A Rough Guide To The Scandinavian Prog Revival
Posted by: Nick Lees on 20 September 2007
It’s a bit of a sad thing that Prog has become a rather dirty word since Punk, and that so many ears are closed to it. Not that it arguably didn’t need a good sorting out by 1976/7 with bands like Yes and ELP having disappeared up their own fundaments by then, but it temporarily, at least, killed a genre that at its best had many wonderful things about it.
It never really went away of course, but what’s happened since 1990-ish has produced a welter of wonderful new music and if the roots of this music can be traced (sometimes very audibly) to the innovative giants of that first era, such as Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, ELP and Gentle Giant amongst others, then so what.
The Prog revival is strong in many places, particularly in the UK and America but this thread’s to celebrate the somewhat unique brand that’s come out of Scandinavia in this period.
I’m not going to go into great detail about each band or all their albums, but just give my brief recommendations and point at particular resources (usually Myspace, Prog Archives, Band or Fan sites) where samples can be heard.
What does seem to stand out is an enduring love of the mellotron, and a generally melancholic sound…but don’t let that put you off . In fact you’ll find reviews of nearly everything here on Andy Thompson’s marvellous Planet Mellotron website, so don’t just take my word for it.
Oh, and thanks to Goose, a former? contributor here and someone who really knows what he’s on about in this territory, who started me off on Landberk and Anekdoten a few years back and which led to the following.
I also can’t wait to hear what the environment does for Mt Bennett’s output…
…and I’ll be thrilled to hear what else is out there if anyone has recommendations.
Änglagård
Swedish. Arguably the ones who started it off in about 1991, they made two top studio albums Hybris and Epilog and a live one Buried Alive before disbanding – Buried Alive was their last concert before a brief reunion a couple of years ago. Both the studio albums are corkers – mostly instrumental, bags of mellotron, Crimsonesque bass, flute and guitar – but have been deleted for years and there’s no sign of a re-issue, but thankfully Buried Alive is a good substitute, taking material from both the studio efforts and despite their self-criticism of their performance it is very good indeed.
This is a fan site with odd scraps of news and samples
Landberk
Swedish. They started just after Änglagård, and are musically less dense though there’s still a hint of Crimson in their make-up they’re definitely their own band. Miserable buggers, of course, but this is Prog without a hint of bombast. They made three studio albums and one live, all of which are hell to find at the moment but I can recommend Lonely Land and Indian Summer. Stefan Dimle (bass) and Reine Fiske (lead guitar) went on to found Paatos, though Fiske has subsequently worked with Morte Macabre and currently Dungen.
There's a track here at Prog Archives
Anekdoten
Swedish. I’ve written about them before – they started out as a Crimson covers band and it shows in their first couple of studio albums Vemod, their first from 1993 and Nucleus but they’ve still got an unmistakeable feel to them and I thoroughly recommend the Japanese version of Vemod for the addition of the killer track Sad Rain. Like Änglagård they’re jammed with mellotron but also add cello and guitar to the mix. The live album Official Bootleg: Live In Japan is an excellent document of the first two albums – well recorded and powerfully played.
Their next two, From Within and Gravity are far less Crimson influenced and are rather quieter affairs, but nonetheless still excellent, as is the following live album, again recorded in Japan Waking The Dead.
The new album A Time Of Day, released this year, is a corker and will be one of my albums of the year. The sound is somewhat less dark than the former albums and slightly more varied. They even manage to sound like classic period Caravan on one track!
This is the official site, this their main Myspace page, this their main songwriter’s page. and this their cellist/keyboardist’s page. And here’s Prog Archives. All have varying selections of tracks to be heard.
So, a great band, rather gloomy, not the sort where you’d sit through their entire oeuvre in one go, good as it is.
