About the book

ABBA: Let the music speak – Christopher Patrick’s seminal work on the groundbreaking soundscape and musical legacy of ABBA – will be published in Australia in time for Christmas 2008!

More than 30 years after the stunning Eurovision Song Contest debut of the Swedish supergroup, ABBA’s music remains a benchmark which continues to enthral millions of fans around the world – both on stage and screen as well as on vinyl and disc.

In this equally stunning tour de force, cellist and arranger Chris Patrick has combined his life-long passion for ABBA with his professional musical career skills to create this guide to ABBA’s soundscape: the vocal and keyboard genius and precision audio engineering which continue to defy truly successful emulation to this day.

With his lively and engaging writing style, Chris takes the reader on a personally-guided tour – to quote Foreword writer and ABBA biographer Carl Magnus Palm – “over the hills of joyful exuberance, through the valleys of melancholy and along the stretched-out roads of craftsmanship where their music was created.”

No previous experience is necessary for readers of all types to enjoy the tour – this book has been carefully crafted to appeal to the interested general reader as well as to ABBA fans and serious musicians alike – and don’t we all have an ABBA album somewhere which we would like to enjoy rediscovering?

You will too, after you read this book!

“QUITE LITERALLY AWESOME…A WONDERFUL EXPOSÉ.”
“Chris Patrick’s expertise, his dedication and genuine love of music, and
particularly his deep appreciation and profound understanding of ABBA,
have all combined to create a truly respectful revelation which will take
millions of existing aficionados (many of whom already ‘know everything
there is to know’ about Sweden’s musical gift to the world) to new heights of
awareness.”
– Judith Durham OAM, former lead singer of The Seekers

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SPECIFICATIONS
• 420pp (plus cover) illustrated paperback
• B5 size (175mm wide x 250mm high)
• Includes index, references, list of figures and glossary of musical terms used throughout the book
• Illustrated with reproductions of single/album covers from the author’s collection, as well as specially-created musical figures
• Also includes a Selected Discography, and ‘The world of ABBA’ – a timeline of the group’s history, and a snapshot of ‘what in the world’ was happening at the time
• ISBN 978 0 646 49676 4 (pbk)