Nicklas Berg (guitars, keyboards, vocals) Peter Nordin (drums & percussion) Anna Sofi Dahlgren (cello, keyboards, vocals) Jan Erik Liljeström (bass, vocals)
In February 1990 guitarist Nicklas Berg and bassist/vocalist Jan Erik Liljeström started to discuss the possibilities of forming a group. They had been playing in local bands since the early 80's, but had never been in the same group together.
With Peter Nordin, who had been playing with Nicklas in different bands since 1982, on percussion, the first incarnation started to rehearse in May 1990. They called themselves King Edward and started out as a King Crimson-coverband.
Anna Sofi Dahlberg was at the group's only gig in May 1991. She had been playing folk- and classical music on the cello, but had only made one guest appearance with a rock group previously. As she had wanted to play in a progressive rockband for quite some time, she approached Nicklas about joining the group.
Rehearsals began with Anna Sofi on the 27th of August 1991. Inspired by the new possibilities, the group started to write more of their own material and this change of direction made them change the band's name to Anekdoten.
By December they had written 5 songs that they recorded on their first demo. One year later a second demo was recorded, and by then the group felt that they were ready to record an album.
The demos were sent out to different record companies/labels and were well received by many progrock labels. As these labels were interested in master deals Anekdoten started to look for suitable recording studios. They decided to use Studio Largen after they had heard Änglagård's CD Hybris, which was recorded there.
Anekdoten spent about 100 hours in the studio between the middle of March and the beginning of April 1993 for the recordings. These recordings were also sent out to some record companies and then the group waited...
In July, the band had to decide whether they would do the CD themselves or sign with a label. Inspired by the success of Änglagård's self-promoted debut, they also chose to go for it themselves.
Two of the songs from what was to be the first Anekdoten CD were released in July on a 2-CD compilation of bands from their hometown Borlänge. The title of the CD was Eleven-On-A-One-To-Ten and the songs included were "The Old Man & The Sea" and "The Flow".
Anekdoten's own CD, bearing the title Vemod, was released in the beginning of September 1993 and received much critical acclaim. The first pressing of 1500 copies was sold out by the end of the month and to date (October 1995) they have sold 6500 copies of the CD.
The Norwegian label Colours released 1000 copies of Vemod on LP, with a foldout cover and booklet at the beginning of January 1994 (now sold out). A full colour poster was included in the 350 first sold copies of the album.
In 1994 the band played in Sweden as well as in Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, USA and Canada.
In February 1995 Vemod became available on music cassette through the PRM-label in Poland.
In March a Norwegian label released a compilation CD of different bands from Norway and Sweden. The CD was called This Is An Orange and only 250 copies were issued. Anekdoten's contribution was a live version of the King Crimson song "Cirkus".
A Japanese edition of the Vemod CD was released in August. The Japanese pressing includes a new version of one of the songs from the first Anekdoten demo, "Sad Rain", as a bonus track. The CD was the first released on the Arcangelo-label. The first 1000 copies of the Japanese edition were housed in an LP-style cover and sported a slightly different lay-out than the original. The original CD's are now sold out, but a second pressing was made and is now available from Disk Union.
Anekdoten have completed their second album Nucleus, which will be released on their own label on the 20th of December 1995.
Source: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/ronc/anekdoten/anek-members.html
