Soulive - Flowers (LP)

For more than twenty-five years, the Woodstock, New York–formed trio Soulive have carried the flame of the Hammond-organ format for a new generation. Guitarist Eric Krasno, organist Neal Evans, and drummer-producer Alan Evans built their language on feel and economy — three voices locked in, sweat and telepathy with no wasted motion. Too lean for a jam band, too funky for straight-ahead jazz, Soulive blurred every border until categories fell away.

 

Soulive never broke up; they just went quiet. Krasno turned to songwriting and production. Neal to arranging and texture. Alan to engineering and sound. “There’s so much more that goes into a recording than the gear,” Alan says. “It’s about the environment — your place in space and time at that moment.”

 

That reconnection took form on Flowers, Soulive’s first full-length album in fifteen years. Tracked at Flóki Studios — a century-old former grocery store on Iceland’s north coast — the sessions pulled the trio out of routine and back into focus. Alan had worked there before with MonoNeon and Oteil Burbridge, drawn to the light and the solitude.

 

Flóki’s co-founder Wade Koeman built the studio for isolation and inspiration. “Ninety percent of the time, no one’s there,” he says. “You’ve got the midnight sun in summer, the Northern Lights in winter. It’s truly remote.” Inside: vintage analog gear, wide windows, and silence. “Most studios are dark, sealed off,” Alan says. “This one has light pouring in. You look out and there’s the ocean. The room feels alive.”

 

For Soulive, Flowers isn’t a comeback — it’s a continuation. A conversation picked up after a long silence. Three players still finishing each other’s thoughts, still finding the downbeat together.