Roine Stolt (born 5 September 1956) is a Swedish guitarist, vocalist and composer. A major figure in Sweden's rock history, Stolt led two of his country's most successful progressive rock bands:

Kaipa Kaipa is a Swedish progressive metal band. History The band was formed as Ura Kaipa by Hans Lundin (keyboards) and Tomas Eriksson (bass). Roine Stolt joined Kaipa as guitarist when he was 17. In 1974, shortly after they had cut the "Ura" fro ...

in the 1970s and

The Flower Kings The Flower Kings are a Swedish progressive rock band formed in 1994 by guitarist and singer-songwriter Roine Stolt. The group began as Stolt's touring band to support his third solo album '' The Flower King''. They continued performing after the ...

in the 1990s onward.

Biography

Stolt started his career in the late 1960s playing bass guitar in local rock bands. He switched to guitar in 1973 and in the brief sojourn with Allman Brothers-influenced Orexis. In 1974 he became the guitarist in

, a professional

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band, he was 17 years old at that time, the group made three successful albums and toured more than 100 gigs a year, including national TV and radio performances in Scandinavia. In 1979 he left Kaipa to form his own group Fantasia and made two albums. The group split up in 1983 and Stolt started working as a solo and session musician, arranger and producer. In the late 80's he started his own publishing and recording label called Foxtrot Music and was also involved in various projects including live performances and recording sessions with other artists going from symphonic rock towards more traditional rock, funk, pop, folk, blues and jazz. Under the "Stolt" project he released "The Lonely Heartbeat" in 1989, the sound is a mix of pop and complex rock. Witnessing the progressive rock revival of the 1990s, a movement that partly originated from Sweden with bands like

Landberk Landberk was a Swedish prog/ art rock band, characterized by the dark, sombre tone of their music. They were notable for their utilisation of the mellotron, which was as important as the guitar in their melodies. They also recorded a cover vers ...

and

Änglagård Änglagård is a Swedish progressive rock band, with influences including King Crimson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Trettioåriga Kriget, Schicke Führs Fröhling, and Van der Graaf Generator. The band was established in 1991 by Tord Lindman (guit ...

, Roine Stolt was quick to come back to his ancient love. Recruiting ex-

Jonas Hellborg Jonas Hellborg (born 7 June 1958) is a Sweden, Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin (musician), John McLaughlin, Sultan Khan (musician), Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Ande ...

drummer Jaime Salazar and ex-

Samla Mammas Manna Samla Mammas Manna was a Swedish progressive rock band often characterized by virtuosic musicianship, circus references and silly humour, similar in many ways to the song-writing style of Frank Zappa. They were one of the founding members of t ...

percussionist Hasse Bruniusson, he released The Flower King in mid-August 1994. Stimulated by the warm response, he enlisted brother Michael Stolt (bass, vocals) and longtime friend

Tomas Bodin Tomas may refer to: People * Tomás (given name), a Spanish, Portuguese, and Gaelic given name * Tomas (given name), a Swedish, Dutch, and Lithuanian given name * Tomáš, a Czech and Slovak given name * Tomas (surname), a French and Croatian surna ...

(keyboards) and formed the Flower Kings, which would remain his principal musical project for years to come. In 1998 he released his second solo album Hydrophonia which reveals major influences by early progressive musicians such as

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

and

Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist in the progressive rock band Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, North London, Howe developed an interest in the guitar and began to le ...

among others. In the year 2000 Stolt worked in two different projects, the

supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to: * Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields * Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry * Supergroup ...

Transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film), ...

, and the re-launch of

in which he was involved in three albums from 2002–2005. He re-entered the studio with Transatlantic in 2009, for an album release later in the year. In 2013, Stolt and

joined

Neal Morse Neal Morse (born August 2, 1960) is an American singer, musician and composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful. ...

for a co-headlining tour in which the members of both bands collaborated for an encore consisting of

songs, as 3 of the 4 members of

were present (Roine Stolt,

, and

Mike Portnoy Michael Stephen Portnoy (born April 20, 1967) is an American musician who is primarily known as the former drummer, backing vocalist, and co-founder of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. In September 2010, Portnoy announced his departur ...

). In 2015 Stolt joined

Steve Hackett Stephen Richard Hackett (born 12 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who gained prominence as the lead guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis from 1971 to 1977. Hackett contributed to six Genesis ...

's touring band as bassist and guitarist for Hackett's Acolyte to Wolflight with Genesis Revisited Tour.Steve Hackett Reveals New Bass/12-String Player
HackettSongs, retrieved 23 April 2016. On 24 June 2016, the duo Stolt and

Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...

had formed released their debut studio album entitled '' Invention of Knowledge''. In 2017, Stolt co-formed the supergroup The Sea Within.

Discography

Family

Stolt and his wife Lilian have two sons, Johan Sebastian and Peter Gabriel, named after two of his all-time musical idols.

References

External links

Roine Stolt biography at The Flower Kings official site
* Article in AMG by François Couture {{DEFAULTSORT:Stolt, Roine 1956 births Living people Swedish rock guitarists Transatlantic (band) members The Flower Kings members The Tangent members Kaipa members Inside Out Music artists