Hans Lundin (keyboards) met Tomas Eriksson
(bass) in the late 60's when he joined Hans in his band S:T Michael Sect (later
San Michael’s). This band issued an eponymous album with original material in
1971. Another album was recorded in 1972, but never released. The recordings
were made at Ulab Studio in
After the split, Hans continued to write songs.
By 1973 he had grown tired of backing other artists and wanted instead to try
his new songs in a band. So he suggested that Tomas join him and form a band
playing their own music. Thomas Sjöberg (drums) joined the band, and they
started rehearsing intensively to find their own style as a trio. It was a very
personal music with influences from pop, rock, classical music, and Swedish
traditional folk melodies. Later they would understand that people listening to
their music called this progressive rock. The name of the band was URA KAIPA,
suggested by their friend MARTIN ANDER. It referred to a Swedish Stone Age
chieftain and came from the book "Svenskarna och deras hövdingar" by
Werner von Heidenstam. The group's style was built around the keyboard parts,
particularly the sound of the
The band made two unofficial concerts at local
jailhouses in the spring of 1974. Sadly, Thomas Sjöberg was hit by cancer and
couldn't rehearse regularly any more. He was forced to leave the band, and was
replaced by INGEMAR BERGMAN. The group rehearsed intensively with their new
member, concentrated on new compositions and recorded several demo tapes. After
a while they realized that the trio format was too limited to express all the
dimensions in the compositions. So they decided to look around for a guitarist.
First man out was a friend of Ingemar's, ROGER NORDLUND. He was a fine
technician, but unable to fit in with the group's overall sound. So KAIPA set
up an audition with young ROINE STOLT, then only seventeen years old. Ingemar
had met him at the Uppsala Music Fair, and told him about the band. Roine was
much impressed by the group's stamina, exhibited in their habit of day-long
rehearsals. He didn't know at first whether he would actually join the group,
as the other three band members wanted to give the new quartet format some kind
of dry-run before making their minds up. In the summer of 1974 the group
shortened the name and became simply KAIPA. The music and lyrics were
essentially the responsibility of Hans Lundin, who also doubled lead vocals,
with Tomas and Ingemar singing backing vocals. The group systematically
recorded their daily rehearsals onto a four-track tape recorder. In spite of
his major role as composer and lyricist, Hans didn't act as Kaipa's front man.
The group always acted as a collective, with considerable freedom allotted to
each member. Kaipa's early songs were based on a non-traditional song
structure: after an intro of folk or classical flavour, the song generally
developed a jazzier orientation, before ending with a solemn symphonic
conclusion, restoring the classical element. The group's first live appearance
was as a trio. It occurred at an open-air festival in Norrtälje in June
The group performed well and received a
rapturous audience response. The band eschewed stage histrionics, preferring to
rely on the quality of their music. They sometimes included circus music and
humorous rock'n'roll pastiches in their repertoire and were also fond of
lengthy improvisations. On 21 October 1974 Kaipa performed its first radio
broadcast, playing live in Christer Eklund's famous "Tonkraft"
programme on Swedish national radio, a show devoted entirely to the national
and international progressive rock scene. On the same broadcast one could
listen to other Swedish bands alongside international headliners like DEEP
PURPLE and JETHRO TULL. Under these stressful circumstances, the band's showing
was somewhat nervous and lacklustre, but this first broadcast proved a great
opportunity to emerge from their relative isolation and get some national
recognition. Kaipa kept rehearsing busily to improve their cohesion and
instrumental technique. Roine Stolt started contributing tunes and the entire
group polished up some lengthy pieces of ten-minutes-plus duration.
Anxious to record their efforts and obtain wider
recognition, the band decided to contact record companies. To that end, they
sent a demo tape to the MNW and Silence labels, which reacted negatively, and
then to their old friend Leif Mases, who now worked at Marcus Music Studios.
Leif played the tape to Markus Österdahl, the studio's owner. He liked it very
much and immediately offered the group the chance to record a professional demo
on to 24 tracks. The numbers "På Färd" (On Journey),
"Karavan" (Caravan), "Från det ena till det andra" (From
One Thing to Another) and "Skogspromenad" (A Walk in the Woods) were
recorded on 3, 5, and 6 February 1975, and the last track was later included on
the band's debut album. Marcus Österdahl knew Carl-Eric Hjelm from the Electra
label, a Swedish company who distributed Decca.
