The Ark

This article describes the Swedish rock band. For the mountain of the same name in Antarctica, see The Ark (Antarctica) .

The Ark
ESC 2007 in Helsinki
General information
origin	Rottne , Sweden
Genre (s)	Glam rock , pop
founding	1991
resolution	2011
Website	http://www.thearkworld.com/
Founding members
singing	Ola Svensson = Ola Salo
guitar	Mikael Jepson
bass	Lars "Leari" Ljungberg
Drums	Martin Olsson
Last occupation
singing	Ola Salo
guitar	Mikael Jepson
guitar	Martin Axén
bass	Lars "Leari" Ljungberg
Drums	Sylvester Schlegel
piano	Jens Andersson
former members
Drums	Martin Rosengardten

The Ark was a Swedish rock band founded in 1991 in Rottne near Växjö by Lars "Leari" Ljungberg, Mikael Jepson, Martin Olsson and Ola Svensson . The pastor's son Ola (who changed his family name to Salo in 1996 , which together with the first name results in a palindrome ) chose the band name. The subject that haunted him was the decline of mankind and, in his opinion, the near apocalypse . In - as he himself admitted - megalomania, he envisaged acts of biblical proportions, such as saving as many people as possible. An ark seemed to be the appropriate symbol for it.

Band history

In 1991 Salo (vocals), "Leari" Ljungberg (bass), Jepson (guitar) and Olsson (drums) founded a school band at the age of 14 and played a few concerts in Växjö from the second half of the year. The band's first recording was made in August / September 1991 with the song The Lamb , which appeared on a local compilation . After leaving school, Martin Olson began to study agricultural sciences and was barely able to take part in rehearsals, and he also developed an outlook on life that no longer suited his bandmates. He left the band in autumn 1992. Salo brought another school friend into the band for him: Martin Rosengardten. The next big step was the recording of a demo cassette called Racing with the Rabbits with three songs in 1994. Two of them were pressed onto the vinyl EP of the same name in 1996 , which contains a total of four tracks. It was published by Beat That !, a sub-label of Energy Rekords, but met with rejection from critics and consumers. Disillusioned thoughts arose.

However, in 1997 the musicians regained hope after the addition of the second guitarist Martin Axén and through new contacts and a more professional environment in Malmö, where the band had moved. Shortly afterwards, The Ark received a new record deal with Madhouse Förlag, but lost Martin Rosengardten as a member. He was replaced by Sylvester Schlegel. In 1999 "Leari" Ljungberg accepted an engagement as a live bass player on the Cardigans' world tour . Meanwhile, Ola Salo (who also has musical experience) played bass for “Learis” in the Ark instrumentalists' side project Stereo Explosion.

In the spring of 2000, the single Let Your Body Decide was released. The breakthrough came with the next single, It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane , which reached number 1 on the Swedish airplay charts . The album We Are The Ark , which was released in September, pushed Madonna from number 1 on the Swedish album charts . Now there was also success in Italy and Germany. In 2001, six cities were featured in the preliminary program for Reamonn . From the album In Lust We Trust from September 2002, the song Father of a Son , a rights claim for the adoption of children by homosexuals , was decoupled and then a hit. On the first weekend in June 2003, The Ark performed at the Rock im Park festival . The third album State of The Ark was released in spring 2005 in several countries, including the USA, where the band carried out a large-scale promotional tour. The Ark was invited to Rock am Ring in June of that year. In 2002 the band already had an appearance there on the “Talent Forum Stage”. At the end of 2006, long-time live keyboardist Jens Andersson received official membership status.

On March 10, 2007, The Ark won the final of the Melodifestivalen with the title The Worrying Kind, representing Sweden on May 12, 2007 at the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki , where she came in 18th. The promotion effect for the fourth album Prayer for the Weekend , which will be available in stores from the beginning of June 2007, consoled the failure . The album, which hit number one due to pre-orders, stayed in the Swedish charts for over three months and was platinum-refined . A few weeks later, the band played in front of their largest live audience to date, consisting of 35,000 visitors, at the Malmö Festival. The fifth album In Full Regalia was released in 2010 through Universal Music. But there was also the opportunity to purchase it in Scandinavia along with a music magazine that included the complete album.

