MIKLAGÅRD

So, what I have here is a CD version of a 1979 album and having done some research I am pretty sure this is an unauthorised release and must have turned it up with a bunch of other albums sent to me by friends in the scene to review. Although the album has long been officially unavailable, it appears to have again been reissued last year by another label and I wonder if that is the actual version I have here, although I cannot find any reference to any labels apart from Edge (the original) and Tachika. The band on the album were Leif Lerman (bass, alto saxophone, vocals), Bjorn Rothstein (drums) and Thomas Sundström (electric piano, organ, synthesisers, vocals) along with guests Jan Sandberg (violin) and Jeppe Lerman (trumpet).p> p> While the line-up is very much that of ELP, musically they have more in common with early Genesis, yet somehow the sound feels quite washed out. There is just not enough power in the keyboards, with Sundström seemingly not having enough sounds at his command, which makes the overall sound feel quite thin. The arrangements are pleasant enough, with vocals in Swedish, but it is of little surprise that this was their only release as prog bands were really suffering back in 1979 and many were bringing far more guitar into their performances or moving in more commercial directions. This would have sounded dated even then, and it is fair to say it has not aged well. I do not know what happened to Miklagård, but the year after this release Sundström was putting out classical piano records, so it is possible they did not last long.p> p> This is a pleasant laid-back prog album, packed full of clichés and gentle vocals, and works well as background music, yet is rarely much more than that.

This actually isn't a bad album. MIKLAGARD were a trio from Sweden who have a GENESIS flavour to them, but i'd have to say that FRUITCAKE is the band they most remind me of.The vocal style and keyboards are similar to that Norwegian band. No guitar here but the bass is prominant and the drums and keyboards are well done. Some sax too.

"Kastraten" opens with organ before it kicks in with some nice bass. It settles quickly. Vocals after a minute with organ and drums. Synths come and go. Good song. "Tralen" opens with spoken vocals and gentle keys. A full sound before a minute with sax. The tempo continues to shift. "Astrologen" has a light and mellow soundscape as high pitched vocals arrive. "Narren" opens with violin, it kicks in before a minute. Synths wash in. Theatrical vocals 1 1/2 minutes in. The tempo picks up a minute later but it continues to change. Sax 3 minutes in.

"Haxan" opens with reserved vocals,bass and organ. The tempo picks up a minute in in this GENESIS flavoured track. "Mellanspel" features beautiful piano melodies throughout. "Soldaten" is the longest track at close to 13 minutes. Reserved vocals and organ to start. Spoken words follow. It kicks in rather heavily around a minute. Vocals join in. Nice bass too. A drum solo goes on for some time. Great sound before 5 1/2 minutes with drums, organ and bass. Spoken words and marching style drums take over as the contrasts continue between the spoken word sections and the instrumental passages continue.

A solid 3 stars.

vintage symphonic prog

First, this is not a bad album at all, and second Miklagard try to incorporate in their symphonic stucture elements specially on keys from the masters ELP, on drums they are similar to me in some parts with their country fellows Atlas or Kaipa, the voice is in swidish and is sometime theatrical like Peter's Gabriel from Genesis - see Narren. So, not very much to add just if you are a prog collector and above all an open minded prog listner you must give this band a try. Not something grounbreaking or spectacular but pleasent most of the time, forte track :Mellanspel - Erotic views approaching (very smooth and strong piece, an instrumental track) and the final one and the longest and the best from here Soldaten. 3 stars for this unknown band.

Keyboards, bass, drums trio from Sweden. You can pretty much guess the style. Luckily, they don't offer any outright plagiarism or cheesy classical covers. Unluckily, there's little here that transcends the style.

If you ignore the attempt to get all Peter Gabriel "theatrical" on "Narren", the vocals are actually quite strong. Curiously, the vocals seem to impart an Italian feel, making it sound less like ELP and more like Le Orme. If you're looking for that album that sounds like a lost Le Orme disc, stop searching for Triade and go for this instead!

Synth sounds are a bit thin on the ground, but that's only to be expected when their only synths were an ARP Pro-DGX (marginally "improved" version of the hopeless Pro-Soloist) and a Yamaha CS-50. A Moog could have beefed their sound up a good deal, as could a real Hammond organ...though for the record they push their WLM (Finnish-made solid-state Hammond clone) organ as far as it'll go. There's certainly no faulting the rich acoustic piano sounds. The solo piano spot "Mellanspel (Erotic views approaching)" is a gem.

Also unique in that "Soldaten" surely must be one of the few prog tracks around to feature a COMPOSED drum solo! Weird!