Morte Macabre
Swedish. A one (soon to be two) off band with members from Anekdoten, Landberk and Paatos joining together to render Prog takes on bits of soundtrack from various horror movies (e.g. the lullaby from Rosemary’s Baby) plus an epic 17 minute track of their own. The gimmick here is that they all play mellotron, but it’s excellent music regardless of gimmicks (and there’s plenty of Niklas Barker and Reine Fiske’s guitar here too.
Their Myspace site
Wobbler
Norwegian. A super band with a crap name. Wobbler are straight out of the Änglagård mold – guitar, mellotron (and other analogue keys), flute, and even a guest appearance from a theorbo. Their sole album Hinterland is flat-out excellent – three long tracks of instrumental complexity but never too twiddly. The vocals are nothing to write home about, but they’re few and far between. The samples don’t do justice – particularly to the 28 minute Hinterland itself – to the music.
Their Myspace site and their band site.
White Willow
Norwegian. White Willow are mostly the brainchild of Jacob Holm-Lupo. Their roots are more in the folk area – their first two albums Ignis Fatuus and Ex Tenebris are very much in a folk-prog tradition and are my personal favourites. Lots of different instruments and a mixture of male and female vocals. Their next two, Sacrament and Storm Season veer towards more traditional rock, albeit in Renaissance-style, with heavier guitars parts and shorter songs, but are still very good. I haven’t heard the most recent one.
Their Myspace site. This is the Myspace site of Jacob Holm-Lupo’s side project The Opium Cartel. This is interesting in that by following this you get to hear an album in the making, as he’s putting up raw demos then different versions as he adds stuff to the songs in the studio. Interesting.
In The Labyrinth
Swedish. ITL are mostly the work of Peter Lindahl, who’s been going for ages in one guise or another. ITL date from the mid 90’s to date. They’re very different to all the above in that the music’s heavily influenced by Middle-Eastern and Indian styles, again mostly instrumental but with some vocal tracks that remind me in a weird way of the first East Of Eden album (for those old folk).
Of all of the albums in this thread, these are probably my favourites. They’re not hard-core prog in any way shape or form, but each one is like having an old friend round for the evening – a comfortable atmosphere where one can feel relaxed but never bored. The instrumental layering and textures are wonders to behold – and as mentioned above they’re mostly all him so goodness knows how long it takes him to record an album.
The first album The Garden Of Mysteries is deleted, but if you buy the second two Walking On Clouds and Dryad from the band’s website for the princely sum of $20 (that’s both albums including postage anywhere in the world), he’ll send you a CDR of the first one plus the artwork. Listen to the samples there and on Myspace, and if you like their sound this is truly a bargain.
Dungen
Swedish. OK, they’re not really Prog at all (though the first one has some echoes of very early Porcupine Tree) but more retro-psych…but they’re fab so they’re in. Entirely the work of Gustav Ejstes, but augmented live by the likes of Reine Fiske, they’re a joyful ride (in Swedish) into a sort of early Floydian/Hendrix landscape with none of the usual drawbacks of retro (style but no content) because Gustav can write excellent songs and plays a mean guitar. Here’s Myspace and here’s the band website.
The first album Dungen is the proggiest and very good, Stadsvandringar has shorter songs and is good, Ta det lungt is a mixture and brilliant, and the new one Tio Bitar similar in make-up, but fractionally less good.
Sinkadus
Swedish. Probably defunct now, but no-one’s owning up to it. They were going in the 90s. Of their two studio albums, only the first one Aurum Nostrum is available now. It’s very good though not of the first water, clearly influenced by Änglagård . Samples can be heard here the band’s website. The live album Live At Progfest 97 is apparently a close re-run of the first album, and I haven’t heard the second album Cirkus.
Kvazar
Norwegian. They’ve made two albums, Kvazar and A Giant’s Lullaby, both of which are good, but I struggle to pin a style on them. They’ve got one, but I can’t describe it! They have a very very small web-footprint (there’re a couple of other bands called Kvazar out there) so this, their website is the best I can do.
