Flowography : The History & Secrets
of a Rare Intelligent Rockband
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They are regarded as one of
the leading, if not THE leading , progressive rock outfit
of the new millennium ,
the FlowerKings are led by progrock icon Roine Stolt into a
world of seemingly unlimited musical fantasy and flair.
Coming together in late '93 on the back of Stolt's solo
album "The Flower King", the band quickly became somewhat of a phenomenon
in the progressive rock community for everyone that once loved
Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, ELP, King Crimson or Focus.
Building on the success of albums like
"Retropolis", "Stardust We Are" and "Flower Power" they toured
Europe and Japan & South America .
Successful tours resulted in the recording of the live album, "Alive
On Planet Earth", which was compiled from shows in both the USA and Japan
-98 & -99.
It shows the essence of the textural and
emotional offering that drives audiences wild and makes
grown men cry .
This is a band that probably has as much in common
with Mozart, Debussy , Lloyd Webber or Miles Davis as with Pink
Floyd, Beatles, Bowie or Yes .
The richness of moods and inventiveness has
to be heard to be believed .
In November 2002 FlowerKings speed into
the future with yet another astonishing and adventurous
creation ,"Unfold The Future". A double CD containing
everything from classic symphonic rock in pure 70's fashion
(read Yes, Crimson , ELP, Genesis) to weird Zappaesque or Miles Davis
early 70's fusion.
Both CD's of course containing all the stylish
trademarks of this kaleidoscopic band that took the progressive rock
listeners to unexpected hights in both America,Europe and Japan during
the late 90's.
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Flower Kings are no simple copycats that merely
try to relive the glorious 70's , they rather fuse their style with a
remarkable knowledge of their past , still looking into the
future ,always ready to point out new directions and new
possibilities, fusing all modern and unmodern styles ,
opening doors, always ready to take risks !!!
The band have been touring all over the globe
,Europe, USA, Japan, Canada, South America and left audiences raving
for weeks about what seemed to be a highlight of their
concertgoing life ,EVER !!!
With a relatively fresh rhythm
section of Hungarian prodigy Zoltan Csorsz and bass madman Jonas Reingold
and also presenting labelmates "Pain Of Salvation's " Daniel
Gildenlow as a keys,guitar,percussion and vocal sideman together with
leadsinger/guitarist Roine Stolt,keyboardist
Tomas Bodin and guitarist /leadsinger Hasse Fröberg they did all embark
on the initial leg of a European tour in Nov 2002.
Since then they have all continued to florish and
blossom in the most spectacular ways ,doing another USA tour in June
2003, playing a memorable set at the No.1 progrock festival
"Nearfest" and releasing a number of sideprojects like the new Kaipa
CD titled "Keyholder" and "The Tangent" CD together with PO90
keyboardist Andy Tillison and "Van Der Graaf Generator" saxman David
Jackson and the Tomas Bodin, "Sonic Boulevard" CD .
..with the kind permission of Mr. Roine Stolt |
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Flowiscography |
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Flower Pictures by Peter Ledenvik
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The Flower Kings 2000at Grona Lund, Stockholm, Sweden..
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The Flower Kings 2002at Grona Lund, Stockholm, Sweden..
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The Flower Kings 2002at Nykoping Theater, Nykoping, Sweden..
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The Flower Kings 2003at Uppsala for the DVD, Sweden..
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Flower Kings May 28 2004 at Nykopings Teater, Sweden
by Harald "BigRedMachine" Bjervamoen
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The Flower Kings has been one of the most profiled and sucessful bands
in the revival of progressive rock over the last decade. The band is actually
more popular outside their own country Sweden, but in May 2004 they are doing a
short mini tour of Sweden and on May 28' the time has come to play "Teatern" in
Nyköping.
This is my first Flower Kings concert and needless to say, the
expectaions were very high. About 1 minute into the opening song it was obious
that the band ment business and my worries, about them not being able to
do their intricate music justice live, went right out of the window.
In fact, The Flower Kings blew me away and the musiscianship displayed during
the concert was sometimes "jaw-dropping". The highpoint of the fist part was
the masterpiece The Truth Will Set You Free taken from their latest
studio album Unfold the Future. Bandleader, vocalist and guitarist
extraordinare Roine Stolt is the obvious star of the evening, but
despite that he feels like a humble person and gives the rest of the band
plenty of room to shine.
Apart from percussion "lunatic" Hasse Brunisson, the most visual
character of the band is vocalist and guitarist Hasse Fröberg who pulls
out some nearly heavy metal "stunts".
