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Actual Fantasy
''Actual Fantasy'' is an album released in 1996 by Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen A. Lucassen and is the second album of his Ayreon project. It is the only Ayreon release that does not feature a single overarching story concept, but instead draws on science fiction and fantasy films for inspiration, as well as stories written by Arjen himself. In 2004, Arjen moved to a new record label, Inside Out Germany. With this move came re-issues of all previous Ayreon releases, including ''Actual Fantasy''. The re-issue came with a bonus DVD featuring a 5.1 remix of the entire original album, a video clip for "The Stranger from Within," and a video featurette showing the 2004 recordings of drums, bass, and guitar for the remix. ''Actual Fantasy: Revisited'' After remixing "Star Child" from his Star One album '' Space Metal'' in Pro Logic, and "Day 11: Love" from ''The Human Equation'' in 5.1, Arjen was very motivated and excited about making an entire album in 5.1. With a switch i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayreon
Ayreon is a musical project by Dutch songwriter, singer, musician and record producer Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Ayreon's music is described as progressive rock, progressive metal and power metal sometimes combined with genres such as folk music, folk, electronica, experimental music, experimental and classical music. The majority of Ayreon's albums are dubbed Rock opera, "rock operas" (or "metal operas") because the albums contain complex storylines featuring a host of characters, usually with each one List of Ayreon guest musicians, being represented by a unique vocalist. Each Ayreon album tells a different story, but all, with the exception of ''Actual Fantasy'', ''The Theory of Everything (Ayreon album), The Theory of Everything'', and ''Transitus (album), Transitus'', take place in the same fictional, science fiction universe; additionally, Lucassen's solo album ''Lost in the New Real'' is also set in the Ayreon universe. Ayreon's music is characterized by the use of traditiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Metal (Star One Album)
''Space Metal'' is the debut studio album by Arjen Anthony Lucassen's progressive metal project/ supergroup Star One, released on the recording label Inside Out in 2002. It was issued in two versions, a standard version containing just the first CD and a limited edition version with more elaborate packaging and both CDs. The album mixes progressive metal and space rock, and many of the songs are linked conceptually by having cult science fiction movies, novels or TV series as their subjects, mainly adventures on space. The album features a guest vocal performance by Dave Brock of Hawkwind on the track 'Hawkwind Medley'. Track listing Album Themes The themes of the album's songs are based on the following works of fiction: On CD 1 *Set Your Controls – ''Doctor Who'' *High Moon – '' Outland'' *Songs of the Ocean – '' Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' *Master of Darkness – ''The Empire Strikes Back'' *The Eye of Ra – ''Stargate'' *Sandrider – ''Dune'' *Perfect Sur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1996 Albums
1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane 1996 Air Africa crash, crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, killing around 300 people. * January 9–January 20, 20 – Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya. * January 11 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan. * January 13 – Prime Minister of Italy, Italy's Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him. New talks are initiated by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to form a new government. * January 14 – Jorge Sampaio is elected President of Portugal. * January 16 – President of Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser is deposed by the chief of defence, Julius Maada Bio. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synthesizer
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI. Synthesizer-like instruments emerged in the United States in the mid-20th century with instruments such as the RCA Mark II, which was controlled with punch cards and used hundreds of vacuum tubes. The Moog synthesizer, developed by Robert Moog and first so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hammond Organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created from rotating a metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup, and Power amplifier, amplifying the electric signal into a speaker enclosure, speaker cabinet. The organ is commonly used with the Leslie speaker. Around two million Hammond organs have been manufactured. The organ was originally marketed by the Hammond Organ Company to Church (building), churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, or instead of a piano. It quickly became popular with professional jazz musicians in organ trios—small groups centered on the Hammond organ. Jazz club owners found that organ trios were cheaper than hiring a big band. Jimmy Smith (musician), Jimmy Smith's use of the Hammond B-3, with its additional harmonic percussion featu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Reekers
Kayak is a Dutch rock band formed by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman in Hilversum in 1972. In 1973, their debut album '' See See the Sun'' was released, including three hit singles. Their popularity was mainly in the Netherlands, with their top hit "Ruthless Queen" reaching No. 6 on the Dutch charts in March 1979. They disbanded in 1982 after releasing nine albums. In 1999, the band was asked to perform on the TV show ''De Vrienden van Amstel Live''. After this performance, they decided to reform, and released nine further studio albums and three live albums. History Co-founder Ton Scherpenzeel is the only member who has played on every Kayak album. Apart from keyboards, he also plays accordion, occasional bass guitar (for instance on the entire ''Nostradamus'' album) and double bass. He also provides backing vocals and sings lead vocals on the song "Love's Aglow" on the original ''Merlin'' album. Singer/drummer Max Werner provided lead vocals on the first five albums. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ed Warby