The 3rd And Mortal
Norwegian. They’ve made several albums, though I’ve only heard the one, Painting On Glass, that is reckoned to be their best. It’s a nice mixture of Prog and Post-rock. Again, they have a very small presence on the web so this is the best I can do. Well worth getting if you see it cheap.
Paatos
Swedish. Formed from the remains of Landberk but very different in sound (female vocalist for a start), which is a sort of Prog-chill. Loads of mellotron. They’re a work in progress for me I’ve got their first Timeloss, which is uniformly very good though it does have a rather out-of-character finishing track that’s more like trip=hop than Prog. Listen to the samples on their website and in particular Tea. I’ve also got their second Kallocain and though it’s more uniform in style I don’t think it’s quite as good. Their Myspace samples concentrate on a live record so isn’t quite to indicative as usual.
Trettioåriga Kriget
Swedish. This lot have been going since the early 70s, recording several albums before giving up> I’ve not yet heard any of these. However, such is the effect of the Prog revival and the impact the Internet is having, they decided to reform a couple of years ago and have recorded two albums Elden Av År and the very new one I Början Och Slutet . Both of these are excellent and to my ears at least sound like no-one else. They’re guitar-led and the guitar sound (and production) is to die for. There’s some mellotron but for once I don’t mind a bit that it comes a very distant second to the guitars. Vocals are in Swedish, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Here’s their website and Myspace and Prog Archives, so plenty of music to judge them on.
Gosta Berlings Saga
Swedish. Named after a book? This lot are on the jazz side of Prog, and very well they do it too. Only one album so far Tid är ljud, but warmly recommended. Tracks here on Myspace and on their website
The Flower Kings
Swedish. Here I bow to others. Despite many attempts I can’t really cleave to this lot, which is a shame because Roine Stolt is nothing if not prolific and they are probably the most popular and successful of these bands.
Perhaps it’s the vocals, which leave me cold and feel there’s too much of. I have a couple of albums Back In The World Of Adventures and Unfold The Future. I like one quite a bit better than the other, but I’ll be blowed if I could tell you which. So I’ll leave the recommendations to those who do appreciate them!
Samples on Myspace and the band’s website
It never really went away of course, but what’s happened since 1990-ish has produced a welter of wonderful new music and if the roots of this music can be traced (sometimes very audibly) to the innovative giants of that first era, such as Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, ELP and Gentle Giant amongst others, then so what.
The Prog revival is strong in many places, particularly in the UK and America but this thread’s to celebrate the somewhat unique brand that’s come out of Scandinavia in this period.
I’m not going to go into great detail about each band or all their albums, but just give my brief recommendations and point at particular resources (usually Myspace, Prog Archives, Band or Fan sites) where samples can be heard.
What does seem to stand out is an enduring love of the mellotron, and a generally melancholic sound…but don’t let that put you off . In fact you’ll find reviews of nearly everything here on Andy Thompson’s marvellous Planet Mellotron website, so don’t just take my word for it.
Oh, and thanks to Goose, a former? contributor here and someone who really knows what he’s on about in this territory, who started me off on Landberk and Anekdoten a few years back and which led to the following.
I also can’t wait to hear what the environment does for Mt Bennett’s output…
…and I’ll be thrilled to hear what else is out there if anyone has recommendations.
Änglagård
Swedish. Arguably the ones who started it off in about 1991, they made two top studio albums Hybris and Epilog and a live one Buried Alive before disbanding – Buried Alive was their last concert before a brief reunion a couple of years ago. Both the studio albums are corkers – mostly instrumental, bags of mellotron, Crimsonesque bass, flute and guitar – but have been deleted for years and there’s no sign of a re-issue, but thankfully Buried Alive is a good substitute, taking material from both the studio efforts and despite their self-criticism of their performance it is very good indeed.