RCA and Philips nationally, and played him the
tape. Charmed by the music, Hjelm told the band to record him an album,
preferring to await the results before signing them officially. Eventually, Decca
would sign Kaipa and issue their debut album Kaipa.
The recording session was completed in nine days
between 4 and 26 July 1975 at Marcus Music Studios in
Lack of space unfortunately led to three tracks
being omitted from the final track listing. Ingemar, Roine and Tomas didn't
want to include the song "Skogspromenad" on the album, because they
thought it was too simple and not representative of the band. Marcus considered
this to be one of their best songs, and in the end it was included on the
album. This proved to be good, as live and on radio this one was going to be
the band's most requested song for a long time. Hans used a large array of
keyboards, playing
Their debut album Kaipa was
released in December 1975 to an enthusiastic public and critical response.
Sales quickly reached 5,000 units, eventually reaching 10,000, a definite success
for a self-produced prog rock album, especially as distribution was limited to
Following
the release of their debut album Kaipa in December 75, Kaipa embarked on an extensive tour
in the spring of 1976 and quickly attracted a faithful crowd of fans. Sometimes
the band would give an afternoon performance in a school before playing a club
or theatre in the same town that evening. Onstage Ingemar acted out the role of
clown and showman as light relief to the serious and complex music of an almost
Wagnerian grandeur. The band's repertory comprised of all the numbers from
their debut album Kaipa and two new compositions pencilled in for
the second LP. These were "Skenet bedrar" (The Appearance Deceives)
and "Korståg" (Crusade), both augmented by some improvised sequences.
The musicians managed their business, investing most of the money in things
like a new tour bus and more equipment. They resumed daily rehearsals, which
enabled them to progress musically and enhance group cohesion. Writing new
arrangements of existing numbers was as important as composing new pieces; none
of the band members considered himself a virtuoso and thus Kaipa had to
concentrate on playing a very carefully ´prepared´ music with elaborate
orchestrations. There were discussions about the variations and the details of
the rhythm section when rehearsing a couple of new songs. This almost provoked
Roine's departure, and in fact, the band's constant perfectionism nearly
occasioned a split more than once!
Another discussion dealt with authorship. In
On 30 June 1976 Kaipa re-entered the Marcus
Music Studio in
The album's
Inget Nyt under solen opener, "Skenet Bedrar", almost 20 minutes
long, couldn't be performed properly as a whole and so was recorded in several
sections that were later reassembled in its final form. "Korståg", an
audience favourite in concerts, was also a number with a complicated structure,
so much so that the Swedish Institute of Musicology would later use it as an
example of sophisticated rock composition.For the recording, Hans augmented his
existing array of keyboards (Hammond organ, Yamaha synthesizer, string
ensemble, grand piano and Hohner Clavinett) with a mellotron, a Korg
synthesizer, and a mallet instrument. Apart from his Rickenbacker, Tomas used
an old Fender Jazz bass and a synthesizer bass. Roine played his old Gibson
guitar and Ingemar used his new Tama drum kit for the first time.For the
introduction to "Skenet Bedrar", the band used some synthesizer ´pink
noise´ processed through a stereo flanger with the addition of some Asian
bells; this was recorded while Leif was turning the pitch knob on the 24-track
tape recorder. Hans' overdubbed sequence-like arpeggios on his Yamaha
synthesizer and Roine's guitar were treated through a phaser; these effects
produced the cosmic sounds heard at the beginning of the album.
Hans sang the first part of the theme, followed
by Ingemar in the central section; Tomas spoke the bass parts in the finale,
"Vilseledd" (Lead Astray). The mellotron is highlighted in
"Korståg" and gives the song its imposing feel with a fusion of
string and choir sounds. The instrument also crops up on "Skenet
Bedrar" and "Inget nytt under solen" (Nothing New under the
Sun). The instrumental part of "Ömsom sken" (Alternately Radiance)
was composed by Roine. The lead vocal and central part of the composition were
courtesy of Ingemar and Roine, whereas Ingemar composed the Chinese-sounding
sequences at the end of the track. The band decided the track order and chose
the sleeve, a NASA photo depicting astronauts in a moon buggy. The group
selected this photo from several provided by Electra. Roine and Hans wanted to
use a painting by Roine similar to the one on the first album.
This
would have been a logical continuation. But the other members reneged, and the
group finally chose this photo, which had no connection to the title. The
band's logo was changed, the original lacking originality. It was redesigned in
a more personal style by Roine but was slightly distorted at the layout stage.
