Landberk

[Hour Candle]

Well, I also love Änglagård, Sinkadus, Anekdoten etc and their albums are pretty easy to get (well, not Sinkadus...)BUT...The Landberk albums has been OOP for so many years and I think people should at least be alble to get the albums of this great band.

[Crystal Plumage]

Sinkadus might have been there in the clubs (claiming they were already active before Änglagard) and Roine Stolt's The Flower King is from 1994. They were definitely part of the Scandinavian Prog Revival-thingy.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Sinkadus might have been there in the clubs (claiming they were already active before Änglagard) and Roine Stolt's The Flower King is from 1994. They were definitely part of the Scandinavian Prog Revival-thingy.

Sinkadus, yes - they were formed earlier than Änglagård but released their first record in 1995, IIRC - and the Nordic "prog revival" went way back to 1988-89 with stuff like Thule, Utopian Fields, St. Mikael (as mentioned), Lach'n Jonsson (Songs from Cities of Decay) and others. The Flower King was a Stolt solo album; the actual band came later and had only played live a couple of times when we saw them at Berns Salonger (Stockholm) in the summer of '96 - thus they weren't really gathered as part of that very early "revivalist" wave. Although I certainly see why this would seem the case from some people's perspective nowadays. Also, they were seasoned musicians of a somewhat different generation, but so was Pär Lindh, Fruitcake etc. of course.

[Hour Candle]

Well, I love all of the above mentioned bands, but apart from Sinkadus, the other albums are relatively easy to find. The Landberk albums has been OOP for ages, really. Would be really nice to have! And new listeners would have a better chance too. I think they were a great band and I love their sound.

[Paulrus]

While they definitely *were* Nordic "new retro prog" bands, I can't remember Sinkadus or TFK ever to fall in line with those others back then - not up here anyway. Other bands who DID, however, were (to some extent at least) Pär Lindh, Höyry-Kone, Simon Says, St. Mikael, Zello and Qoph. In the sense that they appeared alongside each other at festivals and featured in fanzine articles etc.

I'm talking about when all of these bands first received attention here (in my case, the west coast of the US via the Progfests of the mid 90s.) I should add Par Lindh to the list since I recall first hearing him around the same time as all the other bands.

[Yaman Aksu]

Indian Summer is the only album I heard, in the late 90s, and well it didn't work for me for the most part (and I sold this disc), mainly because of these reasons combined:

After listening to an album as little as 2-3 times, some of it remains with me if it has any tune strong or interesting enough to be memorable. I guess this album didn't have any such tune. The album may be considered atmospheric (and low- to mid-tempo) prog, similar to some late-era Hogarth-era Marillion, but it's actually as (or more) atmospheric alternative rock as it's atmospheric prog, and judging from the lyrics and vocalist's delivery the kind of alternative rock I generally didn't (and don't) care for --- a little too delicate or intimate and maybe even a little feminine (ugh!) music (maybe mainly due to the vocalist's style), and the fact that I was listening to more robust things like heavy King Crimson around the time didn't help. I'm sure there were some interesting vocals, and also there were some interesting ideas non-vocally, for example some guitar parts, but no song was interesting enough in composition as a whole to be memorable to me, but I can give some songs another try one day (I don't own the album anymore though). There was one track, maybe the title track (I couldn't find it at youtube to confirm), that I especially didn't care for, and interestingly to me it seemed as though it might have been intended as one of their standout tunes on the album and maybe it did something for many but it didn't for me -- I didn't really like the song's foundational vocal melody plus how it was executed such as repetitively, and I thought the song just really boring, and maybe a little feminine, and the vocalist's pronunciation of 's' in the song somehow irritated me too (generally I can tolerate accent pretty well, for example I'm a big Eloy fan). There are bands who craft songs in this sort of slow and atmospheric style, but not only such other albums are not almost entirely filled with songs like that but also their craft and/or vocal qualities are more interesting to me than what I saw in this album. For example, Anekdoten has songs with a similar sound but I guess I like the vocals and song constructions there much more than in Landberk. One day I can give some songs of this album another shot though. IMHO.

