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(coming from the band's primary mastermind Steven McCabe):
Following the vocal recording sessions with Ken, I am pleased to report that all the tracks are now complete and mixing of the album has begun in earnest. There is around 2 hours of material now so cutting it down to 50 minutes or so will be quite a challenge. Anyway, the song, Falling to the Ground, a thirteen-minute epic, turned out better than I had remembered it. We only managed to record a guide vocal at the time, but after some editing today I finished the main mixing of it and it sounds terrific. I have just finished recording some guitar parts, too, and I am very pleased with it indeed. We have twelve songs to choose from and my favourite now is the track Fragments. I have also re-mixed the ballad Lost Summer and it sounds fabulous. I finally added the Crimson-esque guitar solo to the end fade and the whole song remains the most moving piece thus far.
After receiving numerous accolades including the Best Album of 2006 at Sea of Tranquility along with extensive media coverage worldwide, acclaimed American progressive rock legends Rocket Scientists are poised to return to Europe for their first live concerts in several years. The tour kicks off on Saturday, April 7th in Rotherham, England sponsored by the Classic Rock Society commemorating Rocket Scientists' first ever live concert there 10 years ago in 1997. Additional shows are scheduled for Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. The lineup for the Rocket Scientists Spring tour includes: Erik Norlander - keyboards, Mark McCrite - vocals, guitar, Don Schiff - NS/Stick (April 7th - April 12th shows), Kristoffer Gildenlow - bass (April 13th & 14th shows), Peer Verschuren - guitar and Ernst Van Ee- drums.
Symphonic rock diva Lana Lane will also perform a very special set on this tour delivering her entire "Lady Macbeth" album on stage along with some other favorites backed by the Rocket Scientists musicians and her familiar Dutch collaborators, Peer Verschuren and Ernst Van Ee.
Tourdates and venue information are as follows:
Saturday, 7 April 2007 7:30 PM
The Herringthorpe Leisure Center
Rotherham, England
Monday, 9 April 2007 8:00 PM
Vosselaar, Belgium
Tuesday, 10 April 2007 8:00 PM
Zaandam, The Netherlands
Thursday, 12 April 2007 8:00 PM
Pirmasens, Germany
Friday, 13 April 2007 8:00 PM
Reichenbach, Germany
Saturday, 14 April 2007 8:30 PM
Bunde-Spenge, Germany
To conclude the Spring, 2007 tour, Rocket Scientists will perform in the USA at on Saturday, April 28th at 11AM. The event is held at the Colonial Theater, 227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, PA. The musician lineup will be the same as the European dates with core member Don Schiff joining the band for this show on NS/Stick. Lana Lane will make a special appearance in the Rocket Scientists set at the festival.
"Heroes Temporis" is a new rock opera and is a trip towards knowledge, the discovery of reality as an illusion, the classical world meeting rock, a symphonic orchestra and a progressive band for a new, exciting rock opera with major international guests. The encounter of different worlds and atmospheres fascinated Giancarlo Trotta & Luca Contegiacomo (both from Battipaglia, Salerno), thus the idea of a rock opera was born, something that allowed the coexistence of a 100 elements symphonic orchestra and a rock band, lyrical and pop vocals, classic arias and rock rhythms. a complex opera, focused on the knowledge and purification travel of the main character, who will find out that reality is illusion. The duo is supported by great international professionals such as John Macaluso and Randy Coven, by the young Italian guitar-hero Marco Sfogli, by tenor Francesco Napoletano and by the renowned Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra directed by Giacomo Simonelli.
