New Compositions
Andersson composes primarily for his 'band' BAO! with the vocalists Sjöholm and Körberg, but keeps his older material alive through re-visiting it, like the staging of 'Mamma Mia!' and the Swedish version of 'Chess'. For a compilation album of the Glenmark duo Gemini, Andersson had Björn Ulvaeus write new Swedish lyrics for the re-recording of two songs from 1984 and 1987. Andersson and Ulvaeus have continuously been writing new material; most recently the two wrote 7 songs for Anderssons 'BAO' 2011 album 'O Klang Och Jubeltid', performed as usual by vocalists Sjöholm, Körberg and Moreus. In July 2009, 'BAO' released their first international release, now named The Benny Andersson Band, with the album The Story of a Heart. The album was a compilation of 14 tracks from Andersson's five Swedish-language releases between 1987 and 2007, including five songs now recorded with lyrics by Ulvaeus in English, and the new title song premiered on BBC2's Ken Bruce Show. A Swedish-language version of the title track, "Sommaren Du Fick" ("The Summer You Got"), was released as a single in Sweden prior to the English version, with vocals by Helen Sjöholm. In the spring of 2009, Andersson also released a single recorded by the staff at his privately owned Stockholm hotel Hotel Rival, titled "2nd Best to None", accompanied by a video showing the staff at work. In 2008, Andersson and Ulvaeus wrote a song for Swedish singer Sissela Kyle, titled "Jag vill bli gammal" ("I Wanna Grow Old"), for her Stockholm stage show "Your Days Are Numbered", which was never recorded and released, but did get a TV performance. Ulvaeus also contributed lyrics to ABBA's 1976 instrumental track "Arrival" for Sarah Brightman's cover version recorded for her 2008 album Winter Symphony. New English lyrics have also been written for Andersson's 1999 song "Innan Gryningen" (then also named "Millennium Hymn"), with the new title "The Silence of the Dawn" for Barbara Dickson (performed live, but not yet recorded and released. In 2007, they wrote the new song "Han som har vunnit allt" ("He Who's Won It All") for actor/singer Anders Ekborg. Björn wrote English lyrics for two older songs from Benny's solo albums: "I Walk with You Mama" ("Stockholm by Night", 1989) and "After the Rain" ("Efter regnet", 1987) for opera singer Anne Sofie Von Otter, for her Andersson tribute album I Let the Music Speak. Barbra Dickson recorded (but not yet released) a Björn & Benny song called 'The Day The Wall Came Tumbling Down'; the song eventually was released by Australian 'Mamma Mia!' musical star Anne Wood 201 album of ABBA covers, Divine Discontent. As of October 2012, Björn Ulvaeus has mentioned writing new material with Benny for a 'BAO' Christmas release (also mentioned as a BAO 'box'), and Benny is busy writing music for a Swedish language obscure musical, 'Hjälp Sökes' ('Help is Wanted') together with Kristina Lugn and Lars Rudolfsson, premiering February 8, 2013. Andersson has also written music for a documentary film about Olof Palme, re-recording the track 'Sorgmarch' from his last album as a theme throughout the film. The song "Kärlekens Tid" -recorded 2004 by Helen Sjöholm with BAO- -has also been performed in concert in English (lyrics by Ylva Eggehorn) by opera baritone Bryn Terfel.
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