Edward R. Warby (born 7 March 1968) is a Dutch musician, best known as the drummer for death metal band Gorefest and progressive rock/metal project Ayreon. He also appeared in the band Agressor in 1982 and joined the Eindhoven-based metal band Elegy in 1987. Warby moved to Gorefest in 1992, where he replaced the former drummer just before the recording sessions of "False", he had to learn all themes and develop his work in just two weeks, which he managed to achieve in a matter so fast that producer Colin Richardson nicknamed him ''Fast Eddy''. After Gorefest split up in 1999, he took part in the re-united Gorefest in 2004. In 1998, Arjen Anthony Lucassen asked Warby to perform on his album '' Into the Electric Castle'', because Arjen was impressed with Warby's works with Gorefest. From that moment on, Warby had performed on Ayreon's every album, except for '' Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer'' and ''Transitus''. He also performed on the re-recording of '' Actual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorefest
Gorefest was a Dutch death metal band from Goes, Zeeland. It was founded in 1989 by Jan-Chris de Koeijer, Frank Harthoorn, Alex van Schaik and Marc Hoogendoorn. Career Early works (1989-1994) Within two months of its formation, Gorefest recorded their first demo. A Dutch independent label, Foundation 2000, signed them for one album. Before recording ''Mindloss'', they released another demo in 1990, which received positive feedback. As a supporting act for Carcass they traveled through Belgium and the Netherlands impressing the metal-scene also on stage. Colin Richardson was the producer of 1991's album ''Mindloss''. Before they toured with Revenant from New Jersey, guitarist Alex van Schaik was replaced by Boudewijn Vincent Bonebakker. Not satisfied with Foundation 2000, Gorefest signed a contract in 1992 with Nuclear Blast. Hoogendoorn quit because of incidents during the Mindloss-tour and drummer Ed Warby (who came from the power metal band Elegy) took his place two w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Human Equation
''The Human Equation'' is the sixth album from the progressive rock project Ayreon by Dutch musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen, released on 25 May 2004 via Inside Out Music. As with other Ayreon albums, it features guest appearances from several musicians previously unrelated to the project, including James LaBrie of Dream Theater, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, Eric Clayton of Saviour Machine, and Devin Townsend, performing music arranged and written by Lucassen. As with nearly every Ayreon album, it is a concept album with each character being portrayed by one singer. However unlike previous albums, ''The Human Equation'' is not a sci-fi story but takes place almost entirely in the mind of a character called Me (played by LaBrie) who is in a coma after a car crash, with each song consisting of one day spent in coma. While his Wife (Marcela Bovio) and Best Friend (Lucassen) are at his side in the real world, Me, trapped in his own mind, encounters representations of his own feel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolby Pro Logic
Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. The terms Dolby Stereo and LtRt (''Left Total'', ''Right Total'') are also used to describe soundtracks that are encoded using this technique. Dolby Stereo—also known as Dolby MP (''Motion Picture'') or Dolby SVA (''stereo variable-area'')—was developed by Dolby in 1976 for analog movie theater, cinema sound systems. The format was adapted for home use in 1982 as Dolby Surround when VCR#Stereo Sound and HiFi, HiFi capable consumer VCRs were introduced. It was further improved with the Dolby Pro Logic decoding system after 1987. The Dolby MP Matrix was the professional system that encoded four channels of film sound into two. This track used by the ''Dolby Stereo'' theater system on a 35mm optical stereo print and decoded back to the original 4.0 Surround. The same four-channel encoded stereo track was largely left unchanged a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star One (band)
Star One (also referred to as Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One) is a Dutch progressive metal supergroup/side-project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen of Ayreon fame. The band has released three albums to date: their first in 2002, their second in 2010, and most recently a third in 2022, plus a live album in 2003, and features four different singers: Russell Allen ( Symphony X), Damian Wilson ( Threshold, Headspace, Arena), Dan Swanö ( Edge of Sanity, Nightingale), and Floor Jansen ( After Forever, ReVamp, Nightwish). Unlike Ayreon, the Star One albums do not follow one storyline; instead, each song is a different story with a sci-fi concept, most of the tracks based on existing movies and series. The band takes its name from the second season finale of '' Blake's 7''. The band includes four singers alternating in all the songs, not including Lucassen, who sings occasionally, plays all guitars and keyboards and writes and composes all the songs. The third studio album deviat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Progressive Metal
Progressive metal (often shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral or quasi-classical compositions of the latter. The music typically showcases the extreme technical proficiency of the performers and usually uses unorthodox Chord progression, harmonies as well as complex rhythms with frequent Metre (music), meter changes and intense syncopation. The rhythmic aspects are especially emphasized in the djent subgenre. Although the genre emerged towards the late-1980s, it was not until the 1990s that progressive metal achieved widespread success. Dream Theater, Watchtower (band), Watchtower, Queensrÿche, Tool (band), Tool, Symphony X,''AllMusic''Tool Retrieved on February 11, 2013. Shadow Gallery, King's X, and Fates Warning are a few examples of progressive metal bands who a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
