Roine Stolt

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Roine Stolt
The Flower Kings live at Leamington Assembly 9-5-20.jpg
Stolt in 2014
Background information
Also known asDon Azzaro
Born (1956-09-05) 5 September 1956 (age 67)
Uppsala, Sweden
Genres Progressive rock, jazz rock
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • singer
  • composer
  • producer
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • bass
  • keyboards
Years active1973–present
LabelsFoxtrot Music
Member of
Formerly of
Website flowerkings.se

Roine Stolt (born 5 September 1956) is a Swedish guitarist, vocalist and composer. A major figure in Sweden's rock history, Stolt led two of his country's most successful progressive rock bands: Kaipa in the 1970s and The Flower Kings in the 1990s onward.

Contents

Biography

Stolt on tour with Transatlantic (2010) Transatlantic2010 stolt.jpg
Stolt on tour with Transatlantic (2010)

Stolt started his career in the late 1960s playing bass guitar in local rock bands. He switched to guitar in 1973 in his brief sojourn with Allman Brothers-influenced Orexis. In 1974 he became the guitarist in Kaipa, a professional progressive rock band. He was 17 years old at that time. The group made three successful albums and toured more than 100 gigs a year, including national TV and radio performances in Scandinavia.

In 1979 he left Kaipa to form his own group Fantasia and made two albums. The group split up in 1983, and Stolt started working as a solo and session musician, arranger and producer.

It was at this point I felt I had really learned to master the guitar that my career as singer started on the 1985 album "Behind The Walls", which was a melodic and romantic album more in the style of Jackson Browne or Hall & Oates.

Roine Stolt on The Flower Kings website

In the late 80s he started his own publishing and recording label called Foxtrot Music. He was also involved in various projects including live performances and recording sessions with other artists, in styles ranging from symphonic rock towards more traditional rock, funk, pop, folk, blues and jazz. Under the "Stolt" project he released "The Lonely Heartbeat" in 1989: the sound is a mix of pop and complex rock.

Witnessing the progressive rock revival of the 1990s, a movement that partly originated from Sweden with bands like Landberk and Änglagård, Roine Stolt was quick to come back to his early love. Recruiting ex-Jonas Hellborg drummer Jaime Salazar and ex-Samla Mammas Manna percussionist Hasse Bruniusson, he released The Flower King in mid-August 1994. Stimulated by the warm response, he enlisted brother Michael Stolt (bass, vocals) and longtime friend Tomas Bodin (keyboards) and formed the Flower Kings, which would remain his principal musical project for years to come.

It was an album that tried to unleash the forces of good in the negative, violent, aggressive, competitive music business of today. Reinstate the old hippie ideals, lyrically and musically.

Roine Stolt on The Flower King, from The Flower Kings website

In 1998 he released his second solo album Hydrophonia. This reveals major influences by early progressive musicians such as Frank Zappa and Steve Howe.

In the year, 2000 Stolt worked in two different projects: the supergroup Transatlantic, and the re-launch of Kaipa, where he was involved in three albums from 2002–2005. He re-entered the studio with Transatlantic in 2009, for an album release later in the year.

In 2013, Stolt and The Flower Kings joined Neal Morse for a co-headlining tour. The members of both bands collaborated for an encore consisting of Transatlantic songs, as 3 of the 4 members of Transatlantic were present (Roine Stolt, Neal Morse, and Mike Portnoy).

In 2015 Stolt joined Steve Hackett's touring band as bassist and guitarist for Hackett's Acolyte to Wolflight with Genesis Revisited Tour. [1]

On 24 June 2016, the duo Stolt and Jon Anderson had formed released their debut studio album entitled Invention of Knowledge .

In 2017, Stolt co-formed the supergroup The Sea Within.

Discography

Family

Stolt and his wife Lilian have two sons, Johan Sebastian and Peter Gabriel, named after two of his all-time musical idols.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transatlantic (band)</span> Multinational progressive rock supergroup

Transatlantic was a multinational progressive rock supergroup consisting of Neal Morse, Roine Stolt, Pete Trewavas and Mike Portnoy. They formed in 1999 as a side project to their full-time bands, but disbanded in 2002. They then reunited in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Flower Kings</span> Swedish progressive rock band

