Updated Pictures of Band Members 2014

Kurt Von Hahn

Bill Elliott

Latest News - The Virtual Reunion!

After three and a half decades the four original members of Paralandra (Kurt von Hahn, Steve Bagnell, Bill Elliot and Kevin Atwood) are now working on a new music project together.

Since we are located all over Canada  (from one end to the other), we will be using the Internet for communication, exchanging files.  

It will be interesting to see what we come up with!

Stay tuned ...

Roadie Chris Takes a Quick Break Inside P.A. High in Dartmouth, N.S.

My buddy Chris gave us a hand moving our gear and setting up for the concert. Seen here in the foray of Price Andrew High School (click here to see the outside of building today)

Bob The Guitar Player Smiling For The Camera

This a picture of Bob our guitar player in front of the bus that was kindly supplied by band friend Richard Bonner of Atlantic Illumination. Richard also ran and supplied supplemental effects for our little concert.

6 Hours Of Set Up Time - 45 Min. of Songs

Setting up for the free concert at Prince Andrew High School. Bill is setting up his drum kit and Bob and Chris are assembling the massive light show that was only exceeded by our ear splitting PA system. There were also some really weird slides projected on the back screen of various nature settings. I can remember while I was playing on stage during the concert, turning sideways to look at Bill our drummer and seeing a 12 foot picture of a spider over his head.

Unfortunately the concert got cut short due to someone pulling the fire alarm. I guess they had a problem with our music.

What Every Living Room Needs

Here's a picture of the stack of amplifiers and speakers in the living room of the purple Band House. There's also a Tapco mixer. Tapco mixers had these volume controls that required the torque of a pipe wrench to adjust.

The Old Purple Band House

Here's another picture I just found from around the same time. I never noticed this until I scanned this picture but you can actually see Kurt sticking his head out the door. Click on the picture to see to get a good look at Kurt. Here's what the place looks like now (click here). Back then the place was painted a dark purple color.

Who in the heck was Paralandra anyway?

So ... after looking at all these pictures your probably thinking, "Who in the heck was Paralandra?"

Paralardra (other than being the misspelling of the title of a book by C.S.Lewis) was a group of visionary young men who got together in the mid-seventies to explore the vast universe of music.

BEFORE THE WONDER YEARS

I can't actually remember how many years I was involved in Paralandra because before Paralandra there was the "Group of three guys from the high school choir who became music geeks" group. We would occasionally attend a concert of one of the two local university Avant-Garde of performance groups. In my opinion the most entertaining of those concerts were the ones put on by the university students for their final, year end music projects. You never know what was going to happen. They could play a piece of music that used the percussive sounds of a series of dinner plates breaking on the floor every 12 bars or feature a guitar player on stage getting ready to play his classical guitar but never actually playing a note though out the whole performance. It was hilariously insane. They used a big electric wall clock on a music stand to execute the various "song" sections by. Although usually not very musical, it was very entertaining and on the way out the door, we always felt like we got our money's worth.

Attending all those Avante-Garde concerts really got us going and we decided that the "Group of three guys from the high school choir who became music geeks" group would form their own Avante-Garde musical group.

The first piece of music the pre-Paralandra group wrote together was a little 25 minute tune base on the book of Revelations from the Bible. We actually ended up recording with one of the guys (Steve) reading right out of the bible (who unfortunately at the time had a bad cold). The mood was cosmically enhanced through the use of a instrument amplifier that had a built-in spring reverberation effect that we borowed from a guy in school.

Paralandra represents 7 years, 7 concerts and a bunch of bass lines (none of which were written 44 time). We had our ups and downs but we were very focused on a common goal, to create our own music.

Since then (back in the mid-seventies) I've never been able to find a music project anywhere nearly as esoterically indulgent and entertainingly complicated as Paralandra (with exception of my own personal musical marinading).

Kevin at 22 (I think)

Guitar Salesman

Paul Martell (at Mount Allison University)

Me working at Music Stop

My first guitar

Paralandra Poster

Concert Mixer

My Guitars used for Paralandra

Kevin with Rickenbacker

Setting up for concert

Kurt setting up for Paralandra concert

Go here (click on this) for Paralandra mention in the Nova Scotia Classic Rock site created and maintained by Peter Crowe (thanks Peter!)

Gearing up to go to a Genesis Concert (1500 miles due west)

Richard Post Gentle Giant Concert hanging out in Music Stop

Introspective music discussion

Kurt and the Micro Moog

Setting up the Monster Light Show

Bill managing the monster light show

Music Talk and a Late Night Donair

Post Flood Recovery

Steve Enjoying Between Song high jinks

Kurt's Keyboard Bay

Living Room Furniture at Band House

Bob A. with a Flying V