Info

The Short Story
The Carpet Knights is a progressive rock band from Malmö, Sweden. The band was formed in '98 and after several demos the debut album, "Lost And So Strange Is My Mind" was released on Transubstans Records (Trans 009) in 2005. The new album “According to life..”(Trans049) was unveiled the 14th of October 2009 and this creation spells it out loud: Here are the new Swedish progmasters! As musicians they are eager to challenge themselves but the strength of The Carpet Knights lies within the ability to maintain the energy, yet to focus on good songs and a personal expression.

The Spirit
Most music and lyrics are composed by Jocke Jönsson during his scheduled creative Tuesdays (laundry days). Arrangements are thereafter completed collectively during rehearsals. Lyrics are mostly reflecting emotions, atmospheres and a certain state of mind, rather than actual events.
In the creative process inspiration is gathered from a wide variety of music resulting in a broad and experimental sound including everything from rock, prog, psych to folk. All band members are music addicts and record collectors of great measures and hence musical inspiration comes from four decades of folk, prog, rock, metal and psychedelia. The most essential driving force for these musicians is the genuine feeling that creating and playing music is an absolute life necessity.

About "According to life..."
The four years past since the release of the debut album “Lost and so strange is my mind” has been thoroughly invested in the writing-, recording- and mixing of “According to life”. YES! - the result contains both intelligent composing and pretentious production but, NO! - there is absolutely no compromise when it comes to delivering that genuine, 70ies, right-here-and-now live feeling. The space rock sounds may kick you way out into the pitch dark void but the next riff is certain to pull you right back to a solid ground of distorted strings and stomping feet. This album is so rich in flavors, sounds and melodies that your ears will find something new during every listening no matter if it's when your party is rocking at blast volume with a beer in hand or if it's the day after when you are recovering in your favorite armchair with headphones and coffee. No loose ends or boring moments during this 60 minute mind exercise.
The use of flute offers a simple reference to folk rock and classic Jethro Tull but The Carpet Knights offer a much more varied cup of rock.
Like every good progressive album “According to life” has a great deal of melancholy in sounds and lyrics (King Crimson, Pink Floyd). In the unique world of The Carpet Knights the fuzzy psychedelia (Hawkwind, Captain Beyond) is backed up with strong vocal arrangements (Gentle Giant, Soundtrack of Our Lives). Despite the retro-references the strength of The Carpet Knights lies within the ability to focus on good songs and a personal expression. A modern music lover with less affection for dusty vinyls would simply refer to “According to life” as a very good rock album or perhaps go as far as to use the P- word (pop?)
(Read more about ““According to life” in the News section)

The Long Story/The Musical Family Tree
The band has gone through some line-up changes since the start in '98 with the exception for the consistent guitar duo of Jocke Jönsson and Tobias Wulff. Original drummer Anders “Kaufmann” Gärtner is still in the whereabouts of the musical family and when he is laying the grooves for Bland Bladen, Jocke Jönsson is handling the bass.
Vocalist and flute player Magnus Nilsson joined in 2000.
On the debut album Mattias Ankarbranth played the drums and after the relocation to Stockholm he now days can be heard in Makajodama.
As new drummer Pelle Engvall was recruited, who's merits include two albums with Svarte Pan and before that was hammering away in Tribe.
For a short period back in '98 bass was played by Eduardo Rodriguez who around the same time formed the stoner rock trio Sgt. Sunshine together with bassist Pär Hallgren. Nils Andersson played the bass in The Carpet Knights from '99 until 2008 when the historical loop was closed.
What happened in 2008 was that Pär Hallgren recruited Jocke Jönsson to play guitar in his kraut-jazz project called Hooffoot and this collaboration lead to Jocke Jönsson, in turn, recruiting Pär Hallgren to The Carpet Knights.
Jocke Jönsson also plays the guitar in Limbo where again Kaufmann is to be found behind the drums.
Another band with strong links to The Carpet Knights can be found on the other side of the Øresund bridge in Copenhagen for here lies the home base of Øresund Space Collective. This a constantly changing set of musicians performing totally improvised space rock and Kaufmann as well as Jocke Jönsson, Tobias Wulff and Pär Hallgren are frequent guests on tour or on record with this bunch.

The Carpet Knights are:

Pelle Engvall: drums
Tobias Wulff: guitar, sounds
Magnus Nilsson: vocals, flute
Joakim Jönsson: guitar, vocals
Pär Hallgren: bass