The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band formed in 1994 by guitarist and singer-songwriter Roine Stolt. The group began as Stolt's touring band to support his third solo album The Flower King. They continued performing after the tour and have gone on to become one of the most prolific studio recording units in progressive rock, having released over twenty hours of music spread across fifteen studio albums. Their music is similar to early symphonic progressive rock groups such as Yes, marked by sharp dynamic changes, polyrhythms, heavy bass, vocal harmonies, abstract and occasionally nonsensical lyrics, and extended song lengths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neal Morse</span> American rock musician

Neal Morse is an American singer, musician and composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful. In 1999, he joined Dream Theater's co-founder and then drummer Mike Portnoy, together with Flower Kings' Roine Stolt and Marillion's Pete Trewavas they formed the super-group Transatlantic. In 2002, Neal Morse became a born again Christian, left Spock's Beard and began a Christian rock solo career, releasing many progressive rock concept albums about his new religious faith. In the meantime, he continued to play with Transatlantic and formed three new bands with Portnoy, Yellow Matter Custard, Flying Colors and The Neal Morse Band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Portnoy</span> American drummer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonas Reingold</span> Swedish bassist

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<i>?</i> (Neal Morse album) 2005 studio album by Neal Morse

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaipa</span> Swedish progressive metal group

Kaipa is a Swedish progressive rock band.

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<i>Wallstreet Voodoo</i> 2005 studio album by Roine Stolt

Wallstreet Voodoo is a blues album made by Roine Stolt. The album was released November 11, 2005.

<i>SMPT:e</i> 2000 studio album by Transatlantic

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<i>Bridge Across Forever</i> 2001 studio album by Transatlantic

Bridge Across Forever is the second studio album of progressive rock supergroup Transatlantic, released in 2001. For this album, the band attempted to balance each member's contributions more equally, because of criticisms that their first album, SMPT:e, was too dominated by the style of vocalist Neal Morse. Like their first album, Bridge Across Forever was well received by critics and progressive rock fans, though it had little mainstream popularity. While it is not a concept album, all the lengthy epics share at least one movement with another.

<i>Kaipa</i> (album) 1975 studio album by Kaipa

Kaipa is the first album by Swedish progressive rock band Kaipa, released in 1975, two years after the band formed.

<i>Notes from the Past</i> (Kaipa album) 2002 studio album by Kaipa

Notes from the Past is the sixth studio album by Swedish progressive rock band Kaipa. It is also the band's first release in twenty years, this time with a renewed lineup and with the return of guitarist Roine Stolt.

This is a timeline of artists, albums, and events in progressive rock and its subgenres. This article contains the timeline for the period 2000 - 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasse Fröberg</span> Swedish rock musician

Hasse Fröberg is a Swedish guitarist, composer and vocalist, currently one of the vocalists and guitarists of The Flower Kings. He fronted a handful of hard rock bands before joining them and currently has his own solo project, Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion.

<i>Whirld Tour 2010: Live in London</i> 2010 live album by Transatlantic

Whirld Tour 2010: Live in London is the third live album by the progressive rock supergroup Transatlantic. Released in 2010, it documents the May 21, 2010, show by the band at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, England. The show was also filmed and released on a two-DVD set with additional performances and documentary footage. This was the second-to-last show of the "Whirld Tour" in support of the band's third studio album, The Whirlwind.

This is the complete discography of musician Roine Stolt.

<i>Invention of Knowledge</i> 2016 studio album by Anderson/Stolt

Invention of Knowledge is a studio album by Anderson/Stolt, a musical collaboration formed by singer-songwriters and musicians Jon Anderson and Roine Stolt. It was released on 24 June 2016 by InsideOutMusic. The project originated in 2014 after Anderson had performed with Stolt on a progressive rock-themed cruise, and the two decided to record an album. The recording process involved Anderson recording ideas in demo form in California and sending them online to Stolt in Sweden, who would develop music based on them. Invention of Knowledge was recorded in Sweden by several musicians, including Tom Brislin, Daniel Gildenlöw, and members of Stolt's band The Flower Kings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nad Sylvan</span> Musical artist

Nad Sylvan is a U.S. born Swedish progressive rock musician and songwriter, who is currently the vocalist in Steve Hackett’s band Genesis Revisited and has also maintained a solo career and collaborations with several other musicians.

<i>The Absolute Universe</i> 2021 studio album by Transatlantic

The Absolute Universe is the fifth and final studio album of the progressive rock supergroup Transatlantic, released on February 5, 2021, by Inside Out.

References

  1. Steve Hackett Reveals New Bass/12-String Player, HackettSongs, retrieved 23 April 2016.