9th December 2020: Frontiers Music Srl is excited to announce the release of ARC OF LIFE’s self-titled debut album on February 12, 2021. Arc Of Life is a new progressive rock supergroup featuring three members of the current YES line-up, vocalist/guitarist Jon Davison, bassist/vocalist Billy Sherwood, and additional drummer Jay Schellen, one of the most interesting talents in the “new” progressive rock scene in the US, Dave Kerzner (Sound of Contact) on keyboards, and Jimmy Haun (also featured on YES albums in the past) on guitar. Fans can get their first taste of the band’s forthcoming debut with the new single and video, ‘You Make It Real’.
Watch HERE
The concept behind Arc of Life is, in keeping with the progressive rock philosophy, to craft creative, challenging, and ear-pleasing music that pushes boundaries.
Billy Sherwood describes the music as, “interesting, with well-crafted songs, performed with precision and grace. All songs feature memorable melodies and lyrics that take the listener on a sonic adventure. Dynamic arrangements with peaks and valleys… it’s all there.”
The other idea behind the band is that YES would be a clear point of influence. But while YES is clearly the main point of comparison, a lot of musical similarities can be drawn to describe Arc Of Life’s grandiose and epic approach to music.
In Jon Davison’s words, “Each YES member understands and supports when others may desire to explore and thrive along new artistic avenues. We then each find further inspiration to bring back to the YES fold.”
But all the descriptions are best left to the listeners to discern for themselves as repeat listens will reveal more layers.
Arc Of Life is a true garden of delight for progressive rock fans and the band is looking forward to performing live. “Once the world gets over the COVID hump, Arc Of Life will be planning as much touring as we can fit in between YES and our other projects. Quite honestly, we’re all chomping at the bit to be out performing again!” concludes Jon Davison.
Tracklist:
1. Life Has A Way 2. Talking With Siri 3. You Make It Real 4. Until Further Notice 5. The Magic Of It All 6. Just In Sight 7. I Want To Know You Better 8. Locked Down 9. Therefore We Are 10. The End Game
Voted “Best Keyboardist of All Time” by Music Radar Magazine, Jordan Rudess is best known as the keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire for platinum-selling Grammy-nominated prog rock band, Dream Theater. A classical prodigy who began his studies at the Juilliard School of Music at the age of 10, Jordan’s music is a unique blend of classical and rock influences.
In addition to playing in Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment, Jordan has worked with a wide range of artists including Deep Purple, David Bowie, Steven Wilson, Jan Hammer, Enrique Iglesias, the Paul Winter Consort, Annie Haslam, LMR (his side project with Tony Levin and Marco Minneman), Blackfield, Aviv Geffen, the Dixie Dregs, Rod Morgenstein and Tony Williams among others. Jordan’s interest in state-of-the-art keyboard controllers and music apps are another area of his career in which he has achieved success. Jordan owns the successful iOs app development company Wizdom Music, creators of award-winning apps such as MorphWiz, SampleWiz, and Geo Synthesizer. Wizdom Music’s latest app GeoShred was created in collaboration with moForte, founding members of Stanford University’s Sondius team. In addition, Jordan is Artist in Residence at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Jordan’s Patreon page offers access to his live streams and lessons.
Every Saturday in November, ProgStock Presents brings you Moogvember, benefitting The Bob Moog Foundation with marquee performances by Adam Holzman, Larry Fast, The Ryo Okumoto Project, Jordan Rudess and Tom Brislin!
Please note: Artists who appear twice on the schedule will be doing two unique shows.Learn more about Moogvember here! Please note that the StageIt website will default to Pacific time until you have logged in. Once you are logged in, showtimes will be displayed in your local time. Direct Ticket Link for ProgStock Presents: https://www.stageit.com/ProgStock
View this email in your browserWhat could you possibly be doing tonight that’s better than this???Tonight’s Marquee Artist is Jordan Rudess at 4PM & 9PM US EasternVoted “Best Keyboardist of All Time” by Music Radar Magazine, Jordan Rudess is best known as the keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire for platinum-selling Grammy- nominated prog rock band, Dream Theater. A classical prodigy who began his studies at the Juilliard School of Music at the age of 10, Jordan’s music is a unique blend of classical and rock influences.
