Description

Miklagard was a Swedish symphonic prog act that incorporated structure elements and keys from masters such as ELP and Genesis. The band on the album were Leif Lerman (bass, alto saxophone, vocals), Bjorn Rothstein (drums) and Thomas Sundström (electric piano, organ, synthesisers, vocals) along with guests Jan Sandberg (violin) and Jeppe Lerman (trumpet). So theres no guitar here but the bass is prominant and the drums and keyboards are well done. This was their only release and prog bands were really suffering back in 1979 and many were bringing far more guitar into their performances or moving in more commercial directions. But the arrangements are pleasant enough, with vocals in Swedish. Parts of the albums reminds you of country fellows Atlas and Kaipa as well has Norwegian act Fruitcake. The synth sounds are a bit thin on the ground, but that’s only to be expected when their only synths were an ARP Pro-DGX (marginally improved version of the hopeless Pro-Soloist) and a Yamaha CS-50. A Moog could have beefed their sound up a good deal, as could a real Hammond organ…though for the record they push their WLM (Finnish-made solid-state Hammond clone) organ as far as it’ll go. The solo piano spot Mellanspel (Erotic views approaching) is a gem.

Track list:
1. Kastraten
2. Trälen
3. Astrologen
4. Narren
5. Häxan
6. Mellanspel
7. Soldaten