Erik Norlander

Erik Norlander — American keyboardist, composer and producer — is a central figure in instrumental progressive rock from the 1990s onwards, known for his work with analogue synthesisers. His position is uncommon. While most keyboardists in metal and progressive migrated to digital instruments and orchestral libraries, Norlander kept working with modular and analogue synthesisers — timbres from the tradition of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman, requiring technical knowledge of electronics as well as musical command. He works as composer and producer on records of his own and of other artists, with a repertoire combining progressive rock, melodic metal and long instrumental passages. He has also worked extensively producing material for other bands on the circuit, a role in which his knowledge of timbre and arrangement applies directly. He is the kind of musician whose influence circulates inside the field: less visible to the general public, but present in the sonic shaping of dozens of records in the genre.