During a brief unplugged set, keyboardist Thomas Brodin moved center
stage for some lead vocals, and he unveiled a somewhat dark voice not unlike
Tom Waits . Unplugged is not my favourite type of music but it was
a useful "break" before the home stretch that started with Cosmic Lover,
combined with a song from the latest Tomas Bodin solo album.
Roine Stolt's emotional and soaring guitar solo (eat
your heart out, David Gilmore), on this number was one of the
musical highpoints of the concert.
Drummer Zoltan Csörsz , bassplayer Jonas Reingold are somewhat in
the background visually, but not musically.
For me , it's amazing that multi-instrumentalist and singer Daniel Gildenlöw
from "Pain Of Salvation" stays in the background the whole
concert , but he seems happy with that.
The venue and the sound was marvellous and after a thunderous encore with Stardust
We Are the audience went home with big smiles on their faces.
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Flowmoreography
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Flower Kings : http://www.theflowerkings.com
Related
Tomas Bodin : http://www.tomasbodin.com/
Jonas Reingold :
http://www.reingoldmusic.com/
The Tangent Project : http://www.thetangent.org/
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Roine Stolt interview november 2003
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General Questions:
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How did you get into the music business?
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'I was a music idiot since age 11 and simply started to play in schoolbands.
At the age of 17 I became a member of KAIPA, we toured ,recorded a few albums
on DECCA and did several national radio and TV broadcastings during 1974-1979.'
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Who has been your main influences?
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'The Beatles,Jimi Hendrix,Made In Sweden,Burt Bacharach....then too many to
mention'
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List five(or more) albums of the bands/artists that you like the most and why!
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'impossible!!'
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What time was/is the most interesting for the rock music, in your opinion and
why - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s?
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'60's and 70's because of the will to experiment and the freedom of speach.
Record companies could make a profit on weird and adventurous music.'
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Your dream band(living or dead ;), who would they be,
vocal/bass/drums/keyboard/lead guitar/rythm guitar/producer?
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'Impossible.
Well me and Paul McCartney would be nice in there .....'
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What kind of equipment/gear are you using on the road and in the studio?
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'It differs all the time. On the latest tour I used my Parker deluxe guitar and
my Gibson Les Paul Gold top from 1952 plus a guild jumbo acoustic.
I used a Fender Bassman 45 watt with a Marshall 4x12" cabinet, plus I used a
Tech 21 Trademark 60 amp for a stereospread.
The effects I use are TC electronics G-major and a Yamaha floorboard. Jim
Dunlop Wha and Ernie ball volume plus a Carl Martin Compressor.'
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You have composed many songs, which of them are your favourites?
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'"The Truth Will set you free" and "Stardust We Are" but I like a lot of them.'
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What are you doing in your spare time outside of music?
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'Travel with my family to warm places,swimming & diving.'
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If you dont have been in the music business what have you been doing then?
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'I think I have been a graphic artist or art director or maybe I've been
working with film, that's what interest me .'
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What are you currently up to?
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'I'm writing new songs for coming albums with FlowerKings and other projects.'
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The Flower Kings:
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The Beginning of The Flower Kings, when and how?
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'1993. I wanted to do someting symponic /prog again.'
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The Flower Kings Records:
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1995 Back in the World of Adventures
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- In general what do you think about the album?
'Good album,decent production. a bit scattered'
- Favourite Songs(and why)?
'Big Puzzle, a good song that contain a lot of the 70 progvibe. '
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2000 Space Revolver
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- In general what do you think about the album?
'Good album, good production.'
- Favourite Songs(and why)?
'a few of them... "Chicken farmer song" for not being to proggy, "I'm the Sun"
is also a good one .'
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2002 Unfold the Future
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- In general what do you think about the album?
'Our best production to date. Also contains the best songs ,along with
"Stardust We Are" .'
- Favourite Songs(and why)?
'"The Truth Will Set You Free",It's simply a good one .'
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2003 Meet the Flower Kings
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- In general what do you think about the album?
'One of our best.'
- Favourite Songs(and why)?
'All'
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The Concerts with the Flower Kings:
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- First Concert, where/when?
'Uppsala ,outdoor festival August 20th 1994.'
- Which songs do/did you like performing live most and why?
'It differs all the time'
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Many Thanks to Roine Stolt for spending time on this interview and
to Peter Ledenvik for making it possible and for the great pictures!!
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