[NorthNY Mark]

Indian Summer is the only album I heard, in the late 90s, and well it didn't work for me for the most part (and I sold this disc), mainly because of these reasons combined:

After listening to an album as little as 2-3 times, some of it remains with me if it has any tune strong or interesting enough to be memorable. I guess this album didn't have any such tune. The album may be considered atmospheric (and low- to mid-tempo) prog, similar to some late-era Hogarth-era Marillion, but it's actually as (or more) atmospheric alternative rock as it's atmospheric prog, and judging from the lyrics and vocalist's delivery the kind of alternative rock I generally didn't (and don't) care for --- a little too delicate or intimate and maybe even a little feminine (ugh!) music (maybe mainly due to the vocalist's style), and the fact that I was listening to more robust things like heavy King Crimson around the time didn't help. I'm sure there were some interesting vocals, and also there were some interesting ideas non-vocally, for example some guitar parts, but no song was interesting enough in composition as a whole to be memorable to me, but I can give some songs another try one day (I don't own the album anymore though). There was one track, maybe the title track (I couldn't find it at youtube to confirm), that I especially didn't care for, and interestingly to me it seemed as though it might have been intended as one of their standout tunes on the album and maybe it did something for many but it didn't for me -- I didn't really like the song's foundational vocal melody plus how it was executed such as repetitively, and I thought the song just really boring, and maybe a little feminine, and the vocalist's pronunciation of 's' in the song somehow irritated me too (generally I can tolerate accent pretty well, for example I'm a big Eloy fan). There are bands who craft songs in this sort of slow and atmospheric style, but not only such other albums are not almost entirely filled with songs like that but also their craft and/or vocal qualities are more interesting to me than what I saw in this album. For example, Anekdoten has songs with a similar sound but I guess I like the vocals and song constructions there much more than in Landberk. One day I can give some songs of this album another shot though. IMHO.

For what it's worth, Indian Summer is very different from their previous two albums--as you say, more alternative pop with only the slightest hint of what would have classified them earlier as part of the prog revival. If you get a chance to sample the debut (Riktigt Akta, I believe?), you may feel differently about it. I've only heard the Swedish version, and thus cannot vouch for the English-language version, but it is stellar, IMHO--not entirely unlike early White Willow, but with male vocals--dark, with a very palpably Scandinavian atmosphere, and well-constructed songs. I don't find the second album quite as compelling (though I need to give it more listens), and Indian Summer almost seems like an entirely different band.

[Yaman Aksu]

If you get a chance to sample the debut (Riktigt Akta, I believe?), you may feel differently about it.

Thanks for that tip.

[Trane]

Yup. Then came White Willow, Sinkadus and Flower Kings. It was a full on Viking fucking invasion.

Sinkadus came a little later on, IMHO... Per Lindh was first wave, IMHO... though I wasn't aware of him and his very early stuff and to be honest, only Gothic and Mundus are very interesting

While they definitely *were* Nordic "new retro prog" bands, I can't remember Sinkadus or TFK ever to fall in line with those others back then - not up here anyway. Other bands who DID, however, were (to some extent at least) Pär Lindh, Höyry-Kone, Simon Says, St. Mikael, Zello and Qoph. In the sense that they appeared alongside each other at festivals and featured in fanzine articles etc.

Ravana (love that first album), Catweazle, Valinor's Tree , Twin Age , Galleon, etc...

[Scrotum Scissor]

Sinkadus came a little later on, IMHO... Per Lindh was first wave, IMHO... though I wasn't aware of him and his very early stuff and to be honest, only Gothic and Mundus are very interesting [...] Ravana (love that first album), Catweazle, Valinor's Tree , Twin Age , Galleon, etc...

Like I said, Sinkadus may have existed as early as '89 but only released their debut in '95/'96 AFAIR. I could never really stomach much Pär Lindh, but he was definitely a part of the "wave". Ravana were a solid "indie-prog" group, but different in approach and with very little live exposure. I still like their album, though. The thing about the other four bands you mention, is that they weren't truly appreciated with that inner circle of the "prog community". They somehow didn't play around with that mandatory ideal of "authenticity" which so seemingly determined the immanent quality of the music. And the same could be said of bands whose "authenticity" was deemed a fake, such as Manticore. I personally thought Valinor's Tree and Book of Hours were nice bands (although the former had a dreadful vocalist), and an act like Last Laugh were great - but they weren't really considered part of that "deep foresty retro phantasma" thing of Landberk, WWillow, Ängla etc. for whatever reason.

[strawberrybrick]

+1

+2

[TheH]

Does anyone remember Sage Malone from Norway?