In addition to playing in Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment, Jordan has worked with a wide range of artists including Deep Purple, David Bowie, Steven Wilson, Jan Hammer, Enrique Iglesias, the Paul Winter Consort, Annie Haslam, LMR (his side project with Tony Levin and Marco Minneman), Blackfield, Aviv Geffen, the Dixie Dregs, Rod Morgenstein and Tony Williams among others. Jordan’s interest in state-of-the-art keyboard controllers and music apps are another area of his career in which he has achieved success. Jordan owns the successful iOs app development company Wizdom Music, creators of award-winning apps such as MorphWiz, SampleWiz, and Geo Synthesizer. Wizdom Music’s latest app GeoShred, was created in collaboration with moForte, founding members of Stanford University’s Sondius team. In addition, Jordan is Artist in Residence at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Jordan’s Patreon page offers access to his live streams and lessons.
Please note: Artists who appear twice on the schedule will be doing two unique shows.Learn more about Moogvember here! Please note that the StageIt website will default to Pacific time until you have logged in. Once you are logged in, show times will be displayed in your local time. Direct Ticket Link for ProgStock Presents: https://www.stageit.com/ProgStock
The painting is being auctioned on betterworld.org.The image displayed here is the cover art for “Giants,” which is the most recent album cover by Paul Whitehead.Auction winner wins the painting. Paul Whitehead retains the copyright to the original artwork and the right to sell the image. Auction winner may not sell copies, prints or photographs of the painting or use the image for any commercial purpose.Auction winner will also be responsible for the costs of shipping the painting or has the option of picking it up at Paul Whitehead’s gallery in Ventura, CA.Mystery Caught in the Whirlwind of Time December 12, 2020 at 4PM & 6PM US Eastern ProgStock Presents Virtual SeriesWe will have members of Mystery LIVE on Zoom as we play this amazing recording from Boerderij Cultuurpodium in The Netherlands in two segments:Mystery – Caught in the Whirlwind of Time Part 1Mystery – Caught in the Whirlwind of Time Part 2At only $5 each, you are going to want tickets for both parts!
Over the years, the Canadian progressive rock band MYSTERY has gained the reputation of being a great Live band. Caught in the Whirlwind of Time showcases the power and magic of a MYSTERY concert with over 2 hours and 45 minutes recorded on the first show of the “Live and Butterflies Tour.”Recorded and Filmed on November 17, 2018, at the Boerderij Cultuurpodium, Zoetermeer, Netherlands.Mystery’s current line-up is Michel St-Père, bassist François Fournier, guitarist Sylvain Moineau, drummer Jean-Sébastien Goyette, singer Jean Pageau and keyboardist Antoine Michaud.You can also purchase the BluRay here!Mystery – Caught in the Whirlwind of TimeAnnouncing the Nektar Holiday Spectacular! Nektar is having a live concert streaming event on December 5, 2020. Starting at 8pm US EST, Nektar will be performing from the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY. Please join in! This is a 3-tiered event. Details are on Nektar’s website. This event will be available for 3 days to view. We hope to hear from you all! https://nektarsmusic.com/product-category/streamingVirtual ProgStock 2020 T-shirts Now Available for Pre-order in the ProgStock Store!DEADLINE EXTENDED! We need a minimum of 100 preorders to make it possible to produce these shirts at a reasonable price. Please place your order as soon as possible, but definitely before November 30 at 11:59pm US Eastern.
Artwork by Ed UnitskyProgStock Merchandise is ON SALE in the ProgStock Store! Shop Now! ProgStock 17oz Vacuum Bottle (Red, no year) was $25, now on sale for $20!ProgStock Embroidered Hat (Black, no year) was $30, now on sale for $20!ProgStock 2019 Logo T-shirt was $25, now on sale for $20!ProgStock 2019 Logo Glass Beer Mug was $25, now on sale for $20!Get the whole ProgStock Glass Collection: the 2017 pint beer glass, the 2018 stemless wine glass and the 2019 glass beer mug, all for only $40!ProgStock 2018 Logo T-shirt was $25, now on sale for $15!ProgStock 2017 Logo T-shirts (Blue Logo or Black Shirley) were $25, now on sale for $10!All ProgStock Posters (2017, 2018, 2019) and Programs (2018, 2019) now reduced to $2.50 each!New to StageIt? Here’s how to get started…
hows will be presented on StageIt. To participate, you must have a StageIt account. If you don’t yet have an account, here’s what to do:Go to stageit.com (on your laptop or desktop, the site is not mobile-friendly for accounting, but works on mobile for viewing/tipping)Click Sign Up (upper right corner)Create a username and passwordClick “Buy Notes” (10 notes = $1) – The StageIt system sells Notes in minimum intervals of $5 (50 Notes).After choosing how many Notes you want to purchase, choose your payment type – it’ll be credit card or PayPal (with PayPal, you do not need to have an account, you can use a credit/debit card as a guest).Go to the direct ticket link for ProgStock Presents to “follow” the ProgStock StageIt channel and to purchase tickets to the shows you want to watch. Feel free to contact us, if you have any issues.You will also be able to tip the artists before, during and after the shows with Notes. Consider loading up your account in advance, so you can have some fun with tipping while supporting your favorite artists. Many artists view tipping as applause from the audience, since they can see the colored bands appearing on their screen during the show – let them see you cheering!Pricing: With exceptions for special events, 45-minute shows will have a minimum ticket price of $4.00 (40 Notes) and 90-minutes shows will have a minimum ticket price of $8.00 (80 Notes), with prices in US Dollars. You can pay more, if you have the means, and you will also be able to tip during the show with your StageIt Notes. We encourage you to support the artists at this difficult time.
