Notes From the Past

Artist: Kaipa
Label: Inside Out U.S.
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 693723419824
EAN: 0693723419824
ASIN: B000063NNS

Release Date: 2004-09-09

Notes From the Past

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Tracks:

Notes From The Past - Part I
Night Bike-Ride (On Lilac Street)
Mirrors Of Yesterday
Leaving The Horizon
In The Space Of A Twinkle
Folke's Final Decision
The Name Belongs To You
Second Journey Inside The Green Glass
A Road In My Mind
Morganism
Notes From The Past - Part II

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Mindrevolutions
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I Am

Customer Reviews:

Steady Improvement As the Music Progresses.......2004-12-02

I bought this CD on the basis of Roine Stolt's participation, as virtually anything he gets involved with has a lot of merit and Notes From The Past is no exception. What strikes me is how other reviewers feel about the vocals. I had many of the same thoughts but also think that the strength of the music overcomes the weakness of the vocals.
The CD starts on a weak note with the first part of the title cut. As other reviewers have noted, Patrik Lundstrom's voice is simply not up to this kind of music. I make an exception to that on one cut as Lundstrom aces The Name Belongs To You.
But there is steady improvement as the music progresses and by the time Folke's Final Decision is finished, Notes From the Past has morphed from a middling prog-rock project into a full-blown progressive masterpiece. The Name Belongs To You is an astonishing tour de force. That is followed by a mind-blowing instrumental workout on Second Journey Inside the Green Glass.
A Road In My Mind features a haunting vocal by Aleena Lundin and a magnificent instrumental interlude showcasing the guitar prowess of Roine Stolt. The CD then winds down with Morganism, a long instumental which carries the listener on a ten-minute journey through a variety of sonic landscapes before closing with a very strong Part II of the title cut.
The Inside Out label on which this CD is issued has become one that can be depended on to sign quality acts. It has become to progressive rock what CTI once was for jazz: a near guarantee of quality. If you have strong proclivities toward progressive rock, then this Kaipa CD should be in your collection as Notes From The Past contains some of the best tunes modern prog has to offer.

Instruments great, vocals not so great, still worth having.......2004-02-05

I first heard Kaipa on the Starstream prog rock internet radio station (http://starstream.musiconnect.com/). After hearing a bunch of wannabe-Marillion, wannabe-Genesis, wannabe-Yes, Kaipa's Morganism came on... and I was like, "what the f-...?" Awesome. The horn part of that song is strange, but not bad. And track 2, "Night-bike-ride (on Lilac Street)" plus Morganism are enough to make the album worth owning.
Weak spots: anywhere there are vocals. The melodies are OK, not great, and the singers aren't really suited to this material. Patrik has a very clear, crisp voice, and it sounds like he's had some serious voice training, but his style is just too dry and straightforward most of the time.
Fortunately, since this is prog-rock and not Celine Dion, it ain't all about the vocals, so in a song like "The Name Belongs to You" or "A Road in My Mind", the vocal parts are OK, and then there's plenty of strong instrumental work to balance it out.
In my opinion, Patrik and Aleena's vocals work much better on the following Kaipa album, "Keyholder". I suspect this has to do with the fact that on Notes from the Past they were basically brought in at the tail end of the recording process, and on Keyholder, Roine had more writing influence, as did (I'm guessing) Patrik and Aleena. In any event, the vocals work much better on Keyholder.

All that aside, there is still some cool stuff on this album, and if you can get past the inappropriate vocal stylings, you'll be rewarded with some really interesting and rockin' prog.

Oh yeah! High quality MP3 samples are available on http://www.kaipa.info/ so you can hear for yourself.

The 'lady' mentioned in the other reviews.......2002-08-29

First of all, I didn't really enjoy the album all that much. I do like keyboards, and I do like Flower Kings et al., but I also enjoy harmonical complexity. I find the tracks on the CD not to be developing anywhere, the lyrics are poor, the melodies are boring, and some of the songs just drag on pointlessly with identical repetitions of themes.

What I do enjoy is that it's a very personal album, and Mr Ludin's courage to have his daughter intervene on the album (she's the much-criticised 'lady' in the other reviews here) is laudable!

Best prog album of 2002.......2002-07-24

Plain and simple... if you like classic prog, and dig bands like The Flower Kings and Spock's Beard, you'll DEFINITELY love Kaipa's Notes from the Edge. Featuring TFK's Roine Stolt on guitar (and some of his best work is found here), just about every song is well composed and memorable. The interplay between Stolt's guitars and Lundin's keys is incredible, and pushes this disc to the top of the prog heap. Especially good are "Second Journey Inside the Green Glass" which contains some GREAT guitar/keyboard runs, and "A Road in My Mind" which features beautiful female vocals that will send chills down your spine.

The only misstep is the questionable use of an ersatz horn section on the jazzy "Morganism", but the drum work on the rest of the tune makes up for its other shortcomings.

An excellent record from excellent musicians, and not a release that should be missed by prog fans.

Awesome classic prog........2002-07-09

What year is it again? Right, 2002. It's been a long time since the original progressive rock renaissance was kicked off by innovators like Yes, King Crimson, ELP, and Genesis. And yet, listening to Kaipa's Notes from the Past, you could very easily think you've stepped through a time warp. This album's sound is vintage! Still, it goes to show that a magical band can come along and work with the classical sound in wonderful ways that make everything old seem new again. You _must_ have this album if you like the classic keyboard-heavy prog sound, but if you hate walls of 'tron and Hammond organs...RUN AWAY!

Headed by keyboardist Hans Lundin, Kaipa is a Swedish band that released a few albums in the 70s. Guitarist Roine Stolt was also a member of this band, and now many know him as the head honcho behind The Flower Kings. Notes from the Past is the first album released under the Kaipa name since the early 1980s. Even though the progressive rock genre has been through a lot of changes since the 70s, this is a great record independent of musical epochs.

For those interested in Roine Stolt's involvement, it should be noted that everything was written by Lundin. Stolt's voice here is his guitar playing, which is surprisingly vibrant and exciting. His creativity is endless. On this album, he cuts loose with some of his most exciting playing ("The Name Belongs to You") and some of his best textural playing (virtually instrumental section). The vocals of Patrik Lundstrom are excellent, a bit like Stolt himself actually but with a duller accent and simply a more powerful voice.

"Morganism" is one of my favorite prog instrumentals. It apparently gets its name from Morgan Argen, the drummer, known for playing with Zappa and Mats & Morgan. It's an awesomely groovy instrumental (and huge, close to 11 minutes), blending funk, big band, jazz, and disco-rock. The best is the end, marked by an aggressive drum solo with a slow, eerie background for a strange effect. All of the drumming is excellent, actually, definitely approaching alien-octopus levels but always tasteful. "A Road In My Mind" precedes this track, featuring female vocalist Aleena. Although she perhaps tries to sound too much like a rock star, it's hard not to like the song with its beautiful acoustic guitars and vocal & synth melodies.

The album's selection of great melodies are apparently limitless. Very singable choruses ("Mirrors of Yesterday", "Leaving the Horizon") are combined with appetizing instrumental hooks with makes the album entertaining through and through. And I'm astonished that the album seems so short. At 79 minutes, it's actually quite long CD-wise, but it seems over much sooner.

The only thing on the album I don't care for is "In the Space of a Twinkle", which is spacey musak ruined by some lady's robotic narration. Still, given that the song is only 3 1/2 minutes out of a 79 minute album, and most of it is music anyway, it's a very small complaint.

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