Psychedelia and progressive

The first Swedish band to deserve an international reputation was one of the greatest European psychedelic band. Parson Sound, whose compositions would surface only 32 years later on Parson Sound (2001), Their main influences were minimalist composer Terry Riley, who at the time was inventing a musical aesthetic founded on repetition, and pop-art guru Andy Warhol, who, at the time, was experimenting with the droning music of the Velvet Underground. Renamed International Harvester (1), they later released Sov Gott Rose-Marie (Love, 1968), a wild fusion of psychedelia, minimalism, raga, folk, jazz and sounds of nature.

In the age of progressive-rock, Scandinavia became one of the most fertile lands. Sweden's premier progressive-rock group was Samla Mammas Manna (1), which debuted with Samla Mammas Manna (1971). Algarnas Tradgard (1) concocted the puzzling and oddly orchestrated suites of Framtiden Ar Ett Svavande Skepp Forankrat I Forntiden (1972), a meeting of prog-rock jamming, psychedelic freak-out and exotic chamber music. Bo Hansson released Sagan Om Ringen (1970), a collection of twelve impressionistic vignettes that mixed folk, classical, jazz and pop and that predate synth-pop and new-age music. Two Swedish groups pioneered an original folk-jazz-classical fusion: Ragnarok on Ragnarok (1976), and Kebnekajse in Balladen om Bjorbar och Natmelor, off their III (1975).

Holland's most famous psychedelic and prog-rock band was Focus (1), whose Moving Waves (1972) contains the fast-paced novelty number Hocus Pocus and the colossal jam Eruption, their equivalent of the Colosseum's Valentyne Suite. But the most exciting song to emerge from Holland's booming scene was Shocking Blue's Venus (1969), a sexy, party rave-up that harked back to Creedence Clearwater Revival's feverish rhythms.

Finch (1), also from Holland, crafted the four lengthy instrumental jams of Glory Of The Inner Force (1975) and the two fluent melodramas of Beyond Expression (1976), A Passion Condensed and Beyond the Bizarre.

Abba were the reigning champions of pop during the 1970s. They began with effervescent vocal harmonies coupled with catchy upbeat refrains, notably Waterloo (1974) and Fernando (1976), but then proved to excel also in the discos, with Dancing Queen (1977), Gimme Gimme Gimme (1979) and the formidable Lay All Your Love On Me (1981), and finally ventured into the romantic melodrama with Knowing Me Knowing You (1977) and Winner Takes It All (1980). Supertrouper (1981) returned them to their naive-pop glory, and, after Abba disbanded, their leaders and songwriters managed to top all of this with a superb exotic pastiche, Murray Head's One Night In Bangkok (1985).

Metal, punk and garage

The new wave and punk-rock did not leave much of a mark on Scandinavia, but the area experienced a revival of the most ferocious garage-rock.

Hanoi Rocks (1), in particular, deserve to be named next to the father founders of the genre. This Finnish equivalent of the New York Dolls evolved from the punkish callowness of Bangkok Shocks Saigon Shakes Hanoi Rocks (1981) to the catchy power-pop of Oriental Beat (1982) to the slick glam-metal of Back To Mystery City (1983). The Nomads played garage-rock with the intensity of heavy-metal, although their records, beginning with the mini-album Where The Wolf Bane Blooms (1983), were mainly collections of covers. This tradition peaked with Union Carbide Productions (1) and the satanic rave-ups of In The Air Tonight (1987).

Dutch anarchists Ex (2) had begun in the militant vein of Crass but would continuously improve the quality of their cacophonous, incoherent bacchanals via increasingly challenging albums such as Blueprints For A Blackout (1983), Joggers & Smoggers (1989), Instant (1995), possibly their masterpiece, and Starters Alternators (1998).

At the same time, King Diamond's Mercyful Fate (1) in Denmark focused on macabre themes on Melissa (1983). They pioneered black metal, a genre that would be particularly successful in Scandinavia. Bands such as Bathory, Mayhem and Candlemass ensured that gothic rock remained a leading genre for the rest of the decade.

A number of Scandinavian bands adopted KMFMD's aggro style. Notable albums include: Excluded (1990) by Denmark's Klute (Claus Larsen of Leaether Strip); Pariah (1991) by Denmark's Sloppy Wrenchbody, Assassins Dk United (1994) by Denmark's Psychopomps Misery Loves Co (1995) by Sweden's Misery Loves Co.

