The Flower Kings
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The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band.
Formed in 1993 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 has 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, an amount that Genesis took nearly a quarter century to achieve.
The original line-up for Stolt's solo album consisted of Stolt (vocals, electric guitar, bass, keyboards), Jamie 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 since its formation, 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) whom is now deemed as a permanent member of the band.
- Breaking news: Zoltan Csörsz has recently been replaced by new drummer, Marcus Lillequist.
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.
Their 1999 album Flower Power contains what is thought to be the longest progressive rock track 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.
Discography
- The Flower King (1993) (Roine Stolt solo album)
- Back in the World of Adventures (1994)
- Retropolis (1995)
- Stardust We Are (1997) (double CD)
- Flower Power (1999) (double CD)
- Alive on Planet Earth (2000) (live)
- Space Revolver (2000)
- The Rainmaker (2001)
- Unfold the Future (2002) (double CD)
- Meet the Flower Kings (2003) (double live CD and DVD)
- Adam & Eve (2004)
External Links
- The Flower Kings official band site (http://www.flowerkings.se/)
- Flower Power - The official fan site (http://www.theflowerkings.com/)fr:The Flower Kings