This is a fan site with odd scraps of news and samples
Landberk
Swedish. They started just after Änglagård, and are musically less dense though there’s still a hint of Crimson in their make-up they’re definitely their own band. Miserable buggers, of course, but this is Prog without a hint of bombast. They made three studio albums and one live, all of which are hell to find at the moment but I can recommend Lonely Land and Indian Summer. Stefan Dimle (bass) and Reine Fiske (lead guitar) went on to found Paatos, though Fiske has subsequently worked with Morte Macabre and currently Dungen.
There's a track here at Prog Archives
Anekdoten
Swedish. I’ve written about them before – they started out as a Crimson covers band and it shows in their first couple of studio albums Vemod, their first from 1993 and Nucleus but they’ve still got an unmistakeable feel to them and I thoroughly recommend the Japanese version of Vemod for the addition of the killer track Sad Rain. Like Änglagård they’re jammed with mellotron but also add cello and guitar to the mix. The live album Official Bootleg: Live In Japan is an excellent document of the first two albums – well recorded and powerfully played.
Their next two, From Within and Gravity are far less Crimson influenced and are rather quieter affairs, but nonetheless still excellent, as is the following live album, again recorded in Japan Waking The Dead.
The new album A Time Of Day, released this year, is a corker and will be one of my albums of the year. The sound is somewhat less dark than the former albums and slightly more varied. They even manage to sound like classic period Caravan on one track!
This is the official site, this their main Myspace page, this their main songwriter’s page. and this their cellist/keyboardist’s page. And here’s Prog Archives. All have varying selections of tracks to be heard.
So, a great band, rather gloomy, not the sort where you’d sit through their entire oeuvre in one go, good as it is.
Morte Macabre
Swedish. A one (soon to be two) off band with members from Anekdoten, Landberk and Paatos joining together to render Prog takes on bits of soundtrack from various horror movies (e.g. the lullaby from Rosemary’s Baby) plus an epic 17 minute track of their own. The gimmick here is that they all play mellotron, but it’s excellent music regardless of gimmicks (and there’s plenty of Niklas Barker and Reine Fiske’s guitar here too.
Their Myspace site
Wobbler
Norwegian. A super band with a crap name. Wobbler are straight out of the Änglagård mold – guitar, mellotron (and other analogue keys), flute, and even a guest appearance from a theorbo. Their sole album Hinterland is flat-out excellent – three long tracks of instrumental complexity but never too twiddly. The vocals are nothing to write home about, but they’re few and far between. The samples don’t do justice – particularly to the 28 minute Hinterland itself – to the music.
Their Myspace site and their band site.
White Willow
Norwegian. White Willow are mostly the brainchild of Jacob Holm-Lupo. Their roots are more in the folk area – their first two albums Ignis Fatuus and Ex Tenebris are very much in a folk-prog tradition and are my personal favourites. Lots of different instruments and a mixture of male and female vocals. Their next two, Sacrament and Storm Season veer towards more traditional rock, albeit in Renaissance-style, with heavier guitars parts and shorter songs, but are still very good. I haven’t heard the most recent one.
Their Myspace site. This is the Myspace site of Jacob Holm-Lupo’s side project The Opium Cartel. This is interesting in that by following this you get to hear an album in the making, as he’s putting up raw demos then different versions as he adds stuff to the songs in the studio. Interesting.
In The Labyrinth
Swedish. ITL are mostly the work of Peter Lindahl, who’s been going for ages in one guise or another. ITL date from the mid 90’s to date. They’re very different to all the above in that the music’s heavily influenced by Middle-Eastern and Indian styles, again mostly instrumental but with some vocal tracks that remind me in a weird way of the first East Of Eden album (for those old folk).
Of all of the albums in this thread, these are probably my favourites. They’re not hard-core prog in any way shape or form, but each one is like having an old friend round for the evening – a comfortable atmosphere where one can feel relaxed but never bored. The instrumental layering and textures are wonders to behold – and as mentioned above they’re mostly all him so goodness knows how long it takes him to record an album.