The band's breakup was announced a little later for the coming year. She gave her last concert on September 16, 2011 in Stockholm's Gröna Lund amusement park .

style

music

The discographic internet directory Discogs describes The Ark as a glam rock band that was influenced by psychedelic rock of the 1960s and art rock of the 1970s. The music magazine Eclipsed also assigned the band to glam rock. This carries the spirit of Marc Bolan in itself, and covers a range "from Sweet to Suede ". In Intro magazine , the musicians were referred to as “glam popper”. Clearly recognizable are the trademarks of Slade , the 1970s David Bowie and Abba , but there are also slight signs of influence from Roxy Music , Toto and Hall & Oates . In the Berliner Tagesspiegel it was said: "Musically, the band steals unabashedly in the seventies: the influences that they process into catchy bastard glam rock range from Queen to Bowie to Bay City Rollers to Led Zeppelin ." None of the songs performed in the concert come without any dramatic increases. The website popblerd.com described the style of music as sugar-sweet pompous power pop.

With regard to We Are The Ark , Thorsten Pöttger said in Eclipsed that it was about “80s disco pop ” while In Lust We Trust aimed “towards the Rocky Horror Picture Show ” with its “radio-compatible rock songs” . Oliver Götz from Musikexpress found that in In Lust We Trust the instrumentation swings up “to the kitsch limit ”, but is protected from being violated by “melodies of the greatest beauty”. State of The Ark is, wrote Pöttger, still trendy glam rock, but more “minimalist”. Martin Axén confirmed this in Christian Patrick's band biography No End by stating that the pieces on the album were "minimalist disco riff - boogie ". Laut.de - Reviewer Mathias Möller considered the Eurovision Song Contest entry The Worrying Kind to be a " happy, borderline dumbass pounder". The disco music on the accompanying album "Prayer for the Weekend" with " Rock'n'Roll piano and falsetto singing " could "no matter how hard it tried, really" would not ignite and thus fizzle out without a lasting impression or recognition value . The Ark biographer Patrick dubbed Prayer for the Weekend the band's most pop album.

Texts

Laut.de sees “critical questions about normality and tolerance ” as the main theme of the Ark songs . Drew from popblerd.com praised the lyrics. They are amazingly perceptive and substantial, without larmoyant to be -klebrig or preaching or even angry.

Occur

Pöttger saw in the musicians "[s] echs brightly dressed birds of paradise", whose "comical costumes and grand gestures" illustrated their free spirit while they still delivered mass-compatible radio songs. Jörg Wunder gave his impression of a The Ark show in the Tagesspiegel : “Visually, the band looks like a parodic collection of well-known pop star models: guitarist Jepsen [sic] looks like Björn von Abba, his colleague Martin Axén could be at Guns'n ' Hire Roses . Singer Ola Salo whirls around in a sharp leather mini like a cross between Liza Minnelli and the young Lou Reed . ”In the queer.de interview, Salo explained how the“ extroverted outfits ”are made:“ We [do the] ourselves. Most of the time I start, designing an outfit. Then I'll show the other guys in the group and they'll make their own version of it. Then we take this idea to a designer who implements the idea. All clothes are based on our designs. "

Conclusion

According to popblerd author Drew, the audience of Mika , The Darkness and Scissor Sisters should feel addressed - or those who miss Freddie Mercury or David Bowie too much.

Discography

Lead singer Ola Salo (2005)

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		SE
2000	We Are The Ark	SE1 platinum (46 weeks)SE	Virgin Records
2002	In Lust We Trust	SE1 gold (21 weeks)SE	Virgin Records
2004	State Of The Ark	SE1 gold (25 weeks)SE	Virgin Records
2007	Prayer For The Weekend	SE1 platinum (24 weeks)SE	Roxy Recordings
2010	In full regalia	SE2 (15 weeks) SE	Universal Music

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		SE
2011	Arkeology. The Complete Singles Collection	SE3 (34 weeks) SE	EMI
2019	It takes a fool to remain sane. 2000-2011	SE51 (1 week) SE	Woah dad!

