AN ORDINARY NIGHT IN MY ORDINARY LIFE

A blend of space, cosmic, classical music, jazz and rock .

When I purchased this CD altogether with early albums of The Flower Kings, I thought that this solo album of TFK's keyboardist would be of similar with the music of TFK. I was wrong, as I would say that 70% are different than TFK. And, this album is completely instrumental, backed by TFK musicians. My chief reason buying the CD was because of TFK name. But later, I like the album title: An Ordinary Night in My Ordinary Life. Great title, isn't it? Everything is ordinary but it produces excellent music!

The Music

The album starts with an ambient sounscape with a touch of spacey style even though not that intense under "Entering The Spacebike".

It continues with the second track "Into The Dreamscape" where the intro verse has a bit of The Flower Kings music in relatively slow tempo. When the guitar solo enters (augmented with soft keyboard at background with spacey style) it reminds me to Jan Akkerman worn in Focus. Before it enters quieter passage exploring acoustic guitar, Hammond C3 sound appears softly. At the end of quiet passage [4:32] the organ sound returns in a louder volume with a church organ style augmented with acoustic guitar, distanced bell sound and acoustic guitar. The music turns into a very uplifting mode when [5:24] punchy keyboard enters the music and followed with a stunning solo in a faster tempo with heavy influence of jazz beat. I think this is the pinnacle of musical ecstasy offered by this track. The bass guitar is played dynamically, the drumming is powerful with some solo during transition piece. The music then returns to its original rhythm section in a slower tempo. This is an excellent composition!

"The Ballerina From Far Beyond" explores an orchestration outfit in classical music style. What interesting is the combination of styles between classical and space music indicated by the keyboard solo. At [1:54] Salazar's drum beats enter wonderfully, enriching the texture of the music. Bass guitar is played excellently. It flows then with a guitar solo and keyboad solo with drums and bass guitar play important roles as rhythm shaper. Guitar solo is given a large proportion in this track; played stunningly by Stolt. It's a very enjoyable track. At the final verse the music brings back with an orchestration style at the opening but with different augmentation of sound effects that projects different nuance.

"Daddy In The Clouds" is an exploration of solo organ at its best. There is no other instrument used. It's an organ solo track, basically. It continuous seamlessly into the next track "Speed Wizard" opened with an ambient music exploring keyboard. The music enters dynamically [0:49] with a dazzling rhythm shaped by bass guitar, drums and keyboard flows smoothly to accompany keyboard solo in relatively fast tempo. I enjoy the bass line throughout this track. The music is reminiscent of The Flower Kings at first but when it flows into the rest of the track, it sounds like another fusion music different with the one of TFK. At [3:24] the music turns into quiter passage with keyboard effects and powerful drum solo. Suddenly a sampling rhythm enters the music in a crescendo that brings the music to another spectrum; jazz music with keyboard and bass guitar works.It then fades out.

"An Ordinary Nightmare In Poor Mr. Hope's Ordinary Life" begins with a human narration and atmospheric music with a background of human conversation - it's like in the spacey movie. At [1:49] a bass guitar sound in Tony Levin's style of later King Crimson albums appears shortly. At the middle of the track a drum sampling enters the music in a bit of disco music.This track is very exploratory / experimental in nature.

"In The Land Of The Pumpkins" starts with an ambient soundscape and the music starts to roll at [1:51] with an upbeat tempo style exploring electronic piano with some non- lyrical male voice line. The music flows smoothly until [4:09] when it turns into a more complex composition in a faster tempo with an improvised keyboard sound mixed thinly so that it does not appear obviously as keyboard solo. A stunning organ solo follows right after the keyboard. The music suddenly turns into a quieter passage with simple (but nice) piano touch in a classical music style. The track ends up by bringing back all intruments to the music in a faster tempo. Excellent composition!

"The Magic Rollercoaster" kicks off with a simple drum solo augmented with keyboard / electric piano work in jazz style. The bass guitar follows in repetitive chords.It's an experimental track using drum, programming and bass as main rhythm. The structure is very simple and straightforward.

"The Gathering" is a mellow and spacey track that serves as transition to the last epic. The interesting part is the combination of space with calssical orchestration at the background of the music.

The concluding track is an epic "Three Stories" that comprises - obviously! - three parts: "...Samuel The Knight / ...Adam - The Prophet / ...Miranda - The Queen". It begins the epic with a flute-like sound and some soft clavinet sound. At [1:50] the drum beats start to roll and bring the music in its full stream that features the keyboard solo work. At[2:39] guitar enters the music and gives a stunning guitar solo performed softly, accompanied with drums and bass guitar as main rhythm section. The bass guitar and drums are played wonderfully. The organ solo continues the guitar solo. All are performed in relatively fast tempo. It's very uplifting!