In 1979, at the request of NASA to commemorate and celebrate the 10th anniversary of Apollo 11's historic journey to, and man's first steps on, the moon, Tony Palmer produced the wildly popular, The Space Movie. NASA and The United States National Archive made available for the first time ever, footage of the lunar landscape, life aboard the spacecraft, Mars, Venus and beyond. Moreover, NASA released the extraordinary soundtracks of all the conversations between the astronauts and Houston ground control. The film's music soundtrack was written, arranged and performed by legendary progressive music icon, Mike Oldfield. He used excerpts from his groundbreaking symphonic tone poems, "Tubular Bells" and "Hergest Ridge", as well as previously unreleased orchestral versions of those masterpieces. He blended his innovative music throughout of the historic NASA soundtracks. He also included new music which was later released on his "Incantations" album. The resulting score is exceedingly fresh, innovative, and as unique as the film itself. Indeed, The Space Movie provides a truly rewarding viewing and listening experience. No wonder upon its original release, it was described as "the best British film of the year" by the late Alexander Walker of the London Evening Standard.
Now you have the rare opportunity to add this masterwork to your video collection. Exclusively from Voiceprint Records, The Space Movie is available in all its glory, and with fantastic bonus footage that includes six minutes of previously unreleased material, as well as a 26-minute interview with the film's creator, Tony Palmer, on the making of The Space Movie.
You can now hear Gayle Ellett playing traditional Japanese Koto on MTV. Gayle, of Djam Karet, wrote some of the music used in the two new Fuggy-Fuggy animation films, created by the great Brothers McLeod. Performing on his Koto, Gayle's music helps give these funny films a traditional Japanese feel. Fuggy-Fuggy follows the adventures of a little ninja in training. Watch as he slices and dices his way to enlightenment! Now these two movies are being shown regularly throughout the world on MTV (except in the USA).
This release, "The Safenzee Diaries", will have over 2 hours of live Frogg Cafe including new songs, new arrangements of old tunes and live-in-the-studio jams. The official release date for stores is April 10th.
CD release party:
Saturday, March 24
Knitting Factory, Tap Bar
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 219-3132
7:30 Doors open
8:00pm Frogg Cafe
Tickets $10 in advance/$12 day-of-show
The will be available at the show
The CD Release party will also be the last show for Nick Lieto before his hiatus. Nick and wife Christina are expecting child number two and he will be taking well deserved, extended time off from the band to be with family. The new Frogg Cafe line-up will include the addition of Jim Mullen. Jim is an accomplished saxophonist, keyboardist, and composer. He graduated from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 2003.
Forthcoming live shows:
Friday, April 13 - Jimmy's Seaside, Stamford, CT
Saturday, April 14 - Nectar's, Burlington, VT
Saturday, April 21 - New Jersey Proghouse Concert Series, Metuchen, NJ
Saturday, May 19 - CalProg 2007, Whittier, CA
Saturday, June 16 - Towne Crier Cafİ, Pawling, NY
Thursday, August 2 - Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts - Patchogue, NY
Blaze is the UK band led by former Iron Maiden frontman Blaze Bailey. Their performance at the Metalmania-2007 will be recorded and filmed for the future DVD release.
ProgRock Records is please to announce the signing of Amaran's Plight, a new supergroup featuring: DC Cooper (ex-Royal Hunt, Silent Force), Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery), Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard, Kevin Gilbert, Tears for Fears, Genesis) and Kurt Barabas (Under the Sun). The band's debut album, "Voice in the Light", was recorded in 2006 at Gary Wehrkamp's New Horizon Studio's and described as textbook Symphonic Progressive Metal. It combines the soaring vocals of DC Cooper with the master riffs and melodies of Gary Wehrkamp, backed by the sonic, dynamic and explosive rhythm section of D'Virgilio and Barabas.
Formed in 2003, Dial is a Swedish/Dutch alternative rock band located in The Netherlands. Kristoffer Gildenlow recorded several albums and toured around the world with the highly acclaimed Swedish progressive rock band Pain of Salvation, Lana Lane (US) and Dark Suns (D), while LiLo & Rommert took a more theatrical approach in the studio and on stage with the Dutch art rock band Cirrha Niva and several underground projects. The general idea was to be free to make any kind of music without feeling bound to a certain genre or line up. Everyone brought their ideas and influences and threw them in the pot, and that's how the music and sound of Dial was created. LiLo would bring her female rock oriented songs, while both Kristoffer and Rommert came from a more progressive pop/rock direction. This, together with a touch of industrial and a twist of new wave, started a very interesting and giving composing process. Devon Graves of Psychotic Waltz and Dead Soul Tribe fame (the man's real name being Buddy Lackey) was enlisted to produce the album and also plays guitar and sings. "Synchronized" is an album with a lot of melody, musicianship and hooks and should appeal to fans of Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush and Tori Amos.
