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Interview with Arjen Lucassen/ December 2009.
Arjen Lucassen - keyboards, drums, synthesizers, guitars, vocals and more sounds
(ex-Vengeance). And of course born in the Lowlands.
Actual Fantasy ('96) has a few metal bits and a few floydian links. The Final Experiment is a rock-opera. Both albums are selling well in Japan. In '97 he recorded at the Abbey-road-studios a cover-album with music of the 60-ies: Strange Hobby. In '98 with a stilted album called Into the electric Castle. A space-opera on two ceedees:
Clive Nolan, 
"Originally I set out to record an ambient instrumental album based on certain electronic patterns, chords and melodies
derived from the recorded tracks of existing Ayreon songs. In the process some new songs evolved, and I figured it would
add a warm human touch to feature female vocals on one or two songs.
At that time I heard a recording of a 14 year young Dutch singer named Astrid van der Veen. This was exactly the voice I
was looking for, and I asked her to write lyrics and melodies to go over some of these re-constructed ambient tracks and
then sing them. This arrangement worked out extremely well. So before I realized it the album had developed from an
instrumental album with two vocal songs to a vocal album with two instrumentals!" A very nice album, Astrid sings really marvelous, like a young Kate Bush.
Astrid did some session for After for Ever; live at the Bospop-festival July 2001 (in the beautiful South of the Netherlands).Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One: Cover, tracklisting and release date have been announced for Space Metal, the first album of Lucassen's Star One project. There will be a limited edition release of the album which will include a bonus disc. ( May '02).
The new splendid album is called (May '04):
The Human Equation, with a lot, i mean a lot, of guests;
Devin Townsend (Syl), A very beautiful special edition; two ceedees, one dvd and a wonderful package / booklet.
The New Single Day Eleven - Love is out now:
Prerelease party was held in Utrecht op 18 April, with Heather (Stairway To Heaven cafe).
Another single is already released, with; How You Gonna See Me Now (Alice Cooper cover by Mike Baker & Arjen Lucassen) and Into the Black Hole (live at the 'Stairway to Heaven' Pre-release party 18 April, 2004).
The third single from Ayreon's 2004 album The Human Equation will be released on June 16th 2005. It is called
Come Back to Me, and is a slightly extended and newly mixed version of the song Day 7:
Hope. Other tracks include:
The first vocalist who will star on the new Ayreon is Magali Luyten (Virus IV and Beautiful Sin).
Simone Simons (from the dutch gothic band Epica) is the second confirmed vocalist for the
upcoming Ayreon project.
Other singers are: Bob Catley, Anneke van Griesbergen, Jonas P. Renkse, Tom Englund, Liselotte Hegt, Ty Tabor....
AYREON: The artwork of the new Ayreon album 01011001 has been revealed (click above for larger version).
The cover artwork is once again done by Belgian painter Jef Bertels
, who also did the covers for Into The Electric Castle, The Dream Sequencer and The Human Equation.
For the lay-out artwork (the images inside the booklet) Arjen has called in the talents of Colombian graphics artist
Felipe Machado Franco. You can check out his website at
this location.
The album will be available in three different formats: the regular edition double disc, a special edition double album
with bonus DVD and a limited deluxe edition double album with bonus DVD. The album will be released through Inside Out
at the end of January (25th for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, 28th for the rest of Europe and 29th for US and Canada).
Ayreon Released his cd called 01011001 in 2008.
More news, videos, teasers etc etc on his website (click on the banner).
GUILT MACHINE ('09).
As Ayreon fans have come to expect from Arjen, the music of Guilt Machine ranges from dark and heavy to atmospheric and melancholic. But Guilt Machine introduces some new twists as well, particularly when it comes to the vocals. Rather than putting together an ensemble cast of vocalists from the prog, rock and metal scene, Arjen has enlisted the talents of a single alternative rock vocalist, Jasper Steverlinck.
The art for the cover and booklet was created by Christophe Dessaigne, a talented new artist whom we discovered (quite by chance) while browsing Flickr. Coincidentally, it turned out that Chris is an Ayreon fan, and was thrilled beyond belief when we asked him to do the artwork. The Guilt Machine logo and packaging layout were created by Thomas Ewerhard.