Among the people named in the credits is one Eugen Petrén, cited by the band
for his ´moral and spiritual support`. In fact Petren didn't exist, even though
a ´photograph` of him appears in the inner sleeve! The credit was meant as a
joke, a skit on rock stars dedicating their records to so-called spiritual
masters such as the Maharishi. With similar satirical intent, this photo in
fact shows Ingemar ´communing with the universe`!The album title refers to a
remark made by Electra's president Carl-Erik Hjelm who during a meeting with
the band inquired Inget nytt under solen which translates as "Nothing new under the sun?". The band
decided to use this saying as a title for their second album as it provided an
ironic comment on their musical evolution. This they saw as a continuing line
from composers like J.S.BACH through rock groups like YES, i.e. an elaborate
symphonic music aiming at the expression of emotions and feelings in an
aesthetic of formal beauty and melodic perfection.
Kaipa, however, intended to differentiate
themselves from past and present styles, producing a personal and origina music
taking its inspiration from the past yet looking to the future.
After recording the album, the band went back on
the road. Throughout the following year, they performed over 100 dates, as they
were by now very much in demand in
The band played their first national TV
broadcast around this time, performing their ´crowd-pleaser`
"Korståg" to much favourable response; they also played live for
Malmö and
The band also equipped themselves with a Moog
Taurus pedal board and Roine tried out the very first guitar synthesizer, made
by Hagstrom/Oberheim and used also by FRANK ZAPPA. Hans got a minimoog directly
from Moog's
The vocals were overdubbed at Bastun Studio in
In October 1977 Tomas announced his decision to
leave the band, citing ´musical differences` as the cause. Kaipa were thus
reduced to a trio once again. The band was now forced to do some serious
thinking about the future; some songs from Inget nytt under solen had just been recorded with English lyrics with the
aim of breaking the band on the international market. Tomas' departure,
however, had thrown the group into crisis. With their second album Inget nytt under solen , Kaipa established itself as one of the essential Swedish progressive
bands of the era, on par with the best international groups in this style of
music.
On September 1977, the group discussed signing
on a lead singer to allow Hans to concentrate more on his keyboard work.
Additionally, they imagined that a singer would have a beneficial effect on the
visual aspect of their show. They hoped to find someone with a different voice
than Hans', one who would add new colours and dimensions to their music. But
finding a singer would prove difficult, given the complex and primarily
instrumental nature of their music. No auditions had been planned; the group
just decided to go out and find a singer who was free. Roine considered Magnus
Uggla, a highly theatrical singer. He'd released two albums on CBS, and
although he hadn't enjoyed much success, his qualities as a performer were
plain to see. Live, his stagecraft could offer something new to Kaipa, a band
that didn't care much for onstage trickery, apart from the periodic
interventions of Ingemar.
Nevertheless, Kaipa never contacted Magnus, who
subsequently went on to become one of
The band's followers were suspicious of the
change at first but soon grew to appreciate Mats' qualities as a singer. After
a while the band's fans adopted him as they got used to the change in the look
and sound of the group. After Tomas Eriksson left, the band had the opportunity
to ask Lars Hoflund to join up, but he preferred playing blues, and could at the
time earn much more playing with Tomas Ledin. Kaipa then called up Mats
Lindberg, a schoolmate of Roine who was only 18 years old at that time. Roine
and Ingemar knew of his qualities as a bassist, having jammed with him in their
rehearsal room. He was also a nice guy and was equally at home playing guitar.
He could play 12-string and was able to handle the double-neck guitar left by
Tomas. He joined in November 1977.
Tomas' characteristic bass sound and lines had
been very much a part of the original Kaipa sound. The group with its two new
members, decided to make up for this very considerable absence by throwing
themselves into their work, investing all their energy in a new album. By now,
having gained quite a reputation as
Throughout the autumn of 1977, Kaipa worked on
new songs and set about rehearsing and perfecting them. At this time Hans had
some basic ideas for another epic song like "Skenet bedrar", but he
needed the band to carry out his ideas like they had previously. Roine, on the
other hand, had grown in his writing and arranging. He could present his new
songs in plain terms and give clear instructions to the players, which produced
an immediate result. This lead to a completely different way of working in the
new band. The new members had almost no connection or relationship with the
basic structure in the former Kaipa music.