Recorded in 2006, "Alcoholocaust" by Invisigoth reveals a prodigious and profound respect and iconoclasm for the music that it post-dates. Some call it "progressive metal" or "art rock," yet Invisigoth transcends these attempted reductions and speaks for itself - all the while echoing the revelation of the antique and exotic that is the hallmark of their singular, yet universal, expression. With new inspirations literally in hand, Cage and Viggo decided to construct a musical statement with authentic, albeit primal, vision and purpose. Invisigoth became that animation incarnate. A concept for an album was culled from their tormented experiences and research. The record explores the trials and tribulations of both protagonists in their search, and eventual discovery, of their artistic, animal, and rather Roman, natures. The album sounds a bit like modern Porcupine Tree meets Soundgarden with a splash of Kevin Gilbert, but with a sound all their own.
Sol de Medianoche (Midnight Sun) is the seventh album by Amarok. In it the band continues advancing and maturing in its blending of progressive rock with the Mediterranean music and a few touches of Celtic music. The songs are sung principally in
Spanish, but there are some songs in Catalan and even in English - for the first time in the history of the group. The variety of instruments used on this release exceeds anything attempted before by the band, however the arrangements are very precise so there is no sense of overkill. The lyrics speak about the Kabala (Sephiroth), the hermits (Hermits), the book of 1001 nights
(Ishak the Fisherman), the creatures of the myth of Chulthu (Wendigo) and the history of an imprisoned poet (the title track). As a treat, an ethnic version of ELP's theme Abaddon's Bolero.
Andromeda (Sweden) - "Playing Off the Board DVD / DVD+CD
Pendragon (UK) - "Past & Presence" DVD / DVD+2CD
Neo (UK) - "Broadcast" DVD / DVD+CD
Neo is a supergroup comprising Mark Westwood (the Martin Orford Band), Clive Nolan (Arena, Pendragon, Shadowland), John Jowitt (IQ, Jadis) and Andy Edwards (IQ).
Goad (Italy) - "In the House of the Dark Shining Dreams"
Orne (Finland) - "The Conjuration by the Fire"
The new Antonius Rex album is obscure, sinister, mystic, occult and fascinating all alike.
On their first live album, "Vibrazioni Notturne", Italian progressive jazz-rock legend Delirium presents a mixture of their old classics and new material.
Goad performs sophisticated Progressive with a lot of symphonic (early King Crimson, Genesis) and metal (Rush) influences.
The new Orne album is a showcase of the band's ability to bring together their own vision of music with influences of Van der Graaf Generator, Black Widow, Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath.
has been busy, recently completing his second Australian Tour, including a slot at Big Day Out (Perth) and support slots for The Violent Femmes. Australian radio has also picked up on this great young singer/songwriter who is now enjoying playlisting on over 40 stations for his single "Better Days."
has been invited to perform at Bluesfest in Byron Bay this year. Other artists performing include Ben Harper and Dave Matthews. Catch Nibs on the Jambalaya Stage, Monday April 9 at 1.30pm. He will also be playing The Great Escape Festival and more Australian dates are being confirmed. Nibs' album "Beautiful Feet" was recently released in Australia.
will join Andile Yenana for a one off show in Paris, France on 12 April at Cite de la Musique. Zim then heads off to Switzerland for further dates (more on those soon). Zim's album "Vadzimu" is available now in UK, Canada, USA and Australia and will be out in Germany, France and Benelux in early May.
