The Flower Kings | |
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 The Flower Kings performing in 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Sweden |
| Genres | Progressive rock |
| Years active | 1994 (1994)–2008, 2011–2015, 2018–present |
| Labels |
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| Members | Roine Stolt Hasse Fröberg Michael Stolt Lalle Larsson Mirko De Maio |
| Past members | Jaime Salazar Zoltan Csörsz Daniel Gildenlöw Marcus Liliequist Ola Heden Erik Hammarström Tomas Bodin Felix Lehrmann Jonas Reingold Zach Kamins |
| Website | www |
The Flower Kings are a Swedishprogressive rock band formed in 1994 by guitarist and singer-songwriterRoine Stolt. The group began as Stolt's touring band to support his third solo albumThe Flower King. They continued performing after the tour and have gone on to become one of the most prolific studio recording units in progressive rock, having released over twenty hours of music spread across sixteen studio albums. Their music is similar to earlysymphonic progressive rock groups such asYes, marked by sharp dynamic changes,polyrhythms, heavy bass, vocal harmonies, abstract lyrics, and extended song lengths.
In early 1993, guitarist and singerRoine Stolt had written material for his third solo albumThe Flower King and sought musicians to perform it.[1] He had wanted to release aprogressive rock-style album for a while and felt the time was right to pursue the project.[2] The album features Stolt on vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards; Jaime Salazar on drums; andHasse Fröberg on vocals. It was recorded in Sweden between May 1993 and January 1994.[3]
In preparation for Stolt's concert tour to support the album's release, Stolt, Salazar, and Fröberg were joined by Stolt's brother Michael on bass andTomas Bodin on keyboards.[2] The five performed their first gig on 20 August 1994 at an outdoor festival inUppsala, Stolt's hometown and the city whereThe Flower King was recorded.[2][3][4] After they decided to become a full-time band, they officially adopted the name The Flower Kings, named after Stolt's album. Stolt had produced a list of potential titles for the record, one of which was "The Flower King", and chose it because of its positive meaning and its reference to thehippie era of the 1960s.[2]
After performing a series of concerts through 1994, the band entered the studio in December 1994 to record their debut album,Back in the World of Adventures. The recording process was gradual, finishing in September 1995.
In 2000, Michael Stolt was replaced byJonas Reingold.[1] Two years later, Salazar was replaced byZoltan Csörsz.Daniel Gildenlöw ofPain of Salvation joined the band the same year as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
Other contributors have included Hasse Bruniusson (percussion) and Ulf Wallander (saxophone).
Stolt has written the vast majority of the material the band has recorded, with Bodin contributing most of the rest. The music is best described as symphonic progressive rock, bearing a strong resemblance to the music ofYes,King Crimson,Gentle Giant, and earlyGenesis, withjazz fusion andblues influences. The band's lyrics are almost uniformly positive and uplifting, affirming such values as love, peace, and spirituality, and furthering their association with Yes.[1]
Their 1999 albumFlower Power contains the eighteen-section, almost 60-minute "Garden of Dreams".
In June 2007, they releasedThe 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 "The Cinema Show" byGenesis.[5]
Zoltan Csörsz was replaced by new drummer Marcus Liliequist for one album, but returned for the 2007 album,The Sum of No Evil. He was subsequently replaced by Erik Hammarström in 2008.[6]
In 2008, Ola Heden, previously of Reingold's side projectKarmakanic, joined on guitar, vocals and keyboards.[6]
In November 2008, the band were the opening act at theEcco Prog Fest inMoscow.
After touring in 2008, The Flower Kings were inactive for four years. Stolt felt the band had varied levels of focus in their direction and had started to feel lost. They reunited in 2011 to work on new material after Stolt felt it was the right time and sensed eagerness from the other members to work together.[7][8] This marked the arrival of German drummer Felix Lehrmann.[7]Banks of Eden, the group's eleventh album, was released in June 2012 and was recorded with analogue recording techniques and styles reminiscent of the height of vinyl records.[7] This was followed byDesolation Rose in October 2013.
