Progressive Rock > Cross
After being a member of Von Lyx (81-84) and Voodoo (85-86)guitarist /vocalist Hansi Cross decided to go solo, and write music in a more progressive direction. At this time a decision was made to develop a CROSS style by making three albums that together would be a trilogy, known as the Uncovered Heart Trilogy. These were released on the Swedish independent label Lyxvax.
The first one, " Uncovered Heart ", featured drummer Hadders (who also was a member of Von Lyx and Voodoo) and bassplayer Olson (at the time member of Talk Of The Town) and some guest musicians. It was released in March 1988 (LP) and December the same year (CD).
"Second Movement "was a result of a collaboration between Cross and Hadders who wrote most of the tracks together in their newly opened Progress Studio. André contributed with some nice keyboard work and once again Olson played bass. When all tracks were recorded Cross and Hadders met vocalist Tai (who at the time had a band together with André) who was asked to add vocals on 50% of the tracks which he willingly did. Ulf Adåker (trumpet) and Idde Schultz (background vocals) are also heard on the album that was released in 1990.
The third and last part was recorded now and then during 1992 - 1993 and was titled " III - Changing poison into medicine". It's a mixture of longer epic songs as well as shorter pop songs. Once again Jock "Tai" Millgårdh sang nearly half of the material. Among many contributing musicians former Von Lyx bassplayer Johan Nordenfelt is heard. Released December 1993.
By the time of the release of this, the third album, interest for progressive rock was increasing in Sweden. Curious about how it would work on stage Hansi Cross put together a live act, featuring Tai as the lead vocalist and Tomas Hjort on drums, for some club gigs. Hansi and Tomas had met a couple of months earlier, during a recording session in Progress Studio. In September Hansi met an innovative bass player, Tomas Christensen, who joined the band and together they started to compose material for the next album.
Hansi also wrote and recorded a "miniature symphony", titled "Paradox", where he played all instruments. This 18 minute one track CD single was released in 1995.
Fourth album "Gaze" was recorded late 1995 and early 1996 and showed a new, less sophisticated direction. Heavier, rougher but still very "crossish". On this one Cross, Christenen and Hjort were joined by Floke on keyboards. Halfway through the recording Hjort left the band for a new job in the US. Stenmark temporarily took over the drumming and the album was completed. Gaze was first released in March 1996 by Lyxvax. The English label Cyclops contacted Hansi and even though Cyclops at this time had decided to not sign any new acts they felt that they could not resist CROSS. A deal was made and Cyclops released a different version of "Gaze". On this new version of " Gaze" a couple of songs were added and a couple were taken out. The album was released in September 1996.
After the release of "Gaze", CROSS was looking for a new drummer and keyboardist. Old drummer Tomas Hjort introduced master drummer Robert Iversen to the band and Iversen brought along his long time friend Olle Siljeholm on keyboards. After some gigging this line-up went into the studio to rerecord some old stuff from the Uncovered Heart Trilogy for the compilation "Dream Reality" which was released by Cyclops in late July 1997. This album consists of remastered, remixed and rerecorded material from the sold out three first albums.
After the release of Dream Reality bassist Christensen left the band. Olle and Robert remembered this great bass player who they had worked together with earlier and who they knew would be just the perfect guy. After a small chat proghead Lollo Andersson (who was already a Cross fan) joined the band. They went straight into rehearsing for a small tour in September 1997.
In February 1999 this line-up, probably the best one this far, released the album "Visionary Fools"on the new Swedish progrock label Progress Records.
Progress Records made a deal with Cyclops and released a remastered version of "Gaze" in September 1999, containing all tracks from both previous releases.
Hansi Cross and old drummer Tomas Hjort had talked about working together again and in September of 1999 Hansi and Tomas went into the studio to record some songs for another project, completely different from Cross.
While in the studio they also recorded a new Cross song that Hansi needed to get out of his system. Lollo added some bass lines, and as they completed the recording of the song they all felt it would be great to make more Cross music.
So, the plans changed and the original project was put on the shelf and the guys went to work on a new Cross album instead. They decided to make this new album as a trio with some guest musicians.
In November of 99 Hansi was approached by Olov Andersson and Thomas Hurtig from the Swedish prog act Grand Stand, who asked him if he was interested in doing a version of Pink Floyd's "Shine on" for a tribute album (released on Angular). Hansi liked the idea and suggested Tai (Cross' "guest singer") for vocals and Lollo for bass. So Hansi and Lollo "sandwiched" this one in in the midst of the Cross recording. This Floyd tune can now be heard on the album "Signs of life - a tribute to Pink Floyd" under the group name "Grand Cross".
Hansi, Tomas and Lollo continued to write and record for the new Cross album, and Tomas, who lives in New York, flew to Stockholm several times until all the tracks were recorded.
As the recording of the new Cross album proceeded Hansi thought it would be great to have Olov (Grand Stand) as one of the guest musicians on some of the songs, and they decided to give it a shot. It ended up with Olov adding keyboards here and there on 5 out of 7 tracks. The band then asked Tai
if he wanted to sing lead on a couple of songs, and Tai liked the idea, so his powerful voice can now also be heard on the album.
Other guests is Lizette von Panajott (vocals) and Lars Borgström (cello).
The album "Secrets" was released on August 18, 2000 on the Progress Records label.
And, by the way, the song mentioned above - the one that triggered the making of "Secrets" - was "Changed Reality", which is now track 5 on the album.
The follow-up to "Secrets" was ment to be recorded during 2002 but due to the 9/11 incident, which made it difficult for Tomas to re-enter the United States after visiting Sweden the recordings was postponed and Hansi joined the Spektrum project which released an album in early 2003.
Recordings of "Playgrounds" started in August 2003 and and was finished in August 2004.
On this one we get the same line-up (Hansi, Lollo and Tomas) as on "Secrets" and Olov Andersson
who plays on all 7 tracks. We can also hear contributions from all members of Spektrum. It was released on August 30, 2004.
In January 2005 Göran Johnsson, who was the bass playing vocalist with Grand Stand on their second album "Tricks of time" and is also the drummer of Spektrum joins Cross - as their new keyboardist!