Melody

The last major phase in the history of dream-pop was heralded by Norway's Bel Canto (3), the project of vocalist Anneli Drecker and multi-instrumentalists and Nils Johansen (which initially featured future Biosphere mastermind Geir Jenssen). White-Out Conditions (1987) owed its dark and icy appearance to the influences of laconic bards (Nico, new-age music, gothic rock, Dead Can Dance). Drecker matured on Birds Of Passage (1989), unleashing a supercharged persona over dynamic soundscapes worthy of a chamber symphony. Pared down to the duo of Drecker and Johansen, Bel Canto began to mutate into a less organic and more fashionable unit with Shimmering Warm And Bright (1992), a transformation that was completed by the lush, decadent dance-pop of the Bjork-influenced Magic Box (1996).

Sweden managed to launch Roxette in the international charts with the elementary hooks of Look Sharp (1988).

Iceland's Sugarcubes (1), fronted by Bjork Gudmundsdottir, laid the foundations for the surreal dance-pop of the following decade with Life's Too Good (1988).

The resilience of surf music around the world was proven by Laika & The Cosmonauts's C'mon Do The Laika (1988) in Finland.

Gothic

Sweden came to rule European gothic. Roger Karmanik, the mastermind of Brighter Death Now and the founder of the Cold Meat Industry label, was the inspirator of Sweden's gothic scene. Deutsch Nepal's Deflagration Of Hell (1991) was still under the influence of industrial music (the genetic source of this scene), but soon Scandinavia coined an original language: the "sound constructivist" school, that merged elements of ambient, gothic and industrial music, and, in general, relied on atmospheric keyboards and sometimes classical instruments to create terrifying visions of the otherworld; a genre that often sounded closer in spirit to classical music than to rock music. The works of In Slaughter Natives, such as Sacrosancts Bleed (1992), were feasts of excesses, relying on heavy-metal guitar and stormy beat-boxes as well as Gregorian litanies, Wagnerian choirs, martial drumming, etc. Love Is Colder Than Death's Teignmouth (1991) bridged the ancestral and the modern, the middle ages and cybernetics, ecstasy and hedonism, via a sequence that led from monk psalms, funereal tempos and organ drones to disco beats and bombastic arrangements. Mortiis (1), the brainchild of Emperor's bassist Haavard Elefsen, transposed Klaus Schulze's symphonic grandeur and Brian Eno's majestic ambient ecstasy into gothic music, particularly with the two lengthy suites of The Songs Of A Long Forgotten Ghost (1993). Ordo Equilibrio (1), the project of multi-instrumentalist Tomas Pettersson, specialized in the glacial, desolate electronica first pioneered on Reaping The Fallen (1995). Arcana (1) refined the neoclassical, symphonic style on Dark Ages Of Reason (1996).

The master of nordic landscapes was Peter Andersson, known as Raison D'Etre (2), experimented with both the "industrial folk" style of Prospectus I (1993), a set of psalms for string section and percussion instruments, and the "dark ambient" style of Within The Depths Of Silence And Phormations (1995), his most daring collage of samples, drones, monk-like chanting and futuristic electronics; a progression that led to the six neoclassical and mystical suites of In Sadness Silence And Solitude (1998).

Garage-rock

During the 1990s, the single most impressive concentration of garage-rock bands was perhaps in Scandinavia. Hanoi Rocks had led the way, and, one decade later, a number of Scandinavian bands followed their lead, storming through programs of acrobatic rock'n' roll numbers with the sensitivity of a conquering viking.

MC5, Motorhead and New York Dolls were the role models for Sweden's Hellacopters (1), who delivered the impressive punch of Supershitty To The Max (1996) and Payin' The Dues (1997), and for Norway's Gluecifer.

Norway's Motorpsycho (1) offered perhaps the most eclectic take on the cliches of psychedelic hard-rock on monumental albums such as Demon Box (1993), bordering on progressive-rock.

Norway's glam-punks Turbonegro (1) recorded one of the most impressive hardcore albums of the decade, Apocalypse Dudes (1998), that sounded like a hardcore version of Alice Cooper and Kiss.

Ska-punk was well represented by Millencolin's Life On A Plate (1996).

Trespassers W in Holland coined a unique form of lo-fi philosophical music with albums such as the philosophical concept Roots And Locations (1991).

Black metal

More or less independently of death-metal, whose main work was perhaps Entombed's Left Hand Path (1990). a new school of "black metal" arose in Scandinavia. Notable works included: Darkthrone's A Blaze In The Northern Sky (1991); Immortal's Battles In The North (1994); Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994); Enslaved's Eld (1997); etc.

Sweden's main doom-metalers were Katatonia, with Discouraged Ones (1998).

The greatest black-metal band of the decade was probably from Norway, Emperor (1), whose In The Nightside Eclipse (1994) was a concentrate of violence but also a metaphysical (and symphonic) inspection in the otherworld. Among more experimental acts, Ved Buens Ende, also from Norway, wed black metal and post-rock on Written In Waters (1995).

