Showing posts with label Kenneth Knudsen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kenneth Knudsen. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 June 2018

Kenneth Knudsen and Anima, 5 albums: Pictures (76), Anima (79), Kilgore (80), Songs (82), and Shanghai Circus (86) [LIMITED TIME ONLY]





















Recall I posted once his Anima work in lossless, and a beautiful work that was and is, eternally.  The number of visits to and downloads on that post (numbering in the kilos) testify to its (killer) popularity.  But in my opinion his masterpiece was its predecessor called Pictures, from 1976.  And of course to be complete one would have to include the more experimental material he did in Coronarias Dans (two albums, both recommended).

Moving on to the 80s from Anima the album, the band with the same name and led by him is interesting at least in part for the progressive quality of Kilgore, with its fusion elements, and occasional (late) Genesis sound, plus the prog-pop of Songs.  I think someone once asked for a rip of that one too and it was posted in comments somewhere, but here it is again.   And then after that, of course, by the year 1986, we take a nosedive into silly 80s rock, with portentous talk and reggae, inevitably.

The track called Signal from his first record just blows me away, esp. with its hearkening back to the electric piano work of Coronarias:





What's especially remarkable to me though is how far he advanced since the Coronarias album that just preceded, in terms of inventiveness and variety, it's as if we are on a different planet here.

Just to give you an idea, from 1980's Kilgore, the following interesting track called Circles is clearly beholden to Peter Gabriel:






Saturday, 6 December 2014

Kenneth Knudsen's Anima (1979) in a new lossless rip



This Danish keyboardist was a member of Coronarias Dans and Entrance and the inimitable Secret Oyster...  He struck out on his own with this keyboard album in 1979.  As one can expect it's full of progressive ideas and highly interesting, lacking the total energy of a group like Entrance, but worth hearing without a doubt.  There is more of the Coronarias classical music influence here than fusion.

From my wonderfully generous friend:

Kenneth Knudsen is a Danish Jazz keyboardist and composer. Studied architecture in Royal Danish Academy of Arts. He participated in over one hundred albums with such ''stars'' as Arild Andersen, Svend Asmussen, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Karsten Vogel, Palle Mikkelborg, Miles (Aura) Davis and Indian Violinisten L. Subramaniam and groups like Secret Oyster, Coronarias Dans, Anima, Entrance, Bombay Hotel and Heart To Heart Trio.

Secret Oyster in particular like most of you out there has a special place in my heart.  Thankfully their output has been rereleased to CD.  Incidentally one underestimated member of that group who made some delightfully original music on his own is Karsten Vogel.  Check out some of his earlier records if you want to explore some new material.