Singles and EPs

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		DE	SE
2000	Let Your Body Decide We Are The Ark	-	SE59 (1 week) SE
	Echo Chamber We Are The Ark	-	SE42 (13 weeks) SE
	It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane We Are The Ark	-	SE7th gold (22 weeks)SE
2001	Joy Surrender We Are The Ark	-	SE23 (6 weeks) SE
2002	Tell Me this Night Is Over In Lust We Trust	-	SE28 (9 weeks) SE
	Calleth You, Cometh I In Lust We Trust	-	SE2 gold (18 weeks)SE
	Father of a Son In Lust We Trust	-	SE5 (8 weeks) SE
2005	Clamor for Glamor State Of The Ark	-	SE10 (23 weeks) SE
2007	Prayer for the Weekend Prayer for the Weekend	-	SE15 (9 weeks) SE
	Absolutely No Decorum Prayer for the Weekend	-	SE26 (7 weeks) SE
	The Worrying Kind Prayer for the Weekend	DE99 (1 week) DE	SE1 (20 weeks) SE
	Little Dysfunk You Prayer for the Weekend	-	SE58 (1 week) SE
2010	Superstar In Full Regalia	-	SE33 (1 week) SE

More singles

• 1994: Racing with the Rabbits (EP, Beat That!)
• 2001: The Superstars from Sweden ( Promo- EP, Virgin Records)
• 2003: Disease (Virgin Records)
• 2005: Trust Is Shareware (CD single and MP3 download, Virgin Records)

Soundtracks

• 2006: Shortbus (2 tracks)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Christian Patrick: No End. The Story of The Ark . Booktango, Bloomington, IN 2012, ISBN 978-1-4689-0990-6 ( No End at books.google.de [accessed on March 3, 2019] unpaginated e-book ).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} The Ark. Portrait. Laut.de biography. In: laut.de. Retrieved March 3, 2019 . 
3. ^ The Ark - Racing with the Rabbits. In: discogs.com. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
4. ^ The Ark - Racing with the Rabbits. In: discogs.com. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} The Ark. Profile. In: discogs.com. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Thorsten Pöttger: The Ark. Opportunity makes love . In: Eclipsed . Rock magazine. Progressive, Art, Psychedelic, Classic, Hard Rock. No. 72 , May 2005, magazine, p. 14 .
7. ^ The Ark - In Full Regalia. In: discogs.com. Accessed March 3, 2019 . 
8. ↑ The Ark. "In Lust We Trust" . In: Eclipsed . For Real Good Rock Music. Progressive, Art, Psychedelic, Hard Rock. 48, double issue December 2002 / January 2003, November 12, 2002, Platten Reviews, pp. 38 .
9. ^ Linus Volkmann , Stephan Ossenkopp: The Ark. Body politics - overdressed & simple . In: Intro . No. 84 , May 2001, theme park, p. 51 .
10. ↑ ^{a b} Jörg Wunder: Ingeniously stolen . In: Der Tagesspiegel . No. 18970 , September 29, 2005.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Drew: Spin Cycle: The Ark's "Arkeology: The Complete Singles Collection". In: popblerd.com. Michael "MJ" Joseph, July 5, 2011, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Oliver Götz: The Ark. In Lust We Trust . In: Musikexpress . No. 563 , December 2002, The Record of the Month, pp. 51 .
13. ↑ T [horsten] P [öttger]: "State of the Ark" . In: Eclipsed . Rock magazine. Progressive, Art, Psychedelic, Classic, Hard Rock. No. 72 , May 2005, CD Reviews, pp. 41 .
14. ^ Mathias Möller: The Ark. Prayer for the Weekend. Laut.de criticism. From the Grand Prix straight to the disco. In: laut.de. 2007, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
15. ↑ Dennis Klein: The best band in the world. In the queer.de interview, Ola from “The Ark” talks about his Grand Prix experiences, the poetry of the English language and his bisexuality. In: queer.de. Queer Communications GmbH, May 30, 2007, accessed March 3, 2019 . 
16. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: SE
17. ↑ Awards for music sales: SE

Web links

• Official website
• The Ark at laut.de
• The Ark at Discogs (English)