Earlier this year Mascot Label Group announced the signing of AYREON, the highly acclaimed project from singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist / record producer Arjen Lucassen to its label Music Theories Recordings. After re-releasing the AYREON catalogue on various digital platforms in April, debut album The Final Experiment and follow-up Actual Fantasy: Revisited will see their first-ever vinyl release on August 26, 2016.

 The Ayreon back-catalogue has been re-released before, but contrary to the rest of Ayreon’s seven studio albums, The Final Experiment and Actual Fantasy: Revisited have never been released on vinyl. Lucassen: “That makes it perfect for me. I couldn’t have wished for a better start with Mascot Label Group and Music Theories Recordings. The people at Mascot flooded me with ideas and plans for the re-releases. Which is a luxury, really! Take the artwork, for example. They offered to rework it, but wanted to show the original artwork as well. Their ideas were all really good. I’m sure the fans will appreciate this, which is one of my main goals when working on a re-release or a vinyl release. The worst thing to do is forget about quality and details, because people will turn away from you in no time.”

The Final Experiment

Ayreon’s first album was released in the Netherlands in 1995 by start-up label Transmission Records. With its intricate sci-fi/fantasy storytelling and timeless progressive rock it immediately attracted attention of rock fans all around the world. Featuring a line-up of world class vocalists and musicians, including Barry Hay (Golden Earring), Jan-Chris de Koeijer (Gorefest), and Kingdom Come’s Lenny Wolf. Ten years later Lucassen recorded semi-acoustic versions of the songs as a bonus to the CD-re-release. Those tracks are now available on vinyl as well. Lucassen: “Originally The Final Experiment was a single album, of course. To make it special for the re-release in 2005 I recorded nine of the songs acoustically, but with completely different singers and arrangements. I like some of the tracks even better this way. It’s so great to have both these versions on vinyl now.”

Lucassen mentions The Final Experiment as the most emotional recording he has made: “I was very limited when I recorded The Final Experiment. I had no studio of my own and no equipment, nothing at all, basically. I was totally dependent on the studio where I recorded. Plus I had no money to hire any fancy singers or musicians yet, which means that most of the singers you hear are all friends of mine. People that I played or interacted with in the years before Ayreon, when I was playing with Vengeance. The Final Experiment embodies something I wanted to do all my life, ever since I heard Tommy of The Who, Jesus Christ Superstar, War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne… I just had to do a rock opera! And in that respect, yes, it is a good album to start your Ayreon trip with.”

Lucassen is particularly fond of Sail Away to Avalon. As a kid I already was a huge Golden Earring fan. And to have Barry Hay sing on it, in exchange for a bottle of whisky… Now I’m used to working with famous people, but at that time I was extremely nervous when Barry came to the studio! Then there is Eyes Of Time, my attempt at doing a Led Zeppelin, Kashmir kind of song. And sure, I would have loved to have Robert Plant sing on it, but that was not going to happen, haha… So that’s when I thought of Kingdom Come, a band that I really liked a lot and that sounded very much like Led Zeppelin. I approached them and asked if Lenny Wolf would like to come and sing on Eyes Of Time. To my surprise he said yes!”

Actual Fantasy

After The Final Experiment, second Ayreon album Actual Fantasy (also on Transmission, 1996), turned out to be a relatively modest production. In 2004 it got a complete makeover, resulting in Actual Fantasy: Revisited. Lucassen recalls: “The Final Experiment sold very well and I earned enough money to start building my own studio around 1995, 1996. It was all ADAT recorders back then. Digital, but on tape. I think I had about eight of them. A complicated way of recording… My idea this time was to create an album with John Bonham-style drum parts , lots of electronics and synths in the spirit of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze and heavy guitars on top. For budget reasons I recorded with computer drums, and digital synths instead of the nice analog synths I have nowadays. At that time I didn’t give a shit about what people would think of the album I was making. That became different  with my next Ayreon album  Into The Electric Castle. I remember thinking then: ‘Okay, what would people want to hear, how can I please them?’ And I never thought that with Actual Fantasy, I was pretty cocky at the time .”

Actual Fantasy contrasts in many ways with The Final Experiment. It’s not a rock opera, and there are only three singers present. Lucassen: “Firstly my good friend Robert Soeterboek. Then there is Edward Reekers, the singer with Kayak, whose parts worked out so well that I had asked him for Into The Electric Castle and Universal Migrator too. Seems he is unable to sing out of tune and his English pronunciation is perfect – very important to me. The third singer was Okkie Huijsdens, who sadly passed away. He could sing the best Beatles-style vocal parts you can imagine, and that was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to use the vocals more as instruments than just standard vocals. Layers of vocals, beautiful harmonies: Okkie delivered.”