New standard for the genre were set by Satyricon's Nemesis Divina (1996), In The Woods' Omnio (1997), Borknagar's The Archaic Course (1998)

Burzum, the project of former Mayhem's Christian "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes, subscribed to the electronic/ambient version of dark metal on Filosofem (1996).

Black-metal bands inspired by the Scandinavian masters abounded in other countries: Poland's Graveland, with Thousand Swords (1995), Germany's Nargaroth, with Herbstleyd (1998), etc.

Ulver (1) created an "electronic black metal" with the colossal Themes From William Blake's The Marriage Of Heaven & Hell (1998) that introduced elements of techno, industrial, ambient and trip-hop music.

A new trend in black metal was orchestral/electronic arrangements: Norway's Dimmu Borgir, with Stormblast (1996), Japan's Sigh, with Hail Horror Hail (1997), Finland's And Oceans, with The Dynamic Gallery Of Thoughts (1998). Tiamat, Therion, and Amorphis pursued a neoclassical version of death metal, which preferred the sound of keyboards. Norway's Theatre of Tragedy even adopted operatic vocals. Haggard introduced symphonic arrangements.

Prog-metal staged a comeback in Scandinavia with the symphonic metal of Land Of Broken Hearts (1993), by Denmark's Royal Hunt, the monumental suite Black Rose Immortal, from Morningrise (1996), by Sweden's Opeth, and the super-technical style of Norway's Solefald (1), which turned Pills Against the Ageless Ills (2001) into a brainy exercise of fusion-metal, and with Pain Of Salvation's One Hour By The Concrete Lake (1999) in Sweden.

Electronic dance music

Norway's multi-instrumentalist Geir Jenssen (ex-Bel Canto), who had pioneered ambient house with Bleep's North Pole By Submarine (1990), produced one of the most lyrical albums of ambient house, Microgravity (1991), credited to his new project, Biosphere (2). And that project evolved towards a rhythm-less "arctic sound", set in a icy wasteland of sonic bliss, with Polar Sequences (1996) and especially Substrata (1997).

Psychic Warriors Ov Gaia (1), the project of Dutch electronic musician Reinier Brekelmans, introduced exotic ambient house with Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves (1992).

Sweden seemed to specialize in Abba-like melodies sung to the techno beat, whether in a clearly Abba-derived fashion, as Ace Of Base did with All That She Wants (1992) and Beautiful Life (1995), or in an ironic synth-pop style, as Aqua (1) did on the exuberant Aquarium (1997).

Norway's Apoptygma Bezerk (Stephan Groth) explored gothic techno on Soli Deo Gloria (1994).

Holland's Alain Eskinasi, better known as Brainscapes, used the idea to package relaxing new-age music on Brainscapes (1996).

Starting with Intervision (1997), Finland-born singer and multi-instrumentalist Jimi Tenor played kitsch music (and sang in a sexy falsetto) to a techno beat with an approach that was the musical equivalent of Andy Warhol's pop art but that mocked everybody from soul to glam.

Pop

Holland was perhaps the most fertile place for college-pop, outside the USA. The Dutch contingent was led by Daryll-Ann (1), who pursued an implosion of country-rock and folk-rock stereotypes on the lyrical Weeps (1996), and Bettie Serveert (1), who served cold clever melodies on Palomine (1992).

The most influential female singer-songwriter of the 1990s was neither American nor British: Sugarcubes' singer Bjork (2) Gudmundsdottir came out of Iceland, of all places. Debut (1993) employed massive doses of electronic keyboards and synthetic rhythms (conducted by producer Nellee Hooper of Soul II Soul) to sculpt dance-pop tunes that combined the savage, vital spirit of rhythm'n'blues with the psychic devastation of the post-industrial age. Along the way, Bjork garnered debris of gospel, jazz, house, hip hop, Broadway show-tunes, etc. Her eccentric vocal style, which was the musical equivalent of cinematic acting, dominated Post (1995), an album that focused more openly on the groove and that the producers (Hooper, 808 State's Graham Massey, Howie B and Tricky) turned into a hodgepodge of fashionable sounds. Her traumas sounded more sincere on Homogenic (1997), which was also her most cohesive album; while Selmasongs (2000) and Vespertine (2001) merely admitted her fundamental travesty of kitsch, easy listening and orchestral pop of the past.

In Sweden, the Cardigans, who wrapped Nina Persson's soft, sensual, dreamy phrasing around sophisticated, lush, lounge-pop arrangements on Life (1995). Komeda in Sweden, with What Makes It Go (1998), pursued a route to disorienting pop muzak.

