Swedish Prog Legends Pär Lindh Project Featuring Starcastle Vocalist Release New CD
For those in the progressive rock community Pär Lindh is considered a keyboard wizard – so much so that he was chosen to play keys for the reunion of the legendary Nice (a prestigious position only held by keyboard visionary Keith Emerson) With the release of several highly acclaimed albums, the Pär Lindh Project band has garnered worldwide acclaim.
After original lead vocalist Magdalena Hagberg sadly passed away in 2007, and a subsequent hiatus by the band, Pär felt the time was right to record and release his next album and recruited the exquisite vocalist Alan Lewis, former Alaska member, who is the most recent vocalist with American prog legends Starcastle. Lewis also adds his tasty solid drum work to the mix. Also added to the line-up is bass virtuoso William Kopecky. The new CD ‘Time Mirrors’ is a true masterpiece in progressive rock and has been garnering critical acclaim across the planet. The album has recently been nominated for the ‘Best CD of 2010’ by the Italian Prog Awards.
“Pär Lindh is the Scandinavian king of the keyboards!” – IO pages
PLP today is a classical rock trio with the focus on keyboard-based music. The influences of European classical music is an important part of their sound. This sets them apart from perhaps all other bands in the rock, pop and progressive music world of today. Their classic album GOTHIC IMPRESSIONS was elected in 1997 as one of the top ten progressive rock albums of all time along with groups like YES, GENESIS, ELP, MARILLION, PINK FLOYD and others. The Pär Lindh Project was the most successful Swedish progressive rock band of the 1990s.
The reason for the long process to make the new ‘Time Mirror’ album was according to composer Pär Lindh, “I was determined to make an album that would make a real difference in the world of music today both as far as in using innovative new sound combinations but also to develop new composition ideas and the creation of a new musical direction.”
At the dawn of the new wave of Swedish progressive rock The Swedish Art Rock Society was founded in 1991 with Pär Lindh as chairman. This movement helped to launch the Swedish progressive rock wonder of the nineties with bands like Änglagård, Galleon, Anekdoten, The Flower Kings, and of course The Pär Lindh Project (PLP). The first record to emerge from the Crimsonic Label is Pär Lindh´s innovative album ‘Gothic Impressions’, which has influences from renaissance music, early baroque, Bach, post-romanticism, avant-garde, impressionism and from the symphonic rock bands of the early seventies.
PLP´s first ever live performance was at the Gothenburg Art-Rock Festival on the 4:th of May 1996. Concerts in Sweden and Norway then followed. 1997 PLP received awards from Argentina for their CDs and Bilbo (feat. Magdalena) was voted as record of the year. Because of this PLP were invited to come and play concerts in Argentina and several TV appearances plus other media hype. After this offers to play concerts all over the world started coming in. PLP headlined the 1997 Rio Art Rock Festival and played other dates in Brazil and Argentina again. Late 1997 saw the release of ‘Mundus Incompertus’, featuring Lindh’s superb keyboard playing, Hagbergs stunning vocals, and impressive contributions from the other band members.
Pär Lindh Projects first live concerts in the USA took place in September 1998, most notably a headline performance at ProgDay 98 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. PLP again toured the U.S. the following spring, including performances at Progfest 99 in San Francisco, the House of Blues in Chicago, and a cathedral concert in St. Louis. Largely recorded at the ProgDay 98 festival, the two-CD set ‘Live in America’ was released in summer 1999.
After the extended tour in the USA and Europe 1999. At the NEARfest festival USA in June of 2000 William Kopecky was introduced as the new bass player for PLP. Tours then followed in Europe, USA and Mexico the following years. After the summer 2000 tour PLP continued as the trio Magdalena, Nisse and Pär to record PLP´s third album ‘Veni Vidi Vici’ with Flower Kings bass player Jonas Reingold and guitarist John Hermansen. ‘Veni Vidi Vici’ also included a string orchestra as well as a choir and several other guest musicians. The album was voted as ¨Best Progressive Rock Album of the Year¨ by Norway’s number #1 rock mag Monster Magazine 2001.
“Pär Lindh is the greatest composer and artist to emerge in the nineties!” – Metamusica
In the fall 2001 PLP played concerts in Europe and Iceland; these gigs were very successful and a live album was released from the Iceland concert called ‘Live in Iceland’ spring 2002. Pär Lindh toured the US and Mexico again in spring 2002 as a guest artist with progressive trio Kopecky playing a mixture of 50/50 Kopecky and Lindh materialin new arrangements. In August 2002 terrible news hit the band of Magdalena Hagbergs severe illness with cancer. The band was in a state of shock.
The year 2003 however saw an (short lived) instrumental trio version of PLP going back to Mexico for a couple of well-received gigs including co-headlining with legendary Dutch band FOCUS at the BAJA International Festival! Due to the serious illness of former PLP vocalist Magdalena Hagberg the band took timeout from late 2003 onwards to wait for her recovery. February that year also saw the release of Björn Johanssons and Pär Lindhs second duo album the critically accliamed ‘Dreamsongs from Middle Earth’.November 2004 saw the re-release of ‘Gothic Impressions’ with new vocals from Los Angeles based singer DIVAD on two tracks, as well as added keyboards, improved drums on one song and a lot of new extraordinary choir parts throughout the album. In September 2005 Magdalena returned to sing for PLP one concert in Sweden which sadly was to be her last performance with the band. Magdalena Berg passed away in 2007. In May 2008 the first ever PLP concert DVD ‘Pär Lindh Project – Live in Poland’ saw the light of day showing an instrumental version of the band. The release of this first class production filmed by seven cameras and with superb lighting behind the band was accompanied by many fine reviews of the band’s hot performance that November evening in Poland. After an audition in 2009, vocalist and drummer Al Lewis from the USA (best known for his vocal work with Starcastle and Alaska) was invited to join the ranks of PLP. “Pär was fun and easy to work with,” says Al, “and I think he really started to like a lot of my ideas.” William Kopecky once again plays outstanding bass. The band was thrilled with the idea of becoming a trio which will once again include splendid vocals! The comeback PLP album ‘Time Mirror’ with this new lineup of the band was just released December 2010. Pär Lindh Project ‘Time Mirror’ is available from www.parlindh.com PLP website: www.parlindh.com
Source: Glass Onyon PR