The first album The Garden Of Mysteries is deleted, but if you buy the second two Walking On Clouds and Dryad from the band’s website for the princely sum of $20 (that’s both albums including postage anywhere in the world), he’ll send you a CDR of the first one plus the artwork. Listen to the samples there and on Myspace, and if you like their sound this is truly a bargain.
Dungen
Swedish. OK, they’re not really Prog at all (though the first one has some echoes of very early Porcupine Tree) but more retro-psych…but they’re fab so they’re in. Entirely the work of Gustav Ejstes, but augmented live by the likes of Reine Fiske, they’re a joyful ride (in Swedish) into a sort of early Floydian/Hendrix landscape with none of the usual drawbacks of retro (style but no content) because Gustav can write excellent songs and plays a mean guitar. Here’s Myspace and here’s the band website.
The first album Dungen is the proggiest and very good, Stadsvandringar has shorter songs and is good, Ta det lungt is a mixture and brilliant, and the new one Tio Bitar similar in make-up, but fractionally less good.
Sinkadus
Swedish. Probably defunct now, but no-one’s owning up to it. They were going in the 90s. Of their two studio albums, only the first one Aurum Nostrum is available now. It’s very good though not of the first water, clearly influenced by Änglagård . Samples can be heard here the band’s website. The live album Live At Progfest 97 is apparently a close re-run of the first album, and I haven’t heard the second album Cirkus.
Kvazar
Norwegian. They’ve made two albums, Kvazar and A Giant’s Lullaby, both of which are good, but I struggle to pin a style on them. They’ve got one, but I can’t describe it! They have a very very small web-footprint (there’re a couple of other bands called Kvazar out there) so this, their website is the best I can do.
The 3rd And Mortal
Norwegian. They’ve made several albums, though I’ve only heard the one, Painting On Glass, that is reckoned to be their best. It’s a nice mixture of Prog and Post-rock. Again, they have a very small presence on the web so this is the best I can do. Well worth getting if you see it cheap.
Paatos
Swedish. Formed from the remains of Landberk but very different in sound (female vocalist for a start), which is a sort of Prog-chill. Loads of mellotron. They’re a work in progress for me I’ve got their first Timeloss, which is uniformly very good though it does have a rather out-of-character finishing track that’s more like trip=hop than Prog. Listen to the samples on their website and in particular Tea. I’ve also got their second Kallocain and though it’s more uniform in style I don’t think it’s quite as good. Their Myspace samples concentrate on a live record so isn’t quite to indicative as usual.
Trettioåriga Kriget
Swedish. This lot have been going since the early 70s, recording several albums before giving up> I’ve not yet heard any of these. However, such is the effect of the Prog revival and the impact the Internet is having, they decided to reform a couple of years ago and have recorded two albums Elden Av År and the very new one I Början Och Slutet . Both of these are excellent and to my ears at least sound like no-one else. They’re guitar-led and the guitar sound (and production) is to die for. There’s some mellotron but for once I don’t mind a bit that it comes a very distant second to the guitars. Vocals are in Swedish, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Here’s their website and Myspace and Prog Archives, so plenty of music to judge them on.
Gosta Berlings Saga
Swedish. Named after a book? This lot are on the jazz side of Prog, and very well they do it too. Only one album so far Tid är ljud, but warmly recommended. Tracks here on Myspace and on their website
The Flower Kings
Swedish. Here I bow to others. Despite many attempts I can’t really cleave to this lot, which is a shame because Roine Stolt is nothing if not prolific and they are probably the most popular and successful of these bands.
Perhaps it’s the vocals, which leave me cold and feel there’s too much of. I have a couple of albums Back In The World Of Adventures and Unfold The Future. I like one quite a bit better than the other, but I’ll be blowed if I could tell you which. So I’ll leave the recommendations to those who do appreciate them!
Samples on Myspace and the band’s website