Galleon & CROSS.
Today, (7 February '04) while i visited my favorite record shop, Satisfaction,
in the lovely sunny South of the Netherlands, there was a nice sound coming out of the
speakers. Because it sounded a bit like Mostly Autumn with Angela on her flute i was sold.
(Mostly Autumn had my attention that week, because it seemed that we had managed to organized
a gig with them ;-)
The owner Rob wasn't so happy, because this was the first time
he heard From Land To Ocean and he wanted to hear more... It's a shame we didn't
heard this album sooner!
A band from Sweden, started as a three piece band called Aragon (great name)
and making albums since 1994. To mention a few;
Lynx (1993), Heritage & Visions (1994) and At this Moment in Time (1995).
The line-upp was:
Micke Värn - guitars
Göran Fors - bass and vocals and
Dan Fors - drums.
Ulf Pettersson joined the band shortly on keyboards and helped with some producing.
And returned to the band again.
After some touring in Europe and the release of "Mind over Matter" Galleon took it very easy.
And in April of 1999 Micke announced that he wanted to leave the band.
Ulf knew a guitar player from he's old hometown and called him up and Sven Larsson
was brought in on the Galleon ship bringing a new spark to the band.
Göran Fors - lead vocals, bass, additional guitars & keyboards,
Ulf Pettersson - keyboards, background vocals & really Roger-Deanesque cover art,
Sven Larsson - lead guitars & background vocals,
Dan Fors - drums & percussion.
Mind Over Matter (1998) and Beyond Dreams (2000) were the next fine albums.
From the Land To Ocean ('03) is an excellent double
cd. Cd 2 contains only one piece of 52 minutes...
With guest appearances of:
Tanja Hedlund - vocals,
Johnny Martinsson - additional drums,
Stefan Olsson - flute.
An album with some links to Mostly Autumn, Genesis, the Flower Kings, Camel,
some nice flute, sharp guitar riffs and more to explore. This an album of modern progressive music. It's
a shame i heard it not before.
I did an interview with Goran
in March 2004.
Live review Spirit of 66.
They gove an excellent show in Verviers 15th September 2004! Althrough Goran had some
troubbles with his pedals, he played his Rickenbacker wonderfull. And his voice was good to
hear too. He liked to make jokes and tell some storries.
The band played fantastic, a real team, wonderful sound, the sound of the 70-ies (Genesis) and 80-ies (Marillion)
prog was present, but with that own interpretation.
When I saw Ulf and heard what his magic fingers did with the keyboards,
I had a flasback of
Tony Banks with a bit of his surly grims, concentrated look and wonderful playing. And if
you would take a picture of Tony in the early 70-ies i think you can imagine the likeness.
Sven can play guitar and did a good job with a few wonderful solo's. Dan was sitting
behind his drum-kit and made more sounds then the average drummers can do with only two arms.
Galleon is not a Porcupine Tree, Mostly Autumn or Marillion, but a band to remember and
if you got the change; go and see them, you'll have a high enjoyable night.
Afterwards there was time to chat, but they were a bit in a rush, heading voor Zwitserland.
So Gruss Gott and return save to Sweden!
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Setlist
-
Liopleurodon (From
Land To Ocean 2003)
-
On
The North Shore (Lynx 1993)
-
Fall Of Fame (From
Land To Ocean
2003)
-
Art Gallery (Mind Over Matter 1998)
-
The Beat Of A Different Tree (Heritage &Visions 1994)
-
King of Aragon (King of Aragon 1999)
-
The European Anthem (The All European Hero 1996)
-
Three Colours (From
Land To Ocean
2003)
-
The Ocean (From
Land To Ocean
2003)
Encore
-
Parasite (Beyond
Dreams 2000)
|
With thanks to Danny of www.prog-nose.org |
In the Wake of the Moon ('11):
- Göran Fors / bass and vocals
- Göran Johnsson / drums, percussion and additional vocals
- Sven Larsson / guitars, mandolin and additional vocals
- Ulf Hedlund Pettersson / keyboards and additional vocals
SOLO:
A project with Göran & Olov from Grand Stand is called Spektrum
.
Göran & Olov has a sideproject that's currently working on it's first release.
The line-up for SPEKTRUM:
Lizette von Panajotte (Lizette&) - lead vocals
Olov Andersson (Grand Stand) - keyboards, backing vocals
Hansi Cross (Cross) - guitars, backing vocals
Göran Fors (Galleon) - basses, taurus, backing vocals
Göran Johnsson (Grand Stand) - drums, backing vocals.
A nice cd, good Swedish prog, nice wannahave just like the Cross
(and maybe you want some more of them):
CROSS
.
There were some line up changes, this is their latest line up ('04)
from their album "PLAYGROUNDS".
Hansi Cross - guitars, keyboards, vocals, percussion
Lollo Andersson -
basses
Tomas Hjort -
drums, harmony vocals
with:
Olov Andersson -
keyboards, harmony vocals
Lizette von Panajott -
harmony vocals (1,5,7)
Göran Johnsson - percussion, harmony vocals (4,5,7)
Göran Fors - taurus, harmony vocals (3,7)
Hannah - electric violin (4)
Linus Kåse - soprano saxophone (3,5)
Robert Iversen - percussion (5)
Alex - percussion (3,4)
"Swedish 'Cross', a symphonic project from Hansi Cross, has produced through the years a respectable discography. But unlike many other bands, Cross has succeeded to improve the quality throughout each release, and this seems to be the case again with 'Playgrounds'. Influences from the past like Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, etc are now reunited into a very own sound, neo-progressive symphonic rock as this seems to become typical for Scandinavian bands. On this album Cross has found the perfect balance between the vocal and instrumental pieces. Some will have difficulties with that raw, sometimes complaining voice of Hansi, but after a few listenings you will find out that his voice fits perfectly the instrumental parts. The voice of Lizette gives it a Spektrum feeling, although Cross' music is a lot more risky than the aforementioned Swedish musical project of the Progress Records label. The beautiful varied guitar solos remain the most striking on this album, the influence of top guitarists of the seventies is obvious. Playgrounds is probably the best album, that the band has produced so far: a promise for the future."
Rating: 8,5 of 10
:: PROG-NOSE ::
The Thrill of Nothingness ('09) is an album that got a lot of positive credits.
Hansi Cross - guitars, keyboards, vocals, percussion
Göran Johnsson - keyboards and harmony vocals,
Lollo Andersson - bass guitar and
Tomas Hjort - drums.
Wake Up Call ('12).
Hansi Cross - guitars, keyboards, vocals, percussion
Göran Johnsson - keyboards and harmony vocals,
Lollo Andersson - bass guitar and
Tomas Hjort - drums.
Mats Bender - keys (from Introïtus)
Jock Millgardth - vocals
Hannah Sundkvist - electric violin.
Session work:
PÄR VILLSÉ ('94 & '95) with Hansi Cross.
Tribute to Pink Floyd ('02), Hansi, Lollo and Tai performs "Shine on".
Tidlösa ('01), Hansi and Lizette mixing.
Magus ('02), Thomas played v-drums.
Elsephere ('03), Lollo and former Cross keyboard player Floke
was members of this band which disbanded 2004.
Grand Stand ('03), Hansie and Goran Johnsson.
Lizette (This is '03), with Hansi making some guitar noise.
More info at:
www.galleon.rocks.it.
The Cross
Spectrum.
Please be so free and sign my
guestbook.
Home again.
Updated February-2012 by Nick.
See you in The Spirit again!
www.mostlypink.net