The lineup of Stolt, Bodin, Reingold, Fröberg and Lehrmann played together for the last time in 2015. 2016 and 2017 saw the band members busy with other engagements.
In December 2017, the first part of a career-spanning box set titledA Kingdom of Colours was released. This first box, with 10 discs, covers the period from 1995 to 2002 and includes the studio albums fromBack in the World of Adventures toUnfold the Future. The second box set, titledA Kingdom of Colours 2 and covering the albumsAdam and Eve through toDesolation Rose, was released in June 2018.[citation needed]
In September 2018, Stolt announced a new album namedManifesto of an Alchemist. The album did not feature long-time keyboardist Tomas Bodin, and as such, it is credited to "Roine Stolt's The Flower King" rather than "The Flower Kings".[citation needed]
In August of the same year, Roine Stolt presented a new band called "Roine Stolt and friends play The Flower Kings". The band featured Stolt, Fröberg and Reingold with new keyboard player Zach Kamins and new drummer Mirko De Maio. Roine Stolt stated that he was done being in a group and wanted to tour as a solo artist likeRoger Waters orSteven Wilson. Tomas Bodin was not a part of this group and made his displeasure quite public. The band toured with Spock's Beard in November and December 2018 and continued to do shows in 2019, this time under the name "The Flower Kings Revisited".
In July 2019, "Revisited" was removed from the band name, making it clear that this lineup was now "The Flower Kings". The band went on to release the double albumsWaiting for Miracles in 2019 andIslands in 2020, the latter having been recorded entirely remotely during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[9]
On 24 March 2021, Roine Stolt announced two big projects. The Flower Kings are working on a brand new album "in the same innocence" ofStardust We Are.[citation needed] By the end of 2021, Stolt explained that Jonas Reingold could no longer participate in the touring line-up due to his commitments with Steve Hackett's band, but Reingold still plays some of the songs in the studio.[10]
On January 7, 2022, the band announced their 15th studio albumBy Royal Decree would be released on 4 March 2022, while also announcing that founding member Michael Stolt returned after more than two decades to contribute bass and vocals, splitting duties with current bassist Jonas Reingold.[11] On 8 April 2022,InsideOut andRoine Stolt announced thatBack in the World of Adventures andRetropolis were getting "remastered and partly remixed". The release date for both was placed on 27 May 2022.Stardust We Are andFlower Power were also remixed and remastered in June.
The 16th studio album,Look at You Now, was announced for an 8 September 2023 release, alongside a European tour about to take place in October 2023. In April 2023, Zach Kamins revealed he left the group due to complicating touring logistics and Daniel Lantz joined for the summer shows. In July, the group mentioned that Lalle Larsson will play for the rest of the upcoming European dates.[12]
Current members
Former members
Guest musicians
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWE [13] | GER [14] | NLD [15] | BEL (WA) [16] | BEL (FL) [17] | SWI [18] | US Heat. [19] | |||||||
| Back in the World of Adventures | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| Retropolis |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| Stardust We Are |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| Flower Power |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| Space Revolver |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| The Rainmaker |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| Unfold the Future |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| Adam & Eve |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| Paradox Hotel |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| The Sum of No Evil |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| Banks of Eden |
| 27 | 68 | 64 | 192 | — | — | 45 | |||||
| Desolation Rose |
| — | 92 | 53 | 91 | 187 | — | 35 | |||||
| Waiting for Miracles |
| — | 59 | — | 84 | — | 67 | — | |||||
| Islands |
| — | 48 | — | 109 | — | 92 | — | |||||
| By Royal Decree |
| — | 17 | 53 | 84 | 185 | 23 | — | |||||
| Look at You Now |
| — | 49 | — | — | — | 27 | — | |||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
Live albums
Official bootlegs
Fan Club albums
Compilations
Box sets
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)| International | |
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