[Scrotum Scissor]

Does anyone remember Sage Malone from Norway?

I remember the name, but not much of the music. There were actually quite many groups popping up in Norway dealing with "retro" stylings back then, but the vast majority went under the table, unlike many of the Swedes.

Of course, by the 2000s things are happening in Norway that aren't happening anywhere else - so we had the last laugh (no pun) anyhow.

[chalkpie]

[TheH]

I remember the name, but not much of the music. There were actually quite many groups popping up in Norway dealing with "retro" stylings back then, but the vast majority went under the table, unlike many of the Swedes.

Of course, by the 2000s things are happening in Norway that aren't happening anywhere else - so we had the last laugh (no pun) anyhow.

Norway is a very cool Country in more than one way. Always enjoyed my travels there very much.

For a 1985 release Sage Malone where rather good (still have both their LPs somewhere)

[LASERCD]

Does anyone remember Sage Malone from Norway?

Sadly yes

[TheH]

Sadly yes

Why do you have bad feelings about them?

[NorthNY Mark]

Norway is a very cool Country in more than one way. Always enjoyed my travels there very much.

For a 1985 release Sage Malone where rather good (still have both their LPs somewhere)

Wow--that was from 1985??? If only we had the internet back then--I would have gone crazy for such music back then if I had only known about it.

[LASERCD]

Why do you have bad feelings about them?

Nothing personal I assure you. I just found them to be rather non-descript - like a watered down version of Caravan.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Norway is a very cool Country in more than one way. [...] For a 1985 release Sage Malone where rather good (still have both their LPs somewhere)

Ha! I can think of a thing of two that aren't so cool, but alright - it's mostly patch-patch up here.

I *DO* remember Sage Malone once I see the cover, indeed I do. And like I said, there were many different things happening even during the 80s - like Egil Fylling, Joahs Ark & the Beast (who released a double album - on Harvest!), Kainos, Pluto and the infamous Octopus' Thærie Wiigen concept album.

And early in the decade there was this:


A psychedelic progressive album by a band featuring future A-Ha strongmen Magne Furuholmen and Paal Waaktaar (17 and 18 years old here, respectively), they rushed out in the midst of the delayed Norwegian punk boom which merged somewhat organically with the post-punk and new-wave into quite the interesting art-punk movement of bands like Kjött, Cirkus Modern, Blaupunkt and The Aller Værste (who released one of the best Norwegian pop/rock albums of all time with their Materialtretthet in the same year as the Bridges record).

[TheH]

^^
The 80s, that was a time where you had to chase for any information on Prog relevant Music. Everything you hunted down was
a treasure. I had no idea how rich the 70s really where or how much was going on in RIO and Avant at the time.

I think I have an Egil Fylling LP from the 80s. "Bound for Space" or something close, which I remember to be close to New Age
(in a more proggie way). Pluto rings a bell, but I haven't heared about the other bands you mentioned.

That Bridges vid was really good, I think I should investigate a little more.

[Scrotum Scissor]

The 80s, that was a time where you had to chase for any information on Prog relevant Music. Everything you hunted down was
a treasure. I had no idea how rich the 70s really where or how much was going on in RIO and Avant at the time. [...] That Bridges vid was really good, I think I should investigate a little more.

I think the reason why Cutler issued the ReR Quarterlies LP+book was exactly to present such hard-to-get-by acts, titles and topics in contemporary experimental progressive, some of them obviously finding a home in his own label or in No Man's Land, RecRec or AYAA. It's a pity to know in hindsight how actively performing many of these artists were in their homecountries; I'd certainly consider giving a finger or two to catch a concert by someone like Debile Menthol or L. Voag.

The Bridges album *IS* very good, albeit with a dinstinct juvenile feel to that experimentalist approach - and a VERY pronounced Doors-influence, at times almost uncannily so. But the tunes and playing are excellent throughout. It was given a vinyl reboot two years ago, with Waaktaar and Furuholmen actually condoning it!

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Curb is pretty darn funny

when speaking of Norway and Prog music of course, Rypdal has been great in every decade

[chalkpie]

^ notice that Sven says "dancing" at 0:33!!

Larry David is a total comedic genius and such a hero of mine. LOVE the guy.

[Trane]

Norway is a very cool Country in more than one way. Always enjoyed my travels there very much.

For a 1985 release Sage Malone where rather good (still have both their LPs somewhere)

I've heard worse neo-prog