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
I’m very pleased to announce my brand new sci-fi progressive rock band called “In Continuum”!
The first album will be released later this year! Joining me on lead vocals will be Gabriel Agudo (Steve Rothery Band, Bad Dreams) with special guest Jon Davison of Yes and it will feature multi-instrumentalists Matt Dorsey (SOC), Randy McStine (The Fringe, SOC), Wes Dearth(Porcupine Tree, SOC), Nick D’Virgilio (BBT, Spocks Beard), Derek Cintron and Fernando Perdomo (DKB) and the amazing Steven Rothery(Marillion) and more! Just announced today, “In Continuum” will be doing a big show on Cruise To The Edge Feb 4-9th, 2019!
Extra big thanks to Larry Morand for bringing me back onto CTTE and for premiering my new band today and to Joel Barrios for amazing photos, graphics and web admin!
Sound of Contact co-founder Dave Kerzner has released a new music video from his second solo album “Static”. It’s for his song “Dirty Soap Box” which features a guest appearance from the legendary Steve Hackett, former guitarist of Genesis.
“I wanted to make reference to my deep-rooted influences of early Genesis in this song,” says Kerzner. “Having Steve Hackett join us for this modern day ‘Broadway Melody’ type adventure through current events completed the picture for me.” Watch the music video for “Dirty Soap Box”:
This is the second guest appearance from Steve Hackett on Kerzner’s songs. Previously Hackett guested on Kerzner’s song “Stranded” from his debut album “New World”. Other musicians featured on “Dirty Soap Box” are guitarist Fernando Perdomo, drummers Nick D’Virgilio of Big Big Train and Derek Cintron with bassist Matt Dorsey also from Sound of Contact. Kerzner’s previous music video from “Static” was “Chain Reaction”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5MbY06KwBU ;
Dave Kerzner’s album “Static” is available from iTunes, Amazon and popular download sites. It’s distributed on CD worldwide by Cherry Red Records and available here:http://geni.us/Static ;
In a statement on the Sound of Contact Facebook Page
“Hi all, Simon here. We are very sorry to deliver this news, but Kelly Avril Nordstrom and I have decided to leave Sound of Contact for reasons we can not share out of respect to the rest of the band. We will be releasing a proper statement from the entire band shortly. We have no words to describe how sorry we are to all our fans. You will hear more from us shortly.”
In a statement of Dave Kerzner facebook page
“Ok! Now that my band rehearsals today are over I can finally share the unfortunate news that Simon and Kelly have left SOC. I haven’t even had a chance to fully process the news myself as I’m in the middle of preparing my own show coming up on CTTE and NAMM. (As if I didn’t have enough going on! But, I’m ok.) Fortunately, I have great fans, friends, and family who are so kind and supportive during moments like this.
Anyway, look, it’s no secret the band has had its difficulties for many years, some of them publicly known and some things are only known by us. As you might expect there are going to be things we don’t want to say because airing our dirty laundry or throwing anyone under the bus can get ugly and I don’t see the point in that. I’ll defend myself if I have to but since that line up has openly announced it has fallen apart, I’m prepared to just accept it and wish them well.
What’s going to happen next? I really don’t know as I wasn’t expecting the band to be left to just Matt and I. I had no desire to take over the band or anything like that. I’m quite happy with the DKB! SOC to me was about working with these guys so now I don’t know anymore. What I do know is that more music will continue to be made from all of us regardless what it’s called. What I’ve heard from Simon on his solo album (that Kelly played on) sounds great. Those are his songs and in my opinion, it’s a worthy follow up to his previous 3 solo albums. I wish them well with that and anything else they’re doing. I hope SOC fans will continue to support all of us in our musical endeavors whether it’s in any combination together or apart.
It is a shame the follow-up SOC album we were making probably won’t come out as planned. We each brought in some cool material that I imagine will see the light of day at some point on something somewhere. Just not what we had hoped for which was the original line-up reunited to do an album that fans of Dimensionaut would love. I did my best to help make it work but it wasn’t just up to me. It was up to all four of us and we simply weren’t able to do it. This is not what I wanted to happen. But, I accept it. The only thing I can think of to do is to carry on making and performing my music. I work with a lot of talented people and I’m both lucky and grateful. Thanks! – Dave
According to Wikipedia
Sound of Contact is a British-based progressive rock band consisting of members Simon Collins (lead vocals, drums, percussion), Matt Dorsey (guitars, bass), Dave Kerzner (keyboards, guitars), and Kelly Nordstrom (guitars, bass). Formed in 2009, the band released their debut album in May 2013.