Production

This album is produced by Don and Gepetto Azzaro, familiar names in TFK albums. Recorded between April - October 1996. The sonic quality of this CD is awesome. I usually play it in high volume to get maximum sound quality. I find that any release of TFK has a brilliant sound quality as well. That has made a significant contribution to satisfy my listening expectations. This album would be mostly effective if we listen to it during night time; especially when everybody's asleep - while sipping a cup of capuccino. Ughh . what a life, my friend! What a life!

Recommendation

Recommended! You will find this record is satisfying. Say, if you do not enjoy the music (which I believe you won't) you still can enjoy the hi-fi quality of this CD. SACD or DVD audio is not required for this album as this is already excellent. The music is diverse but it's very enjoyable. It might be a sort of music suitable for contemplation. Probably. - Keep on progging!

Yours progressively,

GW - Indonesia

Some similarities with The Flower Kings obviously : Roine Stolt, Hasse Bruniusson, Michael Stolt and Jaime Salazer all give a hand in this album. The main difference is that it is entirely instrumental keyboard driven progressive rock. It has some sort of fusion touch which I don't particularly appreciate as well as a psychedelic track. But don't worry, the album also contains some great symphonic moments. If you like the Flower Kings, you can't go wrong on this one.

A very talented keyboardist and a consistent member of THE FLOWER KINGS, TOMAS BODIN was born on 9th of April,1959 and studied piano from his early youth.He played in various bands in Stockholm,before joining ROINE STOLT on his solo career,which would finally lead to the formation of THE FLOWER KINGS.In mid-90's ,at a time when THE FLOWER KINGS were gaining wide recognition,BODIN decided to compose and release his first solo album.Helped by his fellow partners from THE FLOWER KINGS,he recorded ''An ordinary night in my ordinary life'' in 1996.

While the album seems to be very close to the style of THE FLOWER KINGS,it contains the evident personal touch of BODIN,who uses a variety of keyboards to create imaginative soundscapes,from the Hammond organ and the mellotron to the pipe organ and his biggest weapon,the moog synthesizer.The album is totally instrumental,containing absolutely satisfying compositions,which range from driving groovy keyboard passages and short instrumentals filled with sound effects to fully symphonic arrangements and melancholic pieces with a deppresive atmosphere.ROINE STOLT is excellent on his guitar parts and Owe Erikkson makes a memorable performance with his nice bass work.Not a boring minute in here,the album constantly alternates between rich sounds with a full prog team around to the personal time of BODIN on some of the tracks contained.After the undenieable talent of ROiNE STOLT,TOMAS BODIN prooves to be a second mastermind behind the name THE FLOWER KINGS...and this album is the proof for this fact...3.5 stars for me...

Not much in the way of reviews for this one it seems (or ratings either). I had kind of shelved this one a few years ago after I had bought it in the early days of my Flower Kings obsession. I listened at least half a dozen times, probably more, but just felt it was sort of a Flower Kings lite type of affair. After all, most of the band helps him here, along with a couple of other guests. I pulled it out more recently, and I must say, it has a value and interest beyond the Flower Kings stuff.

Still, there is no doubt that the first track (well, the first real song anyway, after the spacey and very short into of Spacebike) sounds like nothing if not a Flower Kings song. Albeit, a song from the earlier days of the Flower Kings (which is the period in which this album was recorded and released). I imagine the presence of both Stolt brothers was a factor here. Though for Roine fans, it should be noted he plays on the entire album, also contributing bass guitar on two songs. Salazar, the then Flower Kings drummer, plays on all tracks as well.

After the opening two tracks, things become much more distinctively Bodin (whatever that is). A generally mellow and atmospheric approach holds sway for the bulk of the album, more of a focus on sound than composition if you will. This is not a detriment, however, and helps to set this album off from his work in the Flower Kings. Nonetheless, Speed Wizard and Land Of The Pumpkins display more driving prog with some fine soloing by Stolt and Bodin. The Mr. Hope installment, probably the first one for those of us familiar with the future installments on the fan club releases, is something of a psychedelic free for all........even featuring the repeated phrase number 10, in honor of the Beatles well known number 9 from Revolution number 9 on the White Album. Not really a highlight, but not terribly annoying (at least to me). The epic Three Stories, featuring a section for each of Tomas' 3 children, is pretty much on par with the rest of the albums pieces, though features more diversity within itself than other tracks on the album.

This is probably his least interesting solo album, and the one that has the most in common with his main band. But for all that, it is quite a pleasant listen. I think the real drawback is that none of the songs really strike me as highlights, but none are particularly bad either. I think this is pretty much the definition of a 3 star album. If you're not a fan of the Flower Kings, you can probably consider it 2 stars. For just about everyone else, it is definitely good, but non-essential.

An Ordinary Night In My Ordinary Life is the solo debut album from Swedish keyboardist Tomas Bodin ( The Flower Kings). Unlike other The Flower Kings related projects like for instance Karmakanic Tomas Bodin has chosen to use his own name. An Ordinary Night In My Ordinary Life is also much more a solo effort than Karmakanic was as most of the emphasis in the music is put on keyboards.