The individual performances on StageIt are separate shows. Audience members will purchase a ticket to each performance individually, not the whole night as a block. Some shows will be 45 minutes and others will be 90, so we may have as few as 3 shows or as many as 6 on each Saturday night.
StageIt is all about experiencing music in the moment, duplicating the live music experience as closely as possible. You have to be there to see it, just like you would in a venue, so shows are only available on their site during the performance window. Some of our artists may choose to capture their shows and make them available later on some other medium (Bandcamp, CD, DVD, etc.) and we (ProgStock) may even capture some of the shows, with artist permission, of course, but the shows will not be available on StageIt outside the show window.
First time appearance of all 6 Nirvana albums together in one deluxe vinyl box set including the never before released 1972 LP ‘Secrets’
On February 26th 2021, Madfish Music will release Nirvana ‘Songlife’ 1967-72, a 6 LP vinyl Deluxe Box Set housing all 5 of the band’s pioneering studio albums – ‘The Story Of Simon Simopath’, ‘All Of Us’, ‘Dedicated To Markos III aka Black Flower’, ‘Local Anaesthetic’, ‘Songs Of Love And Praise’ – alongside the never before released 1972 LP ‘Secrets’. Nirvana were essentially the duo of Irishman Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Greek Alex Spyropoulos – who, following a chance meeting in London during the summer of 1966, took a long, strange trip together.
It’s the first time the band’s recorded output has ever been collated together on one release and is an engrossing body of work to explore. These albums sit comfortably with some of the other great works of the time – the Zombies, The Kinks and the Pretty Things included. And whilst Nirvana are most famous for their British psychedelic classic ‘Rainbow Chaser’, as the music contained here displays, there was so much more to them than just that celebrated single, for they reached far and wide into the musical strato-sphere with a technicolour vision.
Four of the original albums have been remastered from their original ¼ inch tapes and the box itself comes with a 52-page booklet featuring liner notes from renowned author Peter Doggett, interviews with Patrick & Alex from Nirvana, full discography, rare newspaper clippings, previously unseen pho-tos, posters and sleeves, and an exclusive Gered Mankowitz print signed in-dividually by the band. Of key interest to fans will be the ‘Secrets’ album which was only recently unearthed in its entirety, its origins began as a musical score that Nirvana had planned on bringing to London’s Theatres and stages in the early Seventies.
Nirvana’s story remains a wonderful tale of artistic ambition and entwined within it lies a roll call of supporting cast heroes that includes The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Traffic, Chris Blackwell, Salvador Dali, Francoise Hardy, Tony Visconti, and many more.
The enduring beauty of Nirvana is that over 5 decades since their paths crossed, Patrick and Alex remain good friends to this day with both of them residing in Greece. Says Patrick Campbell-Lyons, “Now, as young elderly men, I can say with pride and joy that our friendship is as strong as it was fifty years ago. We see each other often, here in Athens, and respect each other’s creative space. And once in a while we write and record a new song together. Those moments are special, like our friendship.” Full product information & tracklisting:https://www.madfishmusic.com/artists/nirvana/
An evening of adventurous cosmic music exploring and expanding sonic boundaries of magic and the unknown. Tickets:• Streaming Only – $12.00• Streaming plus a rough mix of the show (MP3 192kb) – $20.00(MP3 will be sent up to 10 days after the performance by MoonJune Records) tickets:www.shapeshifterlab.com/livestream/moonjune-3 Special thanks to Matt Garrison and Fortuna Sung of ShapeShifter Lab for hosting this event.