In fact the new band was subdividing into
fractions at this time. Roine and Mats Lindberg formed one group, Ingemar and
Mats Löfgren another leaving Hans alone in the background. Roine appreciated
some of Hans' small pieces like "Tajgan" (The Taiga), "En
igelkotts död" (The Death of a Hedgehog) and " Visan i Sommaren"
(A Summer Air). He persuaded the others to accept these songs. They relied on
melodic traditions and needed no large arrangements. The basic idea of
"the epic song" was presented in a simple version by Hans on the
organ but the others quickly rejected it and so it fell into oblivion. It was a
time of many new music styles including funk, fusion and jazz-rock and several
members were leaning more towards that style and even the simpler style of
bands like The Eagles, ABBA, Queen, Bad Company and Fleetwood Mac.
There was much ambition in the pipeline at that
time and the wish for more success of course propelled the members into
dissension about how to achieve it. It turned out to be Roine's composing that
got most of the interest when compiling the new album Solo, maybe because the
time was right or simply because he had more developed demos and ideas. This
new way of working, with separate fractions asserting their own interests, disturbed
the old balance that was so successful, and it was the beginning of an era that
would split the main forces of the original Kaipa completely a year and a half
later.
For the new album Solo Kaipa
utilised for the first time pre-production techniques, at that time a
little-used process. Firstly the band laid down the tracks on demos on a cheap
4-track recorder in October and November 1977. During these sessions, they
worked for the first time with some new instruments. Hans played a Poly Moog
and Mats used a Moog bass pedal. Roine tried out a new guitarsynth manufactured
by the Swedish company Hagstroem in collaboration with Ampeg. A few of the
songs originally had English lyrics but the band decided to rewrite them in
Swedish. Their efforts to break the international market with an English
language version of Inget
nytt under solen hadn't succeeded, and so
Kaipa reverted to their native language.
The recording of the album Solo was set
for December
The uncertain pitch produced by this instrument
lends "Tajgan" a bizarre other-worldly atmosphere. Oddly, the band
had never owned a mellotron; they'd always hired them. Roine used some guitar
effects, running it backwards, multilayering etc., as practised by players such
BRIAN MAY of QUEEN. He used a Fender Stratocaster and a very rare Melody Maker
as well as an Ovation acoustic in addition to his own instruments. All his
guitar work was treated through a customized pedal-board and run through a new
Roland Jazz Chorus Amp. He also resorted to the aforementioned guitar-synth
with an Oberheim expander, a customised talk-box and an HH echoplex. Hans used
a wide range of keyboards - mini and poly moogs, Korg String 2000, mellotron,
Hohner Clavinet, grand piano,
Mixing took place between 3 and 5 January 1978.
The album was produced by the band and Olle Ramm. It contained even fewer
reverb effects than before and the guitar and drums were more to the fore on
the soundstage of the record. The album
sleeve was designed by Lars Holm, an artist and friend of the group's who'd
given him carte blanche as to the design. The frame of the design was much
inspired by JACKSON BROWNE's "Pretender" album. One of the characters
in Lars' painting was later to be called "SOLO", just because the
band decided to call the album that name after some serious brainstorming.
Releasing Solo
Electra swung into action behind the album, making a great promotional effort
with attractive stickers and posters and lots of newspaper advertising.
The album came out in May 1978. It didn't enjoy
the immediate success of Inget nytt under solen but gradually attained a sales figure of 10,000 copies. In fact, the
release of the album, at the start of the Swedish summer, had been very badly
timed. The press were highly laudatory, and the band's concerts were invariably
sold out. Kaipa had clearly "arrived" as a major Swedish group. They had cult status in
Kaipa had worked so hard and so intensively that
they decided to take a break in December 1978. This was more than necessary;
they were weary of touring and rehearsing and of the tensions that inevitably
resulted from living together almost every day.Roine bought himself an 8-track
recorder. This gave him the opportunity to start recording of the solo album he
had planned as he realised Electra Records wouldn't invest in recording his new
music as a solo project at the time, rather concentrating on another Kaipa
offspring named Ingemar Bergman Troop! However, encouraged by Michael B. Tretow
of ABBA recording fame who said it was "the best demo he heard in his
life".