The music is keyboard dominated but Tomas Bodin never falls for the temptation to show off. The songs on the album are all well composed instrumental tracks with soft sounding keyboard layers and an occasional guitar solo from bandmate Roine Stolt like in The Ballerina From Far Beyond. What a mindblowing solo from Mr. Stolt. Most of the music is either slow or mid paced but there are a few sections where the tempo is increased which is great for the diversity. A good example is the swinging part in Into The Dreamscape where Tomas Bodin treats us with a great synth solo. He doesn´t really play many solos on the album. Tomas Bodin´s music is more atmospheric than complex. A few other standout tracks are Daddy In The Clouds which is a church organ song. An instrument Tomas Bodin seems to have a faschination for. He also uses this instrument in many of the short songs on The Flower Kings albums. Speed Wizard is a great song. An Ordinary Nightmare In Poor Mr. Hope's Ordinary Life is a strange sound collage with samples while In The Land Of The Pumpkins is a great symphonic track. The ending 16:41 minute long epic track Three Stories also needs to be mentioned as the most ambitious piece on the album.

The musicianship is great and besides Tomas Bodin and Rointe Stolt from The Flower Kings there is also contributions from Hasse Bruniusson, Jaime Salazar and Michael Stolt from The Flower Kings. An Ordinary Night In My Ordinary Life does have a very similar sound to The Flower Kings more atmospheric songs which are usually the short ones written by Tomas Bodin. This is essentially an album with extented versions of those kind of songs.

The production is as on any The Flower Kings related album clean and polished. Excellent.

The cover art signals hippie solo keyboard album and that´s exactly what this is.

I must admit that I have owned this album for years and it never really excited me much but listening to the album again over the last couple of weeks made me realise that I do enjoy the album. In small doses I might add. I think An Ordinary Night In My Ordinary Life deserves 3 stars.

This debut album from Tomas Bodin is at times different from TFK's output even if the line-up for this work almost consists of the TFK gang.

The music available is of course much more keyboards oriented and no vocals are available. Most of the time, this album features atmospheric music (Into The Dreamscape), even spacey sounds (Spacebike). Some classical passages are nicely combined with the usual guitar breaks (The Ballerina) and some upbeat parts are also featured in this track which are welcome.

As a counterpart, the church organ oriented Daddy In The Clouds conveys a sad and peaceful atmosphere. Still, it isn't my cup of tea. The jazzy aspects from TFK is not forgotten either; but I can't consider Speed Wizard as a great track. Business as usual I would say.

The middle part of this album is weaker: once I reach An Ordinary Nightmare., I usually press the magic key (next) to avoid it in order to reach the melodic In The Land. that will bring you into the TFK world once again.

The closing number is more bombastic and not far away from neo actually, at least during the first movement. The rest of the song is in-line with some of the tracks from An Ordinary Night In My Ordinary Life: ambient and aerial music but with a definite TFK feeling this time. The good guitar work from Roine is of course not alien to this fact.

It ends up though as most songs from this album: in a quiet and soft mood which can lead you to nicely fall asleep as suggests the cover artwork. This album is tranquil and pleasant for most of it. Not necessarily brilliant, but good.

Three stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tomas Bodin's 2002 album PINUP GURU, which included the best examples I'd heard of instrumental, keyboard-driven symphonic prog since the mid-1970s heyday of BRAIN SALAD SURGERY, THE STORY OF I and RICK WAKEMAN'S CRIMINAL RECORD. I wish I could say exactly the same about THIS album, released six years earlier, but unfortunately I cannot.

To be honest with you, AN ORDINARY NIGHT... certainly has its moments, and I think I'll be listening to the second half of the album for years to come. But throughout the first three or four tracks Bodin seems to be sleepwalking. Whenever he digs up his (fake) church organ, he merely uses it for effect; never for a special reason. Far too often he descends into B-movie soundtrack mode or cloying sentimentality. "Three Stories", the mini-epic which concludes the album, dissolves into a bolero which is obviously inspired by E.L.P.'s TRILOGY, but the bolero ends with a whimper, not with a bang... Besides - what's going on with Bodin's song titles??? "Entering the Spacebike", "Daddy in the Clouds", "In the Land of the Pumpkins" etc.: they mean precisely nothing.

It seems by the time of PINUP GURU Bodin had far more energy. His melodies became more inspired, his solos sounded much more urgent.

Nevertheless, even on AN ORDINARY NIGHT you'll find appetizing solos in the vein of Wakeman, Emerson, Moraz and Banks, accompanied with brio (sometimes in true "Classic Yes" style, as only the Flower Kings know how!) by Messrs. Stolt, Eriksson and Salazar. If you're a Flower Kings completist, you'll want this. But if you want to start with Bodin at his instrumental best, I suggest you try PINUP GURU first.