TIM MOTZER is widely known for his distinct textural acoustic-electro guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques. From 2016-19, Tim toured the world playing prestigious venues and jazz festivals with Bandit65, an improvising trio he co-leads with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and drummer Gintas Janusonis. He has also collaborated with numerous musical luminaries including David Sylvian, Burnt Friedman, Jaki Liebezeit, poet Ursula Rucker, King Britt, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Vernon Reid, David Torn, Markus Reuter, ALex SKolnick, Percy Jones, Kenny Grohowski, and Pat Mastelotto, among others. Tim‘s work has appeared in the hit HBO series True Blood as well a major motion picture directed by Michael Mann. As an in-demand, solo live composer/improviser in the world of modern dance, Tim most recently playing to sold-out houses in Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Oujda, Morocco; Philadelphia, PA; and Toronto, Canada. For over a decade, he has served as a live accompanist/composer for master choreographers at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Tim brings his dynamic, eclectic array of musical projects together under his own 1k Recordings imprint, which has over 40 releases and counting.
GINTAS JANUSONIS has performed and toured all around the globe, recorded and collaborated with an incredibly diverse range of artists including Angélique Kidjo, Branford Marsalis, Eminem, Carlos Santana, Bill Laswell, The revelations., RZA, Wu-Tang Clan, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Otis Clay, Charles Hodges, Teenie Hodges, Leroy Hodges, Lester Snel, Boo Mitchell, Yuna, M.O.P., Lee Scratch Perry, Erykah Badu, Los Lobos, Xander Duell, Foxy Brown, Frankie Negron, Bilal, Defunkt, James Spaulding, Oliver Lake, Utada Hikaru, Ursula Rucker, Tre Williams, Jonah Smith, The Next Legacy Big Band, Kahil El Zabar, Sandra St. Victor, Josh Roseman, Reggie Washington, Fareed Haque, Rueben Wilson, Curtis Fowlkes, Jeffrey Mironov, Michael Harvey, Angela Johnson, and many others. As an auspicious start to his recording career, in 1997 Gintas received a UK gold record for his performance on the Ultra Naté hit single “Free”, from the album “Situation Critical”.
VERNON REID is a guitar legend. Webster’s Dictionary defines an artist as “one who professes and practices an imaginative art; a person skilled in one of the fine arts; a skilled performer.” By any of these definitions, guitarist and composer Vernon Reid is a true artist, one whose art is a work forever in progress, from his formative years on the downtown New York jazz/funk/punk scene with Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society, to his leadership of the pioneering multi-platinum rock band Living Colour, to his collaborations with creative spirits ranging from guitarist Carlos Santanaand African singer Salif Keita to choreographers Bill T. Jones and Donald Byrd. He cites Miles Davis, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Fripp, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Eddie Hazel, John McLaughlin, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Dr. Know among his influences. Among many of his most notorious collaborations are those with Jack Bruce, David Torn, Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society, Mick Jagger, Ambitious Lovers, Rollins Band, Spearhead, Public Enemy, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Tracy Chapman, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Don Byron, Defunkt, Santana, Bernie Worrell, MC 900 Ft. Jesus, B.B. King, Madeleine Peyroux, Meridiem, Jack Bruce, Terry Bozzio, Black Sugar Transmission,DJ Spooky, and many others.
LEON GRUENBAUM has been a vital force in the New York music scene for over 25 years. After early classical training on piano and woodwinds, Mr. Gruenbaum developed an interest in jazz, funk and avant-garde music. He conceived of the world’s first relativistic music keyboard, a patented MIDI controller called the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee. This instrument won a prize at the 2011 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition and is now listed in the 2nd edition of the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. He has recorded and performed on his instrument internationally with guitarist Vernon Reid (Living Colour), James “Blood” Ulmer and the Burnt Sugar Arkestra. He also plays this keyboard while singing in his projects – “Creative Apocalypse” and “Genes and Machines”. Other artists with whom he has performed include Stew, Nana Vasconcelos, Chaka Khan, Beans, M.C.P.S., Micah Gaugh and Aaron Comess’s “Air Conditioned Gypsies” JOSH WERNER is a bass player, composer, performer and abstract painter, Werner has made quite a name for himself working in a variety of styles, most notably in dub, experimental rock, hip hop and jazz. His work with Ghostface Killer, CocoRosie, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Cibo Matto, PopCaan, James Brandon Lewis, Matisyahu, Sly and Robbie, Wu Tang Clan and TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe has cemented his status as a low-end heavyweight
The year 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. On this occasion, many rare finds from the London Underground music scene found their way into the public ear again. Now, with a little delay, perhaps the most important rediscovery from the time of Swingin’ London is available: Iapetus presents this compilation for the first time, “Hallucinogenic Treasures from the Convolution of an Imaginative Brain” is a comprehensive review of the work of the legendary British band Banging Colours.
“Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys or “Freak Out” by the Mothers of Invention had already been announced the year before, but 1967 was the Year of Great Change in rock and pop. From “Sgt. Pepper” to “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” from “Are You Experienced” to “Surrealistic Pillow,” unprecedented sounds broke into pop music and redefined what popular music is and can be. In place of hit production came the work on the album. The setlist of performances no longer consisted of a string of singles; instead, the musicians experimented live with their material and sounded out the possibilities of rock music in long improvisations. The studio itself became an instrument for expanding musical boundaries, and drug-induced changes in consciousness manifested themselves in psychedelic sound.
During the short period of their existence in London from 1967 to 1969, Banging Colours featuring keyboarder and singer Manny Wolfe was considered one of the most important and influential bands of their time. Performances at the U.F.O. Club and in Middle Earth established their reputation as a cult band by British psychedelia fans. Joint performances with the main acts of the scene consolidated this status as well as their innovative light show, which gave the band its name.
Matthias Derer has meticulously searched and rummaged through the archives of record companies, radio stations and film studios, bringing to light some amazing things. More treasures than ever hoped for could be recovered, in almost all cases in the form of original tapes of the individual tracks and in far better quality than feared. Markus Reuter has remixed them with great devotion and has given these pearls of the psychedelic era, which were considered lost, new radiance. The result is a fascinating testimony of probably the most creative period of rock music.
Album 1 of the compilation brings together studio recordings from almost two and a half years, from the first and only single that not only sings about London’s underground scene but also became its secret anthem, to songs from various album projects from 1967 to 1969. The material was written entirely by the band’s head Manny Wolfe and bears his compositional signature.
Album 2 includes jams and studio live sessions and shows the band from a slightly different side: it impressively documents their impartiality and freedom to improvise freely, leaving the three-minute format suitable for radio light years behind.
Both showcase the extraordinary lineup of Banging Colours: Bas Ricken, whose powerful and soulful playing was acknowledged by the major drummers of his time, is the pulse in which the colours are banging. Pekka Jokinen on bass is an exceptional phenomenon: Seldom in this era has a bassist shaped the overall sound of a band as much as he did. On these recordings he not only proves that he lives up to his idol Paul McCartney and is on the cutting edge of his time, but he also shows himself to be a harbinger of a new type of bass player, as he was later embodied by Chris Squire or John Wetton in the 70’s. You don’t have to be a music expert to imagine what a brilliant career Young Patel could have had on the guitar if fate hadn’t objected. He effortlessly freed himself from his roots, the R‘n’B, without ever having to deny his musical origins. Especially his interaction with Keith Friedell is one of the most exciting elements of Banging Colours. While Young lets the blues flow in, Friedell makes the wide field of swing and gypsy jazz fertile for psychedelic proliferation. His virtuosic playing leaves its mark on the band and contributes significantly to the incomparable sound of Banging Colours. The creative centre around which this ensemble of exceptional musicians is grouped is Manny Wolfe, who not only wrote all the songs but also lends them the psychedelic sound carpets on organ, piano and mellotron as well as his unusual voice. At the moment he is writing an autobiographical story of Banging Colours, and it will be interesting to see if more treasures of the band will be salvaged in the course of this.
But not only the acoustic side of this rediscovery is interesting. In the course of extensive research, Matthias Derer has also succeeded in making the work of one of the most important graphic artists of his time partially accessible again. Wes H. Bernatt was not only a friend of the band and designer of their record covers, posters and the band logo, but also one of the most creative draftsmen and illustrators in London in the late 60’s. His contribution to psychedelic art and graphic design was unjustly forgotten. Bernhard Wöstheinrich’s revision of the album covers for this compilation brings Bernatt’s merits back into focus.
This compilation is a major act and an important contribution to the history of music, which gives an idea of the importance of Banging Colours. A must for all fans of the 60’s and lovers of psychedelic music.
