Black Swan

History

Black Swan was formed in February 1995 when Tapio Palokangas and Jaakko Tuomivaara, after having been playing together for about a year in a then already splitted death/black metal band called Behemoth, decided to put up a two-man project to fulfill their musical ambitions. Much because of the concious choice of being a two-man project the composing took its time and while both of them composed on their own the real songwriting sessions were at first few and far-between.

Their first recording as Black Swan was 'Demo 1996' in the mid-summer of 1996 with the following line-up:T. Palokangas (guitars, vocals, drum & synth arrangements) and Tuomivaara (keyboards, drum & synth arrangements and programming).

After the demo was recorded the band decided to expand to a five man set, mainly because of the impossibilities of playing a real live set with just two men. Mikko Tolonen was quite an obvious choice as a guitar player, for Palokangas had played with him earlier, and his former band, Fairy Tale, had splitted up. Jari Kaiponen (Nortia) joined the band as a drummer and Toni Kansanoja (bassist / vocalist of Behemoth) took over the bass so the band could start "real" rehearsing.

As Black Swan developed more in its way to create their kind of art, Palokangas decided to concentrate mainly to the guitar work. That meant that the new vocalist, Antti Haapapuro, joined the band. There were now six members in the band, but it only gave more depth to Black Swan's music, for everyone had more space to do their own musical work.

Before any gigs were made, Kaiponen was replaced with Ari Kukkohovi (ex-Dagon) due to rehearsing problems, and Black Swan seemed to now have its permanent line-up.

In the summer of 1997 Black Swan started gigging steadily and recorded their second demo - 'Autumn in Eden'.

In the Fall of '97 Mastervox Records and Black Swan signed a record deal, and the preparations for a full-lenght Black Swan album began. The first sessions were at November and the recording and mixing process continued over to late spring '98. After a long anticipation the Black Swan debut album titled 'When the Angels of Twilight Dance' finally was released on September 18th of 1998.

(source: Black Swan, January 2010)