History

1989

September 3	Johan Engström rehearsed with Stefan Kalin, Fredrik Terje, Jerker Rellmark and Magnus Berggren for the first time. The group deja vu turned into masque. The first song to be written and rehearsed was "Too far gone", an epic number later renamed "The Dirge" and played live at...

December 12	...idrottshuset, Mölndal, outside Göteborg. This was a lucia rock competition and the pretentious young lads also performed Floyd´s "Crazy Diamond". Despite Johan´s bizarre flowerish hat, both the jury and the band was quite pleased with the effort.

1990

April 8 -11	Recording of the first Masque demo, "Masques", at ART Studios, Göteborg. Johan´s dad, professor Lollo Engström, participated on two of the three songs with his flute. Jerker proudly used his newly bought Roland D20 as much as he could. However, we must not forget the lovely Logan string synth!
April 27	Gig at a festival at Schillerska, Göteborg. "Wall of Glass" was one of the songs.
May 11	Masque played idrottshuset, Rävlanda, in contribution to their old school. The crowd cheered as the band made an excellent interpretation of "Märk hur vår skugga", a piece written by the Swedish 18th century minstrel Bellman.
May 12	The band took part in a rock band competition, Rockslaget. They did not convince the jury at all... A bombastic version of Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the Masque classic "On the Sly" were performed.
October 20	Another local competition, this time in Mölnlycke. Masque was awarded a two-day studio session. Songs like "On the Sly", "Wall of Glass" and the new, slightly melodramatic "Clouds" could be heard.
October 27	An artrock double concert at Valvet, Göteborg. The other band was a local version the "Aylesbury Five", Minstrels of Marble, featuring Fish's nephew F. Lindström on vocals. By the way, the Masque drummer had far too much wine...before the gig...
November 18	Yet another competition. This time with the new song "Distant Divineness" - no success!
December 8	Back in our home town to perform at the public library´s 10th anniversary. A second Floyd song was added to the set: "Julia Dream".
	In 1990 Jerker joined the band "Bad Fun", formed by his schoolfriend Marcus Birro.The band played live on several stages in the Gothenburg area and also made a gig in Stockholm. By the way, Jerker played the drums...

1991

January 26 - 27	The making of the demo "Distant Divineness" at Stable Studios, Landvetter. During the sessions Fredrik used the Ice Age-drummer Anders Ströms equipment. Heavy! The demo contains the title track and the previously mentioned "Clouds".
March 9	Masque participated in the big rock band competition in Göteborg, Rockslaget. The gig was a great success and the band was now ready for the semifinal (see may 18). Jerker had a busy night, though. His hobby project, Bad Fun, played in the same competition. They were, however, closer to disqualification than to victory...
March 12	"They were perhaps a little bit too self-confident", one of the jury members said about the band´s performance in the Musik i Väst competition in Alingsås.Yes, they were self-confident...and made it to the next round...after a splendid version of "Distant Divineness", filled with obscure and haunting sound effects in the experimental middle section. But...
	...the next round, the semifinal, was not that good. The original performance of the song that was later to become the classic epic "Of Lesser Dogs" was not a success.
April 6	Fredrik Terje´s last gig with the band, at Holy Ghost, Gothenburg. Does anybody know why this talented guy gave up drumming?
April 14	The band recorded the "Behind Thoughts"-demo in Mikael Kjellgren´s home studio in Mölnlycke. The first song was the title track, in an extended version compared to the one on the "Flesh" CD. There are no real drums on this song, but a bombastic drum machine. Masque also took the opportunity to record a "semi-acoustic" version of "Julia Dream".
May 18	The semifinal of Rockslaget. Lars´s first concert with the band. Risky, but lovely chops! The band played "Minque", the early version of "Of Lesser Dogs". See pictures section.

	In 1991 a couple of European record companies got in contact with the band and were keen on releasing Masque music. The big Dutch company, SI Music, were very interested, but the band finally signed a contract with Musea in France.

Summer	In order to be be well prepared for the CD-project recordings were made in Magnus Berggren´s cellar in Hindås. The demo contains 5 new songs and a rearranged version of "Distant Divineness".

