HANS LUNDIN
The Solo Years 1982 – 1989
TEMPUS FUGIT
Kaipa keys man gets lost in the 1980s.
This box set collates the three solo albums released by Kaipa’s keyboard player and vocalist Hans Lundin while the band was out of action in the 1980s, plus three discs of previously unreleased material. Where Kaipa have a classic prog sound, with lots of organ and plenty of tonal variety, Lundin’s solo work is inextricably tied to the music technology of the 1980s. It’s all synthesisers, all the time. “Using old out-of-date instruments, like the Hammond organ, was out of the question,” says Lundin in the release notes, but where the Hammond B3 and Fender Rhodes have a timeless quality, the synthesisers and drum machines of the 1980s sound terribly dated now.
Tales, from 1984, and 1985’s Visions Of Circles Of Sounds were both originally only available on vinyl and make their first appearance on CD here. Lundin created many of the synth sounds himself for the albums, which can feel like someone doing a promo demo to show off the range of options available
on a keyboard. Much of it sounds like it could come from the soundtrack to an 80s direct-to-video movie, and Narrow Escape, from Tales, plays like carousel music from some infernal funfair. Even as late 1989, the year of Faith No More’s The Real Thing and Rush’s Presto, Lundin is still doing everything synthetically on Houses. Thus, the album features synth flute on the track Hasselbo, and synth bass and drums on Bring Down The House, none of which compete with the real things.
From the previously unreleased vaults, Ökant Öde contains demos intended for Kaipa, although many of the tracks, like Kall Natt and Nytt Blod Rusar Fram, sound more like New Wave pop-rock than prog. In Search Of The Green Glass and The Veiled Seven-Eyed Dancer both contain more unreleased Lundin solo compositions, but there’s a lack of memorable melodies despite his knack for epic titles like Feeling The Presence Of Phantasmagorial Animals. Without his Kaipa bandmates, Lundin gets stuck in a loop.