Lyrically, and musically, the award-winning Dutch artist lays her soul bare with the most evocative record of her career – captivating song-stories told with acoustic guitars, strings, horns, percussion, and Anneke’s hypnotic vocal harmonies
The new album’s title, ‘The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest’, refers to the idea that, when facing personal challenges, we are forced to find answers to life’s biggest questions. But, at this point in her near-three-decade-long music career, this solo album – and, crucially, the heartbreak that inspired it – was not something Anneke van Giersbergen ever anticipated writing.
In 2018, Anneke began working on new material for her metal band, VUUR. Although their debut album, ‘In This Moment We Are Free – Cities’, was met with a mixed reception, fans were warming up to their heavy, progressive sound. Therefore, a rapid follow-up album would surely establish Anneke’s return to fronting a metal band. However, behind the scenes, these were troubled times.
Anneke shares, ”My belief in VUUR saw me spend all my savings on recording VUUR’s debut album and taking the band on the road. After completing our first touring cycle, I realized that more VUUR would mean yet more, huge financial risks.”
To make matters worse, in 2018, her long-lasting marriage, which had always been wonderful, unexpectedly saw a storm approaching. Anneke adds, “I instantly knew I needed to write music about fixing my life. This creative endeavour would be far too personal for a VUUR album. And it would also require solitude.”
With just her acoustic guitar and basic recording gear, Anneke retreated to a small house near the woods, just outside her hometown of Eindhoven. She let go of the pressures of what VUUR’s future might be, and fell into the meditative process of writing a solo album. In 2019, work continued on the new songs. In 2020, Anneke asked her friend and producer, Gijs Coolen, to help finish the album.
Throughout the completion of the album, Anneke’s fragile, acoustic song-stories were fused together with an alchemy of panoramic strings, horns, and percussion. The resulting 11-track record has all the intimacy of Anneke serenading an audience of one, combined with surprising departures into swampier, foot-stomping grooves.
The Japanese art of kintsugi has inspired Anneke to use a repaired heart as the album’s symbol. Kintsugi teaches that bringing together the pieces of a broken object – with the use of a precious metal – adds value and uniqueness to it. And, instead of giving up on their marriage, Anneke and her husband decided to take the time to mend their bond. They now cherish the repaired heartbreak as something profoundly valuable.
Their journey through this personal storm, and the album that Anneke created in the eye of it, proves that the darkest skies truly are the brightest.
The album will be available as CD Digipak, Gatefold LP + CD & as digital album. 01. Agape 02. Hurricane 03. My Promise 04. I Saw A Car 05. The Soul Knows 06. The End 07. Keep It Simple 08. Lo And Behold 09. Losing You 10. Survive 11. Love You Like I Love You
‘The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest’ is Anneke’s 23rd career album. It proves, once again, that the award-winning Dutch artist defies being pigeonholed by any genre.
After thirteen years as the front woman for melancholic metallers, The Gathering, she struck out on her own in 2007. Since then, her creativity has known no bounds. Anneke quickly solidified a successful solo career (initially under the moniker Agua de Annique), and has recorded and performed with Canadian metal genius Devin Townsend multiple times. She has also lent her serene yet powerful voice to the likes of: Anathema, Icelandic folk group Árstíðir, Within Temptation, Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen, Amorphis, and prog legend John Wetton.
2012’s ‘Everything is Changing’ was something of a milestone in Anneke’s solo career. The album, which was the first to be released under her own name, received two Edison Award nominations – Holland’s most prestigious music prize – in the categories ‘Best Female Artist’ and ‘Best Album’.
In 2015, Anneke van Giersbergen and Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) released their collaborative album ‘The Diary’ under the name The Gentle Storm. In October 2017, Anneke’s progressive metal outfit VUUR released their much-anticipated debut album. ‘In This Moment We Are Free – Cities’ entered the Dutch Album Top 100 at number 2, Anneke’s highest-ever chart position.
Forever the unpredictable artist, in late 2018, Anneke released ‘Symphonized’, an 11-track live orchestral album. It was recorded at two career-spanning concerts alongside Residentie Orkest The Hague, and features rearrangements of songs from her entire back catalogue.
2019 saw Dutch music copyright organization Buma Cultuur honor Anneke with the Buma ROCKS! Export Award. This is their award for the Most Successful Dutch Artist Abroad in Heavy Music. In 2021, the release of her new solo album ‘The Darkest Skies Is The Brightest’ will see Anneke surprise her fans all over again.
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