unrelated plot, sparking a slew of imitators and two film adaptations that brought us the spectacle of Meryl Streep singing “Dancing Queen.” Its 1981 album “The Visitors” is generally acknowledged as the first commercial release on compact disc. Starting in the mid-1970s, it was among the first acts to make elaborate promotional mini-films - we’d call them music videos now - most of them directed by Lasse Hallstrom. “We did this thing and we are on the front page of every paper in the world.”īut its paradigm-shifting impact can’t be measured only in numbers: The group was known for taking risks with technology and the use of its songs. “Abba is another vessel, isn’t it?” Ulvaeus marveled at the studio, just steps from the larger one where they completed their clandestine LP. “We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it,” the group said in a statement in September. He tucked a packet of the oral tobacco snus in his mouth as Bjorn Ulvaeus sipped coffee in one of its sunbathed rooms earlier this month, the two musicians surrounded by a grand piano, a small selection of synths and an assortment of framed photographs that were perched behind a computer screen.įor the first time since the Reagan administration, the pair were discussing a new album by their band, Abba - an album one of the biggest international pop acts in history somehow made in secret, with all four of its original members congregating nearly four decades after giving their last public performance. STOCKHOLM - The small, tranquil island of Skeppsholmen holds a handful of the Swedish capital’s artistic treasures: Moderna Museet, the theater group Teater Galeasen and the converted red brick warehouse just steps from a waterfront promenade where Benny Andersson has his personal studio.
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