Anna Själv Tredje

Anna Själv Tredje was a Swedish electronic duo that released the popular album Tussilago Fanfara on the Silence label in 1977. Keyboardist Ingemar Ljungström subsequently headed the space-rock/coldwave combos Cosmic Overdose and Twice a Man.

Members: Ingemar Ljungström [aka Karl Gasleben] (keyboards), Mikael Bojén (keyboards, guitar)

Formation

Anna Själv Tredje centered on the musical partnership of Ljungström and guitarist/keyboardist Mikael Bojén, who forged one of the nation’s first musical alliances to draw upon the Berlin school (Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Temple). Their name derives from The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci completed around 1519, and refers to the Christian image of Saint Anne with Mary and the infant Jesus. In Swedish, Anna själv tredje identifies Anne as the third figure in that three-generation grouping, a phrase related to the German Anna selbdritt.

They linked with Silence Records, the home of local stalwarts Bo Hansson, Dimmornas Bro, Fläsket Brinner, Kebnekaise, Samla Mammas Manna,and Turid.

Tussilago Fanfara

Anna Själv Tredje released their singular album, Tussilago Fanfara, in November 1977 on Silence. Tussilago is the Latin botanical name for coltsfoot, a yellow wildflower.

“Mossen” opens the album in a dark, slow swell as wind-like tones, organ, and electronic currents gather weight, then hold a steady pulse while brighter synthesizer traces rise across the final stretch. “Ankomster utanför tiden” starts from looped whispers and blowing air, adds organ and electronic motion in layers, then shifts midway into a sparser passage where percussion and high, abrasive guitar cut across the surface before the track withdraws to its opening hush.

“Den barbariska söndagen” drifts in on organ, synthesizer, and spacious sustained tones, builds through deeper low-end pressure and pulsing electronic detail, then eases back into a long suspended close. “Tusen år & sju timmar” brings the most organic attack, with repetitive percussion and picked guitar set against a calm electronic bed; a fresh sound enters around the six-minute mark, and the piece opens into a more distant, space-lit close.

A1. “Mossen” [The Bog] (7:20)
A2. “Ankomster utanför tiden” [Arrivals Outside Time] (11:28)

B1. “Den barbariska söndagen” [The Barbaric Sunday] (14:13)
B2. “Tusen år & sju timmar” [A Thousand Years & Seven Hours] (8:32)

Sessions spanned January 11 and April 11, 1977, and supervised by one Lars Engdahl.

Tussilago Fanfara features artwork credited to Swedish photographer Tom Benson. The front cover places the album title and band name in ornate white blackletter against a black field, then layers a large close-up female face over a grainy lakeside landscape. Trees and shoreline cut across the eyes and cheeks, while a small rowboat sits near the lower left, which gives the image a dreamlike double-exposure effect with nature and portrait fused into one haunted scene. The back cover continues the monochrome pastoral imagery with a still pond, dense trees, and a lone standing figure near the bank.

Postlude

Ljungström briefly joined Ragnarök and played on the 1980 album Biomusik by Kai Martin & STICK! That same year, he adopted the name Karl Gasleben and issued his first of two albums with Cosmic Overdose. That project evolved into Twice a Man, which yielded multiple albums across the decade on self-press Xenophone International.

Discography:

• Tussilago Fanfara (1977)

Sources:

• Discogs: Anna Själv Tredje
• RYM: Anna Själv Tredje
• ProgArchives: Anna Själv Tredje