Co-founding members of the band, Simon Collins and Dave Kerzner, met in New York at rehearsals for the music group Genesis in 2006. While Genesis was on tour during 2007, Collins and Kerzner, along with Kelly Nordstrom, recorded a cover of the 1981 Genesis song, “Keep It Dark,” as a tribute to Collins’ father, Phil Collins, The younger Collins then developed his 2008 solo album, U-Catastrophe in association with Kerzner and Nordstrom, who contributed to the album as songwriters and performers. Collins met Matt Dorsey through their record label while forming a touring band for his U-Catastrophe tour. Nordstrom, meanwhile, had worked with Collins for several years as a guitarist, bassist and songwriter, contributing to his 2005 album, Time For Truth as well as U-Catastrophe. In 2009, Collins approached Kerzner about forming a band. After enlisting help from Nordstrom and Dorsey, work began on their first project as a band in Miami, Florida, with the end result being their first album, Dimensionaut. After the album’s release, Nordstrom made the decision to leave the band due to family commitments. Following several months of touring and promotion, Kerzner announced his departure from the band in January 2014 in order to concentrate on his company Sonic Reality and pursue his own music projects. Kerzner and Nordstrom rejoined the band in April 2015 and began working with Collins and Dorsey in Oxfordshire on the group’s second album, but on January 20, 2018, Collins and Nordstrom both announced their departure from the group. The future of the band is in doubt.
SOUND OF CONTACT – Pale Blue Dot (OFFICIAL VIDEO). Taken from the album “Dimensionaut”. InsideOutMusic 2014.
Miami, Florida – Dave Kerzner, co-founder of the progressive rock group Sound of Contact, has released his second solo album “Static” with a physical CD version available in mid-October. “Static”. The album is the follow up to his highly acclaimed debut album “New World”. Joining him are special guests Steve Hackett (Genesis), Durga McBroom (Pink Floyd), Nick D’Virgilio (Big Big Train), Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree) and more in addition to his core group consisting of guitarists Fernando Perdomo and Randy McStine, fellow SOC bandmate Matt Dorsey and drummer Derek Cintron.
“Static” is a “progressive rock opera” about the clutter and chaos in modern everyday life. It boldly navigates through subjects ranging from noise in our heads of ego, jealousy, technological distractions, substance abuse and narcissism to profiling the hypocritical and corrupt characters in politics, media, and society today.
With a bit of dark humor, sarcasm and a retro-future dystopian view, with rich imaginative artwork created by Ed Unitsky, “Static” merges elements of a twisted Broadway musical with familiar vintage rock flavors like that of King Crimson’s “Red” or Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.” Other strong detectible influences include The Beatles, Queen, Radiohead and Kerzner’s late bandmate from “Thud,” Kevin Gilbert.
“I aim to bring forward some of my favorite qualities of classic rock and prog albums and blend it with something new that feels right today. “ Says Kerzner “I like creating memorable songs that tell a story in a melodic musical way. This is what I love about the timeless rock albums in my collection and my goal is to contribute to other people’s collections in the same way.”
About working with Steve Hackett: “Having Steve Hackett guest on guitar again is a dream for me because I grew up listening to Genesis and wanting to play with a guitarist as innovative and melodic as Steve. I also love these sort of cross-generation collaborations where we meet in the middle of modern and retro,” says Kerzner.
Dave Kerzner and his band embarked on a US tour starting with headlining the ProgStock festival on October 14th in New Jersey where they performed all of the album “Static” live and then headed over to Chicago for the Progtoberfest at Reggie’s on October 20th. From there the Dave Kerzner Band and fellow American proggers District 97 continue on their “Static-Vaults Tour” playing in other cities around the East Coast. In February 2018, the Dave Kerzner Band will be performing on Yes’s Cruise To The Edge for the third time with plans to do a short tour of Europe in the Spring.
Dave Kerzner’s “Static” is OUT NOW!
BIO:
Dave Kerzner is a singer, keyboardist, songwriter and producer from the US. He co-founded the Prog-award-winning rock group “Sound of Contact” with Simon Collins, son of Phil Collins, in 2009 and over the years has worked with artists such as Kevin Gilbert, Steve Hackett, Keith Emerson, Alan Parsons, Billy Sherwood, Jon Anderson, Steven Wilson, Joe Lynn Turner and more. His debut solo album “New World” featured the song “Stranded” which was nominated for “Anthem of the Year” in the 2015 Progressive Music Awards and it featured Durga McBroom (Pink Floyd), Steve Hackett (Genesis) and Jason Scheff (Chicago). Kerzner has released both a standard 1 CD and deluxe 2 CD version of his concept album “New World” as well as a live album and now a second studio album called “Static”. He continues to write and record with Sound of Contact as well as other musical projects.
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