Lotus

Lotus was a Swedish jazz-rock band that made the 1974/75 SMA albums Lotus and Vera O’Flera.

Members: Stefan Berggrensson (bass), Claes Ericsson (piano, organ), Anders Lindvall (guitar), Robert Larsson (guitar), Håkan Nyberg (drums), Henning Övferbeck (drums)

Background

Lotus formed in 1973 in Malmö when guitarist Anders “Chico” Lindvall assembled an instrumental group with former Asoka keyboardist Claes Ericsson and guitarist Robert “Robban” Larsson. Bassist Stefan Berggrensson and drummer Henning Öfverbeck completed the lineup.

Lindvall was born on December 20, 1953, in Malmö and began playing with Lund rhythm-and-blues band Aunt Sally at sixteen. Ericsson co-founded Taste of Blues in Malmö in 1967 and played organ and violin on the 1969 album Schizofrenia. He continued with drummer Patrik Erixson in Take Off. The group became Asoka in 1971 with bassist Kent “Tjobbe” Bengtsson and drummer Alf “Daffy” Bengtsson. Larsson joined Asoka on guitar for the self-titled Sonet album that year.

Asoka continued in revised lineups into the early 1970s. An Asoka recording preserves an earlier form of “At El-Yago 9-3,” later included in the Lotus repertoire. By 1974, the quintet recorded ten instrumental tracks for a self-titled album on SMA, catalog number 3001.

Discography:

• Lotus (1974)
• Vera O’Flera (1975)