KAIPA

This debut could become my favourite non-English language prog album! Funnily I enjoy Swedish for the sake of change (funnily because I hated svenska i skolan). But the voice itself - and harmony vocals - is very nice too. It reminds me of Spring and Tabula Rasa, and it's a perfect pair to the symphonic and slightly folkish sound. Emphasis on soaring keyboard and guitar melodies, it is clearly a 'Scandinavian' sound, not very far from CAMEL. Drums and bass are very enjoyable too.

Compositions are mainly by Hans Lundin (kb,voc), only two by Roine Stolt (who has also painted the cover picture). Since this is vintage stuff from the 70's, it may not be correct to compare it to Stolt's newer band The Flower Kings, but for me this beats FK by many miles. There is nothing useless in songs, they are rich and progressive enough without extremely complex structures. The emotion is there, and that's what matters most. 'Musiken är ljuset', music is light, and it really feels that way. It is music that cleans your mind.