With STAR ONE:
Victims of the Modern Age ( 2010 )
Vocalists:
2012:
Arjen is working on a new album. The naration will be done by Blade Runner Rutger Houwer!
video.
SESSION:
ProgAID ('05). He did 3 amazing guitar solo's for this great Project.
Shadow Gallery ('05)
SHAKARY: Two cd's realease problably June '06: Steve Rothery - lead guitar
Gabriele Ferro - rhythm guitars
Gabriele Martini - flute
Giorgio Borghini - percussions
Giovanni Galfetti - keyboards
Ilario Garbani - bagpipes
Lele Hofmann - lead guitars
Mario Krag - rhythm and lead guitars
Noel McCalla - vocals (Mike Rutherford's Small Creep's Day, Manfred Mann's Earth Band)
Scandy - bass guitars
Walter Calloni - drums (ex-PFM).
Agua de Annique ('09).
Roswell Six, Terra Incognita - a Line in the Sand ('10).
| 19-12-2003 - Studio Report - Heather Findlay
(vocals) | |
| By: Yvette Mostly Autumn vocalist Heather Findlay had her recording session at the Electric Castle coincide with the two Mostly Autumn performances in the Netherlands early December. Check out images and read all about the experience of this recording session in Arjen's own words. - What made you choose Heather for this Ayreon project? Arjen: A couple of years ago I went to a Blackmore's Night concert in Germany, and an amazing female singer was supporting them. I was really impressed, but at the time I didn't know who she was and only found out later it was Heather when she told me she supported Blackmore's Night. Later I got emails from fans telling me to check out Mostly Autumn, so I bought one of their albums. Needless to say that I really liked her warm voice, and the folky floydy music. Later on I also visited one of their gigs. - How did you get in touch with Heather? Arjen: One day she came over to my house with Damian, and I asked her if in principle she would be interested to sing on Ayreon (I hadn't even started working on the Human Equation then) and she really liked the idea. When I was ready writing the music for this album and I had a part that would fit her voice perfectly I rang her up, and she was really excited! - Describe the recording session in three words.Arjen: Beautiful, relaxed and fun. - How would you describe Heather voice? Arjen: A warm and full voice with a nice deep vibrato, and we found out that she can really 'go for it' as well! |
- What was the most memorable moment? Arjen: In the car she told me that she could really sound
like Kate Bush (my favorite female singer) if she wants to,
and I didn't believe her. She sang the first song in my
studio, and when we were done with the song she
asked me if I would like to hear her sing this song in 'Kate
Bush style'. She did it just for fun, and it was amazing! - What was something you
absolutely didn't expect? Arjen: I didn't expect her voice to be so versatile, and
(because of her age I guess) I didn't expect her to like all
those classic rock bands from the 70's that I grew up
listening to. She is very open minded and she likes many
different styles of music, a very good quality I think. - What was something Heather did not
expect? Arjen: She didn't expect that I would have her sing in so
many different ways. And she didn't expect that she could do
it, she surprised herself various times! - Heather has the unique ability to...
- Describe the end result of the session.
Arjen: Heather is a very warm and funny person, she did an
amazing job and I couldn't have chosen a better singer for
this part. She's got it all; the musicality, the voice and the
looks, no doubt we will be hearing more and more about her in
the future! |
New Dec '09:
Another interview by me with Arjen:
interview May 2004.
See for more News
www.arjenlucassen.com.
Or look at www.mostly-autumn.com
for another interview by Thijs.
Arjen did an interview with
David Gilmour.
Kristoffer Gildenlöw Born 1978 in Eskilstuna, Sweden.
Pain of Salvation (After recording six full albums and one DVD thet went separate ways (early 2006)).
Lana Lane (US), Erik Norlander (US), Dark Suns (D) and Rocket Scientists (US), Ian Parry (NL), Damian Wilson (UK) and done additional
recordings for bands such as Arkan's Origin (BE), Arcana (S), Chirra Niva (NL), Harmony (S) and Implosion (Gr).
DIAL released its debut album- synchronized- in May 2007.
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