Roine started to record his first solo album Fantasia. The other Kaipa members clearly stated they wanted
to use some of his songs for a new Kaipa album. This was a case of solidarity
towards his main group, and not easily solved. But as Roine felt the chemistry
was not the best in Kaipa at the time and this was probably a way of designing
"a way out" of the bad vibe situation, heading towards new musical
adventures and a more friendly and possibly ambitious environment. Also, the
ambitious Roine, having a clear idea of his arrangements, drum patterns and the
synthesizer patches, did not leave much room for the other Kaipa members to use
their creativity and imagination. This forced the band into an inevitable
situation making Roine the unspoken leader of the band as all the new material
that seemed interesting to main part of the band was written by him, but also
the member most likely to leave. In fact Hans was, at this moment, too
disillusioned by his former attempts to bring new songs to the band, and he was
asking himself several times if this was the intention he had when he once
started the band, or if this was some kind of nightmare where he was
transformed back in time to 1973 acting as a backing musician again, deprived
all his creating ability.
By this time the chemistry in the band reached
the lowest possible level. Mats Lindberg and Roine were talking about
recreating the band or leave Kaipa, these were the only 2 options to stay
healthy in a musically mad environment. Mats tried to persuade Roine frequently
that they should leave the band and form a new group inspired by among others,
They decided to split the band in two, but to
fulfil all booked concerts together. The last concert with this constellation
was given in Katrineholm on 13 May 1979. Roine started to record his solo album
Fantasia,
feeling relieved but with a sense of loss. Sensing also, understandably enough,
a sort of "evil ray" coming from the remaining Kaipa members. So when
recording the song "Nytt blod" (Fresh Blood) for his new album, the
lyrics, a smiling and light-hearted support of his own progress,
"criticize" his former partners for being inhibited and "victims
of their own democracy". In fact Hans Lundin felt the democracy was
already completely obliterated from the band at this time, left with little to
contribute from him musically. Now Roine was gone, but when one goes there may
always be someone else to step in, fill the space and claim the crown &
throne.
The band was now back to a trio and they needed
to find a guitarist and a bassist. Ingemar and Mats had their side project
Ingemar Bergman Troop playing simple pop songs without any of the progressive
parts that was characteristic for Kaipa. Hans was at this time a guest musician
in their band playing on records and touring with the band. Ingemar suggested a
fusion of the two bands. Hans wanted Kaipa to keep their profile, playing a
progressive music but adding a little more up tempo and rock feeling to the
music, and he was not interested in this fusion of bands. Instead they asked an
old friend and brilliant guitar player Thomas Arnesen to join the band. Thomas
once played in the band Panta Rei and later in several local bands like Hirvi
and Puls. He had also filled in for Mats Lindberg, while he was in hospital,
playing bass in Kaipa on one tour in 1978. They started to rehearse but, due to
Thomas' family affairs, had to cancel the idea. Instead they asked another unknown
guitar player recommended to them, Max Åhman from
The band decided to leave Electra and was signed
by POLAR, ABBA's label, for a new album Händer. At this
time interest in progressive music had decreased, and the band was a little
confused about which musical direction they should choose for the future. The
process of making new music was difficult and filled with compromises. Ingemar
wanted to act as composer and had some ideas, but his lack of knowledge of
chords and other basic musical elements that was the fertile ground of the
musical
The album Händer (Hands)
was recorded late in the autumn of 1979 at Polar Studio in
Three instrumental songs penned by Hans still
had the characteristic Kaipa structure. Two of these, "El Grandi" and
"Regn" (Rain), were included on the album. Another song, "Staden
lever" (The City is Alive), was originally longer and contained some
"symphonic" parts. These parts were in the songs final form deducted
leaving only a short passage in the middle of the song. Most of the other songs
on the album obviously proof the difficulties with the earlier mentioned
compromise, showing different musical elements side-by-side, not integrated
with each other, which was the purpose.
All songs, except the two instrumental songs,
were credited to be composed by Bergman/Lundin/Löfgren. This was decided when
the discussion about the collective creation was brought to daylight once
again. Ingemar made a claim for being considered as part composer to all these
songs, although his part of the musical process in some cases was quite
limited. Good notices greeted Händer when it was released in the spring of 1980, but the
album didn't attain the sales of its three predecessors. The band planned a
tour to promote the new album in May 1980.
They had found a new bass player in Torkel
Thyrell, a veteran who played with Hans in S:t. Michael Sect in the 60's.