Iceland's Gus Gus (1) coined an anemic, sleepy, out of focus kind of pop-soul-jazz ballad on Polydistortion (1995), that sounded like the equivalent of be-bop in the age of trip-hop: a dejected soundtrack for the neuroses of the urban crowd. Sweden's Whale incorporated sensual crooning and heavy-metal guitars into the trip-hop sound of We Care (1995).

In Iceland, Sigur Ros (1) specialized in lengthy suites that leveraged celestial vocals and orchestral drones on Agaetis Byrjun (1999).

Glitch music

Finland's digital composer Mika Vainio imported the wildest forms of electronic music (Pierre Henry's musique concrete, Morton Subotnick's dadaistic electronica, Suicide, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Einsturzende Neubauten) into the format of ambient dance music. Brian Eno's Before And After Science was the main influence on the surreal vignettes of Metri (1994) and Olento (1996), credited to Vainio's solo project 0 (or, better, the symbol used in computer science for the digit zero). Pan Sonic (2), mostly a duo of Vainio with Ilpo Vaisanen, specialized in samples-driven minimal techno. Their albums Vakio (1995), Kulma (1997) and especially the poetic A (1999) evoked futuristic wastelands roamed by faint signs of life (digital beeps, echoes, scrapes, warped beats, clicks, clangs, radio frequencies) amid a lot of silence. The "arctic" beat became their trademark. The albums credited to Mika Vainio in person, such as Onko (1998) and Ydin (1999), unveiled the avantgarde composer of cacophonous concertos. There was beauty in the monotonous minimalism of Vainio's art, just like in haiku and epigrams.

Alva Noto (born Carsten Nicolai in Germany) was one of the composers who switched to the computer. His audio installations, documented by albums such as Prototypes (2000), employed techniques as diverse as minimalistic repetition, abstract soundpainting, musical pointillism and industrial noise, but, ultimately, subscribed to a notion from Physics, that the vacuum is alive and that reality hides in the interstices of the spacetime grid.

Vladislav Delay (1), born Luukas Onnekas in Finland, added slow-motion, glacial, dub-like reverbs, and jazz-like improvisation, to the digital landscapes of Ele (1999), Multila (2000) and especially Anima (2001).

Finland's digital composer Mika Vainio imported the wildest forms of electronic music (Pierre Henry's musique concrete, Morton Subotnick's dadaistic electronica, Suicide, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Einsturzende Neubauten) into the format of ambient dance music. Brian Eno's Before And After Science was the main influence on the surreal vignettes of Metri (1994) and Olento (1996), credited to Vainio's solo project 0 (or, better, the symbol used in computer science for the digit zero). Pan Sonic (2), mostly a duo of Vainio with Ilpo Vaisanen, specialized in samples-driven minimal techno. Their albums Vakio (1995), Kulma (1997) and especially the poetic A (1999) evoked futuristic wastelands roamed by faint signs of life (digital beeps, echoes, scrapes, warped beats, clicks, clangs, radio frequencies) amid a lot of silence. The "arctic" beat became their trademark. The albums credited to Mika Vainio in person, such as Onko (1998) and Ydin (1999), unveiled the avantgarde composer of cacophonous concertos. There was beauty in the monotonous minimalism of Vainio's art, just like in haiku and epigrams.

Alva Noto (born Carsten Nicolai in Germany) was one of the composers who switched to the computer. His audio installations, documented by albums such as Prototypes (2000), employed techniques as diverse as minimalistic repetition, abstract soundpainting, musical pointillism and industrial noise, but, ultimately, subscribed to a notion from Physics, that the vacuum is alive and that reality hides in the interstices of the spacetime grid.

Vladislav Delay (1), born Luukas Onnekas in Finland, added slow-motion, glacial, dub-like reverbs, and jazz-like improvisation, to the digital landscapes of Ele (1999), Multila (2000) and especially Anima (2001).

Progressive

Sweden continued to enjoy a fertile progressive scene. For example, In The Labyrinth, i.e. Peter Lindahl, blended neoclassical and ethnic music on The Garden Of Mysteries (1994). Anekdoten's Vemod (1993) revisted the vintage King Crimson sound. Blast's Wire-Stitched Ears (1995) from Holland was also a notable addition to the canon.

In Holland, Solex (11), the project of Dutch used-record specialist Elizabeth Esselink, updated the soul-jazz diva to the age of samplers and drum machines. The songs on Pick Up (1999) and especially Low Kick And Hard Bop (2001) were fragments of music glued together and propelled by disjointed beats. The difference between her compositions and the audio cut-up of the avantgarde was that her compositions were actually "songs", and even "melodic" ones. Her silky voice blended naturally with the frigid textures of her collages.