October 18	The recording of "Flesh that understands" began at Gothenburg Sound Studios in Göteborg. The same night Masque played live at a festival in Bollebygd. A spoken story by Stefan Kalin was included as an intro to "Malaria Man"!
November 9	Gig at a festival in Mölnlycke.

1992

February 29	Double concert with "Free" at Holy Ghost in Gothenburg. During the encore a girl from the audience entered the stage and put her arms around Stefan.
March 7	The release of "Flesh that understands" was celebrated with gig at the record store Bengans´s in Gothenburg. Note that the first 500 copies of "Flesh" are slightly misprinted: Since an "s" is missing on the front cover it says "undertands" instead of what was intended...there are also some obscure details in the booklet that should not be there. But who cares...as long as it´s rare!
May 17	A playback gig at Model Search 92, at Tragar´n, Gothenburg. No Lars in the line-up. "Time to Burn" and "Limbs Might Wail" were peformed, and Johan´s obsession for the cat walk was revealed...
May	Since Stefan was on his way to do his military service, some changes occurred in the band. Anders Kwarnmark, a friend of Johan´s, was called in to play the keyboards and it was decided that Jerker would do the singing while Stefan was away. On May ?? a unique concert was held at Blå Stället, Angered - six musiciand were included in the line-up! (see picture section)
May	A great gig at Liseberg, Gothenburg! First gig without Stefan.
August 18	Concert at Magasinet, Gothenburg. The band played a lot of strange new songs, such as "Smells" (never recorded), "Under Water" (almost made it to the "Ten Ways" CD - one of Jerker´s favourite Masque songs) and the gothic "Nicknames to Remember" (the middle section of "Become" is taken from this song).
November 22-23	Recording of two songs, "Become" and "Under Water", at Gothenburg Sound Studios.

1993

March 3	Gig at Valvet, Gothenburg. Support act was wake, consisting of members from Jerker´s hobby project Bad Fun.
March 9	Concert at Rackis in Uppsala. A rearranged version of "Smells" was included in the 100-minute set.
March 23	Triple concert with the swedish bands manticore and triton at Magasinet, Gothenburg.
April 24	Concert in Paris, at "143", together with the German group chandelier. A fantastic evening!
May 22	Gig in Falköping. A lot of new songs were performed. By the way, Anglagard also played!
September	The recording of "Ten Ways" began at JM Studio in Molnlycke. Almost no vocals at all were recorded, though. Jerker had a cold...or a virus...or perhaps it was his imagination...or something...
December	Masque performed "The Scent" in Idrotthuset, Ravlanda.

1994

September	Release gig for the "Ten Ways" CD at Dojan, Gothenburg. Dembo Jatta and Anta Jajo joined the band on stage on "This Love", "Ten Ways" and a cover of "Englishman in N.Y". The place was crowded!
October	Jerker and Stefan formed the independent pop band meik. Other members were Stefans brother Johan Kalin and the sexy nasal voice Therese Oresten (see band photo in the picture section). meik recorded two demo cassettes, "beicon" & "76 picabo street" (see the shop section), which were extremely hyped by the local press.

1996

March	Jerker played trumpet and flugelhorn on the moor album "flux".
Summer	The band recorded again, under the name "Grape". Johan´s "Sparkling" and Jerker´s "It´s nice" were recorded at JM Studio in Mölnlycke. On these tracks Lars´ brother Per played the bass (well, actually the bass on "Sparkling" was programmed by Johan). A year later the two songs were released on a compilation CD called "Vastkustrock 97"

1997

April 12	At the request of the swedish soccer team Felix Magath Sport Verein, Stefan and Jerker, in co-operation with the poet Joakim Gralén, wrote and recorded the "Felix Magath Anthem" for an important tournament. Johan contributed with some heavy guitar stuff. (see shop section)
Spring	Anders joined the band girlfrendo. To this date they have recorded two albums. On the second one Lars played the drums.

1998

April	Johan, Stefan & Jerker formed the eurovision song contest project poool. Later Joakim Gralén, who played the drums in Johan´s hobby project, D.A, also joined the project.

2000

Autumn	Jerker, Johan, Anders and Lars are involved in a tribute project...the artist? It´s a secret...but wait and see...