However, the band was heading for serious trouble. Mats Löfgren felt
unmotivated, worn out and generally bad this period. So the last days of
rehearsal without excuse, Mats Löfgren just didn't turn up!! A fatal blow to
the band who was about to do shows in a few days! The rest of the group gave up
after futile attempts to solve the problem: it was simply impossible to get
Mats to fulfil his part. The band had to face the fact that they had to start
the tour and take care of the vocal parts on their own without any rehearsal.
The first concerts on this tour were improvised in many ways. The vocal parts
of the songs were written and arranged for Mats' voice, but after a while the
band transposed the songs to the right keys to fit Hans voice, which was not an
altogether simple task while on tour.
The band started to look for a new singer. Anne
Chaaban was singing in a local blues band. Hans was attracted by her style,
filled with power and feeling. He invited her to rehearse with the band,
thinking this could be a new start and direction. The intention was good, but
the right chemistry never appeared. Anne's way of singing didn't fit in with
the rich harmonies of Kaipas music. She didn't feel comfortable and had no
experience in singing this type of music. Sometimes she went completely astray
in their musical landscape. This constellation lasted only for one tour during
November 1980. After that Anne and Torkel left the band. After all this
adversity the three remaining members decided to continue in the original form
as a quartet.
Max knew a clever bass player and a very nice
guy called MATS LINDBERG from
By the end of this year Ingemar decided to leave
the band.
There was no problem finding a new drummer. Olle
Romö started to rehearse with the band early in 1982. But after just a few
weeks he had to leave, after an invitation from The Euruthmics. So instead,
Pelle Andersson took his place, and brought with his drumming a lot of new
inspiration to the band.They started to arrange a lot of new songs penned by
Hans, but the other members also added songs and new ideas. The structure of
the music was not clearly defined, the free hands ruled and they didn't know
exactly what was going to come out of this. They took some inspiration from
artists like Peter Gabriel and Talking Heads trying to do some new kind of
progressive music. They wanted to continue the musical journey of Kaipa but
they didn't want to stay in the 70's locked in their own history.
This was a true progressive trip by all means.
Everyone that saw this constellation of KAIPA live can confirm that they really
enjoyed playing together. By this time Hans was the only member living in
The record Nattdjurstid (Time of Nocturnal Animals) was recorded by the band with no outside
help and released in the autumn 1982 on Piglet Records. It received lots of
good revives, but that was unfortunately not enough. All the members in the
band were professional musicians, but the work with the band didn't give them
enough money to live by. So they decided to take a break after the last gig at
Studion in
Kaipa undertook two tours with folksinger Lasse
Tennander. Lasse opened the show with a solo acoustic guitar set. For encores,
the band came back with Lasse and would perform some of his songs adding a bit
of "Kaipa- atmosphere", so that all the musicians could end the gig
together. The first tour was in October 1975, and the second one in April 1977.
The collaboration peaked on August 17, 1977 with a live recording, recorded by
Swedish Radio, at an open-air festival at "Gärdet" Stockholm.The
single "URAKAIPA: För sent/Bay-e bay-o" (1974) actually consists of
two songs from the unreleased second album by San Michael's recorded in 1972,
with Hans Lundin and Tomas Eriksson together with Gunnar Westbergh on drums and
Nane Kvillsäter on guitar. Some of the words to songs on the album
"Händer" were actually written by Mats Löfgren the last minutes
before the recording the vocals. Two songs recorded on the album "Hans
Lundin: Tales" were played by Kaipa live on the long tour 1981. The song
"Ripples" was the opener, and the first part of "Narrow
escape" was used as a joker forcing Max and Hans to progressively increase
the tempo.
Kaipa undertook two tours with folksinger Lasse
Tennander. Lasse opened the show with a solo acoustic guitar set. For encores,
the band came back with Lasse and would perform some of his songs adding a bit
of "Kaipa- atmosphere", so that all the musicians could end the gig
together. The first tour was in October 1975, and the second one in April 1977.
The collaboration peaked on August 17, 1977 with a live recording, recorded by
Swedish Radio, at an open-air festival at "Gärdet"
Kaipa-Reunion:
Hans and Roine had a second meeting in the
summer of 2000 when they decided to start the work. Hans' basic idea was to
make a double CD, as he had more than 160 minutes of music. Roine advised him
to pick out the best songs and start with a single CD. They had a session
listening to the material and chose what they considered were the best songs.