Asked for his dearest tracks on Actual Fantasy, Lucassen does not hesitate: “The first track after the intro, Abbey Of Synn, was already my favourite when I recorded it. That Led Zeppelin feel again, drum parts sort of like When The Levee Breaks, that was my idea. But then with electronic sequencers and heavy guitars. Computer Eyes is the track that I think stands out for the fans. I also did it live a couple of times, with Stream Of Passion… Edward Reekers did an amazing job on that. The Tangerine Dream feel, mixed with lots of melody and some heavy rock , that’s what I like so much about it.”

When Lucassen revisited the songs of Actual Fantasy in 2004, he didn’t decide on recording acoustic bonus tracks like with The Final Experiment. “I decided to re-record all the stuff I wasn’t happy with. Ed Warby played the drum parts, for starters. Peter Vink completely revised the bass parts. I redid most of the guitar parts because I had better equipment. So I added stuff to the tracks but took stuff away as well.”

See and hear Arjen Lucassen tell about the releases:

2LP The Final Experiment (Special Edition) (1995/2005)

 The vocalists are, next to Arjen Lucassen himself: Barry Hay (Golden Earring), Edward Reekers (Kayak), Leon Goewie (Vengeance), Ian Parry (Elegy), Jan-Chris de Koeijer (Gorefest), Jay van Feggelen (Bodine), Lenny Wolf (Kingdom Come), Robert Soeterboek, Ruud Houweling, Debby Schreuder, Mirjam van Doorn and Lucy Hillen.

The vocalists on the semi-acoustic versions recorded in 2005 are Astrid van der Veen, Esther Ladiges, Irene Jansen, John Cuijpers, Marcela Bovio, Peter Daltrey, Rodney Blaze and Robby Valentine.

Instrumentalists on The Final Experiment, besides Arjen Lucassen: Cleem Determeijer (keyboards), Ernst van Ee (drums), Jan Bijlsma (bass), Jolanda Verduijn (bass), Peter Vink (bass) and Rene Merkelbach (keyboards).

The semi-acoustic recordings were made by Lucassen with Davy Mickers (drums), Lori Linstruth (guitars), Jeroen Goossens (flutes) and Robby Valentine (piano).

 2LP Actual Fantasy & Actual Fantasy Revisited (1996/2004)

The vocalists are Edward Reekers (Kayak), Okkie Huijsdens, Robert Soeterboek
Instrumentalists besides Arjen Lucassen himself: Cleem Determeijer and Rene Merkelbach (both on keyboards)
On the Revisited version: Ed Warby (drums), Peter Vink (bass)

Special editions only available in Ayreon online shop:

The Final Experiment 3 LP Deluxe Edition:

Original album on 2 LP Gatefold + Exclusive Semi-Acoustic bonus album in a numbered hardcover box with a  downloadcard of all content.

Contains:

·         2 LP Gatefold on Blue Marble vinyl
·         Bonus Semi-Acoustic LP on Marble vinyl
·         Download card including all exclusive content
·         All boxes are numbered 1-1000

Actual Fantasy Original 4 LP Deluxe Edition:

Original album on 2 LP Gatefold + Original 1996 recording on 2LP Gatefold in a numbered hardcover box with a downloadcard of all content.

Contains:

·         Actual Fantasy Revisited 2 LP Gatefold on Red Marble vinyl
·         Actual Fantasy Original 1996 Recordings 2 LP Gatefold on Red Marble vinyl
·         Download card including all exclusive content
·         Numbered 1-1000

Photo by Lori Linstruth

Mascot Label Group is proud to announce the signing of AYREON, the highly acclaimed project from singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist / record producer Arjen Lucassen. The Ayreon catalog, comprising seven studio albums, will be released on various digital platforms today, on April 22nd.

Arjen Lucassen and Mascot Label Group CEO Ed van Zijl go back twenty years. Ed was doing business out of his one-man office when Arjen showed up on his doorstep, with Ayreon’s debut album The Final Experiment in hand. They didn’t ink a deal that day, but both parties are extremely pleased to say that as of 2016, Music Theories Recordings (part of Mascot Label Group) is Ayreon’s new home.

AYREON is in a class of its own. You might call Lucassen’s Ayreon studio albums “rock operas.” Or, to be more precise, you may prefer a description like, “ambitious studio projects combining progressive rock, metal, and folk over intricate storylines, brought to life by countless famous guest singers from all over the world.” But no matter how you categorize it, the AYREON album collection offers highly creative rock music with a quality in composition and production rarely heard in the last twenty years.

