
Kaipa Da Capo
Dårskapens Monotoni
Foxtrot Records
2016
OK, I must say that since Flower Kings/Transatlantic dude Roine Stolt has made a bit of an impression on the music scene, I was aware of Kaipa, a long running Swedish prog group of which he was a part for a while in the 70s, but my exposure to them was limited to a few of their albums. (Mind you some of them, were released on Decca records and were favorably compared to their contemporaries)… So when I saw this release, I was thinking… does it have something to do with “that” Kaipa?
Apparently, it does. As three members of the band got together to perform music from their heyday, the next logical step was to do some new material. Ingemar Bergman (d), Tomas Eriksson (b) and Roine Stolt (g) all 70s alumni of the band are back as the main instrumentalists, while Michael, Roine’s brother, assumes the role of keyboardist and vocalist and Max Lorentz also on keys a guy who’s quite prominent in the Swedish music scene, with lots of sessions with important musicians all around.
The band tries to remain true to its 70s roots and it somewhat achieves that, but all the while, Kaipa, without Stolt, had moved into a more lighthearted and in all honesty more inspired and somewhat folk direction, this “branching out” is more minor and largely bittersweet sounding, while opting to use Swedish as a language, further causes difficulty to associate with the material. It’s not all doom and gloom however as several small portions of the long winded songs seem to be pretty good and especially Stolt’s solos, but overall, I think I would have taken a Kaipa album over this “throwback” of sorts.
Apparently, it does. As three members of the band got together to perform music from their heyday, the next logical step was to do some new material. Ingemar Bergman (d), Tomas Eriksson (b) and Roine Stolt (g) all 70s alumni of the band are back as the main instrumentalists, while Michael, Roine’s brother, assumes the role of keyboardist and vocalist and Max Lorentz also on keys a guy who’s quite prominent in the Swedish music scene, with lots of sessions with important musicians all around.
The band tries to remain true to its 70s roots and it somewhat achieves that, but all the while, Kaipa, without Stolt, had moved into a more lighthearted and in all honesty more inspired and somewhat folk direction, this “branching out” is more minor and largely bittersweet sounding, while opting to use Swedish as a language, further causes difficulty to associate with the material. It’s not all doom and gloom however as several small portions of the long winded songs seem to be pretty good and especially Stolt’s solos, but overall, I think I would have taken a Kaipa album over this “throwback” of sorts.