Hans realised that he needed an extra-talented
drummer to play these often complex arrangements, but he also wanted someone
bringing energy, fantasy, improvisation and personality to the music. For a
long time Hans had been a big fan of Morgan Ågren for his brilliant technique,
and imaginative and idiosyncratic drumming. So in the spring of 2000 Hans
contacted Morgan and offered him to be part of this project. Hans sent the
songs to Morgan, who accepted. The recordings were made at the UAE Magnetofon
Studio in
As soon as the drums were recorded Roine added
most of the guitars at Cosmic Lodge during September and October 2000 using
mostly his old Gibson Les Paul Gold Top -52 and his Gibson ES-175 to create the
special vintage Kaipa trademark sound. Also a lot of similar 70's effects like
the phaser and wa-wa were used.
After this, they were forced to take a long
break from the recording process because of Roine's work with "The Flower
Kings" and "Transatlantic". Hans met Jonas Reingold, after
hearing him in Flower Kings on "Space
Revolver", in the autumn of
2000 when he presented the songs for him, but not until the beginning of 2001
was Jonas available to add his bass parts. The choice of Jonas was by all means
a good solution as he is a brilliant bass player bringing new dimensions to the
songs.
One of the songs for the album was intended to
be sung by a female. Hans considered Sara Isaksson to be perfect to interpret
the song "A road in my mind". He contacted her and presented the
song. She thought it was a nice song that gave her a fairy-tale feeling, but
declined, saying that she wanted to concentrate on working with her own new
songs.
The collaboration with Michael wasn't as
successful as they had intended it to be. Hans had written words to some of the
songs when they started, and while he was waiting for signs of progress from
Michael, he wrote the lyrics to more songs. They made a demo recording of the
vocal parts in August 2000, and in February 2001 they made what they thought
would be the final recording. Unfortunately this was not good enough. They both
realized that Michael, who in fact is a brilliant singer, didn't fit properly
in this special musical situation. So they decided to cancel this collaboration
and instead join forces in "
So, in Mars 2001 Hans and Roine had to face the
fact that they were left standing with a complete album but with no singer to
finish the work. A lot of names were put forward as a potential solution to
this problem: Roine came up with the singer of unknown band Carp Tree, Patrik
Lundström of Ritual and Ola Salo of The Ark, but finally Hans decided to make
Patrik an offer. Patrik accepted and the vocals were recorded at HGL Studio in
just two days, 28 - 29 May 2001. Patrik's high vocal timbre brings a dimension
to the music which is close to the sound of the early Kaipa.
As he is a professional and brilliant singer he
also brought a lot of new energy to the songs. The song "Notes from the
past part II" was originally recorded and meant to be sung by Hans,
marking a difference between the two versions of the song, but when Hans heard
Patrik sing the first part he was overwhelmed and decided to change this
decision. Hans happened to ask Patrik if he knew any female singer who could to
perform the song "A road in my mind". Hans wanted a singer able to
make a personal interpretation, to bring a lot of energy and feeling to the
song as a contrast to the soft and sweet little melody. After some searching
Patrik returned on 15 June 2001 to the studio with Aleena.
She
performed the songs in her sophisticated, personal manner, with Hans and Patrik
providing a compact and complete smiling support. Many of the basic keyboard tracks
recorded simply as a momentary demo are still in use in the final result,
proving the worth of the original inspiration. During the autumn 2000 Hans
completed most of the keyboard work and added the
To give Per a chance to form his own opinion of the
music they listened to the raw mix of the album. After some minutes of silence
Per looked at Hans and said: "Why are you talking about a "green
glass"? This is irrefutably KAIPA, and this is what all your old fans have
been waiting for." So Hans and Roine discussed this, and a few days later
they decided to use the name Kaipa again, considering this as a trademark for
the content of the album, as well as a good way to nudge it into the Kaipa
limelight, and getting more people to hear it. It was also meant as a tribute
to the reunion of the main forces of the original band, two musicians bringing
their unique forces together again in chemistry. Roine, who already had two
bands to write songs for and play with, agreed to reuse the name Kaipa and
thought this a good solution, in spite of his lack of input to the actual
compositions as he obviously had hands full with his own successful projects
anyway. Through his way of playing, Roine contributed much to what was the
Kaipa sound and came also with valuable input during the final arrangement and
mixing stage.
The album Notes from the past proves it's possible to make a bridge between the past and present,
forming a new progressive music that has as much similarities with the old
Kaipa records as it has differences.
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KEYHOLDER
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