The Flower Kings

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The Flower Kings

Roine Stolt and Tomas Bodin in 2004.
Background information
Origin Sweden
Genre(s) Progressive rock
Years active since 1994
Label(s) Century Media, InsideOut
Website FlowerKings.se
Members
Tomas Bodin
Hasse Bruniusson
Hasse Fröberg
Erik Hammarström
Ola Heden
Jonas Reingold
Roine Stolt
Former members
Zoltan Csörsz
Daniel Gildenlöw
Marcus Liliequist
Jaime Salazar
Michael Stolt

The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band. Formed in 1994 by veteran guitarist Roine Stolt as a touring band to support his solo album The Flower King, the band stayed together after the tour and have gone on to become one of the most prolific studio recording units in rock music of their era. In ten years they have released nearly 18 hours of music.

Contents

[edit] History

The Flower Kings have seen frequent personnel changes. The original line-up for Stolt's solo album consisted of Stolt (vocals, electric guitar, bass, keyboards), Jaime Salazar (drums), and Hasse Fröberg (vocals). When the full band was formed, they added Michael Stolt (bass) and Tomas Bodin (keyboards). Michael Stolt and Salazar have both left the band some albums after (The former before Rainmaker and the last trhough this record), replaced by Jonas Reingold (bass) and Zoltan Csörsz (drums). Other contributors have included Hasse Bruniusson (percussion), Ulf Wallander (saxophone) and Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation (vocals, guitar, keyboards and percussion) as a full member on the Adam and Eve album. Zoltan Csörsz was replaced by new drummer Marcus Liliequist, though Csörsz returned for the 2007 album, The Sum of No Evil. Daniel Gildenlöw recently left because of personal issues. According to a Myspace blog posted by Roine Stolt on March 17, 2008 The Flower Kings have a new permanent drummer Erik Hammarström. News published in their website on July 29, 2008 state that the band has now a sixth fulltime member, the newcomer Ola Heden, who will play guitar and keyboards, as well as having vocal duties.

Roine Stolt has written the vast majority of the material the band has recorded, with Bodin contributing most of the rest. The music is perhaps best described as "symphonic," bearing a strong resemblance in many instances to that of Yes, and yet there are also hints of strong influence from the jazz fusion genre. The band's lyrics are almost uniformly positive and uplifting, affirming such values as love, peace, and spirituality.

Their 1999 album Flower Power contains one of the longest progressive rock tracks ever recorded, the eighteen-section, nearly 60-minute "Garden of Dreams."

Roine Stolt recorded two albums with supergroup Transatlantic, with members of Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, and Marillion, in 2000 and 2001, with a third due to be released for late 2009.[1][2]

In June 2007 they released The Road Back Home, a compilation of remixed songs from 1994 to 2006, plus "Little Deceiver" (a previously unreleased track) and the full version of their cover of Genesis' "The Cinema Show." [1]

On September 28, 2007 they released their 11th studio album, "The Sum Of No Evil", containing 6 new songs.

In November 2008 the band were the opening act of the Ecco Prog Fest in Moscow.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Current members

[edit] Former Members

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio Albums

Year Album
1994 The Flower King
  • Released: 1994
  • Roine Stolt solo album
  • Single CD
  • Special artwork edition (single CD)
1995 Back in the World of Adventures
  • Released: 1995
  • Single CD
1996 Retropolis
  • Released: 1996
1997 Stardust We Are
  • Released: 1997
  • Double CD
1999 Flower Power
  • Released: Nov 16, 1999
  • Double CD
  • Japanese edition includes bonus tracks
2000 Space Revolver
  • Released: July 4, 2000
  • Single CD
  • Japanese edition (double CD) includes 5 bonus tracks
2001 The Rainmaker
  • Released: September 18, 2001
  • Single CD
  • Special limited edition (double CD) includes 6 bonus tracks + interactive section
2002 Unfold the Future
  • Released: November 5, 2002
  • Double CD
  • Limited edition (double CD digipack) includes 1 bonus track
2004 Adam & Eve
  • Released: August 3, 2004
  • Single CD
  • Japanese edition includes bonus tracks (double CD)
2006 Paradox Hotel
  • Released: April 4, 2006
  • Double CD
2007 The Sum Of No Evil
  • Released: September 25, 2007
  • Single CD
  • Special limited edition (double CD) includes 3 bonus tracks

[edit] Live albums

[edit] Limited Edition Official Bootlegs

[edit] Fan Club Albums

[edit] Compilations

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Transatlantic Reunite for New Studio Album!". Mike Portnoy's forum. http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/tm.aspx?high=&m=2293968&mpage=1#2294001. Retrieved on 2009-04-16. 
  2. ^ "Transatlantic Flies Again!!!". The Flower Kings official website. http://flowerkings.se/?s=news. Retrieved on 2009-04-16. 

[edit] External links

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