KAIPA

I was very late to discover this band. Not that you should blame me. Even in multicultural Cambridge, Massachusetts, foreign speaking prog was a rare find. A little PFM (usually the English language albums) was about all I ever found. After hearing Roine Stolt in The Flower Kings in the past decade, I went and found his earlier recordings.

And what a find. This is high caliber symphonic prog. I would place the sound somewhere between Yes and Camel. My favorite pieces are Musiken är ljuset and Oceaner föder liv, both epic pieces, quickly putting this group at a par with the British prog bands of the same era (most of those British bands were beginning to decline, just as Kaipa was rising). Another high point is Förlorad I Istanbul, a short jazzy song.

If I had found this band earlier, the nineteen eighties might not have been such a dismal time.