Swedish prog "feel"

listening to various Swedish prog rock bands (of very different genres)
including Kaipa, The Flower Kings, Samla Mammas Manna, Anglagard, Anekdoten, Sinkadus, Blakulla
I found some subtle similarities in harmony and general perception of the music (although they play in quite different styles)
and even some Transatlantic tracks, which are dominated by Roine Stolt, have that feel.
What is that?    Is there some "Swedish way of musical composition" ? 

It's the same deal with a lot of Finnish metal. I've noticed that Amorphis and Nightwish share similar melodic structures, and like PabstRibbon said, that's because they share the same cultural music. 

it can be a mixture of folkmusic, Abba, and avoidence of all thing concerned dance band musik, real musicians get rash and skin diseaces from listening to Vikingarna og Lasse Stefans, ucch worst thing called music is Swedish dance band followd by Norwegiain dance band.

but i mostly the folk music which creeps into peoples fingers and Abba i think is the main couses

maybe also some influence from Evert Taube and Cornelis Vresvijk also can have had a strong finger in the development of the Swedish prog sound

thier is a sound in british prog to, an celtic influenced subconcious mystical force that one can find in most UK bands 

Yes there is a "Swedish prog feel".  My favorite bands are coming from this country. But i can't say what's common to all swedish bands. But there are many similarities in a lot of them. I can put them in 2 category :

Dark bands :

Anglagard, Anekdoten, Gosta Berlings Saga, etc.

Light bands :

Flower Kings, Moon Sagari, Brother Ape, etc.

I think there is a lot of retro sounds in all of them, sometimes eclectic, other times symphonic, sometimes a good use of mellotron.

 

I'd say its a Scandanavian feel, as I hear it also in Wobbler's early material

OT Räihälä wrote: aginor wrote: ucch worst thing called music is Swedish dance band followd by Norwegiain dance band. I know something even worse, and that's Finnish schlagers... Swedish dance bands aren't half as irritating.  * * * Folk music is an obvious reason behind a lot of Nordic prog, and the Swedish "feel". Apart from genuine folk music, most Swedish prog musicians have heard stuff like Jan Johanssons Jazz på svenska for their whole lives. It is impossible to avoid its influence in Sweden. I think it's a good thing only, because Swedish (and other Nordic) folk tunes transform into prog very well.

cstack3 wrote: OT Räihälä wrote: aginor wrote: ucch worst thing called music is Swedish dance band followd by Norwegiain dance band. I know something even worse, and that's Finnish schlagers... Swedish dance bands aren't half as irritating.  * * * Folk music is an obvious reason behind a lot of Nordic prog, and the Swedish "feel". Apart from genuine folk music, most Swedish prog musicians have heard stuff like Jan Johanssons Jazz på svenska for their whole lives. It is impossible to avoid its influence in Sweden. I think it's a good thing only, because Swedish (and other Nordic) folk tunes transform into prog very well. As I read this thread in Chicago, Illinois USA, I have to laugh!  You Scandinavians bicker like a bunch of Yanks from the Midwest!   Clearly, your music is influenced by your diets of various pickled fishes, excellent vodka and probably too much sex.   I approve, keep up the good work.

  1. it is called Aquavit, it is called dryed, graved, soaked, or smoked us rearly pickle the fish, though vegetables we do, 2. a large prosnentage of the people from the midwest are scano-americans of origin no suprise then that their forfathers bicker more then the offsprings, 3 up north their is something called dark times when the sun never get over the crust, it is point black like coffee that might have an influence on the sound of our music, couse scan-music is very dark and melancholic, chilling like a winter night in Lapland, but also the summers are warm and long, and fare north the sun never setles down under the crust, this is called midnigh sun, this creates/influences the lighter more beutifull aestistics of swe/nor/den/fin/isl/fero music, combined with the folk tales, viking age, different outside influnces, like wars and stuff,, the animal kingdom, ravens, foxes, wolfs, bear, lynx, wolverines, gulls,... illnesses like blackplage/blackdeath, took a heavy toll spessially in Norway, that certainly creates a mood ... 60% of the population was redused in one year,  it took 500 years for Norway to gain up to the level it have in inhabitans from before the blackdeath 500 000 inhb down to aprox 66 000 inhb to come back to 500 000.....(/%&(/

They are all heavily influenced by ABBA!

'couldn't escape if they wanted to.......