Originally formed in 1989 as a one-man project by Swedish guitarist and vocalist K.Soren Bengtsson. He was joined by bassist and vocalist Juha Nurmenniemi in the late stages of the first eponymous album Darxtar (1991), first released on cassette, later same year on CD.
They recorded another CD as a duo, Darker (1993), before bringing in Patric Danielsson on drums and Fredrik Sundkvist on violin to record the track UFO for the compilation CD Let your Freak Flag Fly (1993). Soon after Soren Martensson joined on hammond and synths, and it was as a five piece band they recorded the die-hard space rock album Daybreak (1994).
All recordings up to now was more or less done at Bengtssons home studio, and Daybreak was even released on Bengtssons own label SBm. Tensions in the band led to the sacking of Nurmenniemi and he was swiftly replaced by Marcus Pehrsson on bass and vocals. On the next album Sju (1996) they musically took a left turn to avoid being stuck in the spacerock idiom forever, momentarily without Sundkvist’s violin. Before it was released they joined Hawkwind’s Nik Turner for a concert in Sweden and by now Bjorn Jacobson had joined on guitar and vocals. However, even before Sju was done, they were working on a mammoth task with the Tombola (2001) album that took 4 years to complete, as well as 2 more years to find a label for.
Bjorn Jacobson later left and Soren Martensson was asked to leave after the album was released. During a few gigs they were joined by Per Hillblom on assorted space sounds and he became a permant member at the end of the recordings for We came too late (2005).
Still alive after 20 years they continue to work on new material and occasionally do a rare live concert, for example in 2010 in Wales where they once again teamed up with Nik Turner for a couple of songs. The latest addition to the vast catalog is the 2012 album Aged to Perfection with 8 new tracks.
Apart from the albums mentioned above, they have appeared on numerous tribute albums and compilations. See discography on www.darxtar.com for further details. Furthermore a few other musicians have joined darXtar on and off through the years, but the ones mentioned above should be regarded as permanent members at some point. Rest assured that all members are doubling on other assorted instruments as well, only their main instruments are listed above and below.
Discography:
darXtar (1991)
Darker (1993)
Let your Freak Flag Fly (1993)
Daybreak (1994)
Sju (1996)
Tombola (2001)
We Came Too Late (2005)
Aged to Perfection (2012)
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/darxtarmusic