Ten years with hardrock band Vengeance brought Lucassen recognition in not just the Netherlands, but in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, the UK and the USA, as well. When he started writing and recording on his own in the early 90s, it was the funding of a Japanese record label that got the ball rolling. The Final Experiment was AYREON’s first album, released in the Netherlands in 1995 by start-up label Transmission Records. It set the tone for the project, with intricate sci-fi/fantasy storytelling and timeless progressive rock featuring a line-up of world class vocalists and musicians, including Barry Hay (Golden Earring), an-Chris de Koeijer (Gorefest), and Kingdom Come’s Lenny Wolf.

The follow-up, Actual Fantasy (1996), turned out to be a relatively modest production, but the phenomenal reception of these first AYREON albums exposed Lucassen to world-famous singers and instrumentalists like Fish (Marillion), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Devin Townsend, James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Neal Morse (Flying Colors, Spock’s Beard), Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil), John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia), Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth, Bloodbath), Ty Tabor (King’s X, The Jelly Jam), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Michael Romeo and Russell Allen (Symphony X), Steve Hackett (Genesis), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Alice Cooper), Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), and Rick Wakeman (Yes). Besides Lucassen himself, virtuoso drummer Ed Warby (Gorefest, Hail of Bullets, The 11th Hour) is the only other constant member of AYREON.

Into The Electric Castle was released to critical acclaim in 1998, and the album went on to sell over 100.000 copies. The twin albums Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer and Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator (2000) proved that Lucassen was not afraid to take AYREON to yet another level of larger-than-life creativity. With The Human Equation (2004), Lucassen turned away from his earlier sci-fi themes to explore the realm of human emotions. The Human Equation was adapted for stage and performed in 2015 by a cast that included almost everybody from the original album. In 2007, Arjen returned to the sci-fi concept and linked all of the previous AYREON albums together, musically as well as lyrically, on 01011001. The album features no less than 17 vocalists.

The Theory of Everything (2013) again received rave reviews around the world and, like its predecessors, sold remarkably well in a time when few progressive rock acts manage to rise above the crowd. The album was released after a five-year break in which Lucassen concentrated on other projects, including Guilt Machine’s album On This Perfect Day, which was released on Mascot Records in 2009. The recording – quite a departure from AYREON’s bombastic approach – attracted a very dedicated audience of its own.

Some years later, a few AYREON albums were released on vinyl and, according to Lucassen, “sold really well. That’s when I realized that fans of Guilt Machine would probably appreciate a vinyl release too.” By 2014, Lucassen met with Mascot’s Ed van Zijl again. “I asked him if he would be interested in releasing Guilt Machine on vinyl, and he immediately said yes,” explained Van Zijl. “It took months to figure out the details of the packaging and the extras, and then manufacture it. The fans were ecstatic! The first pressing was sold out online in just a few hours in June of 2015. Then Mascot decided to press more colours and black vinyl, as well.”

Obviously the two started discussing Lucassen’s other projects as well. When the topic of AYREON came up, Ed van Zijl offered Lucassen a deal he couldn’t refuse… or could he? It took Lucassen six months to decide: “At first I didn’t feel the urge to change labels. But in the back of my mind was the feeling that I really liked the atmosphere and the people at Mascot. This Dutch company, close by, just felt good.” The idea of trying something new finally tipped the scales: “Ed simply said yes to everything I asked for! Plus, it was time for a fresh new start.”

AYREON studio albums on Music Theories Recordings:

The Final Experiment
Actual Fantasy
Into the Electric Castle
Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer
Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator
The Human Equation
01011001

Source: Bravewords.com

AYREON mastermind Arjen Lucassen has issued the following message:

“Dear Ayreonauts, thanks so much to all of you for making The Theory of Everything such a success! Anyone with the patience to sit through four epic 20+ minute tracks in one sitting without their head exploding deserves an amazing 2014. Happy New Year from me, Lori and of course Hoshi… the true ruler of the Electric Castle.”

Lucassen recently uploaded guide vocal versions of ‘Phase 1: Singularity’, ‘Phase II: Symmetry’, ‘Phase III: Entanglement’, and ‘Phase IV: Unification’. These versions were sent to the singers who sang on their latest album, The Theory Of Everything, which was released October 28th on InsideOut Music. These versions are ones featuring Wilmer Waarbroek.

‘Phase 1: Singularity’:

‘Phase II: Symmetry’:

‘Phase III: Entanglement’:

‘Phase IV: Unification’:

The Theory Of Everything is available in the following formats:

– Ltd. Deluxe Artbook (2CD, DVD + Bonus 2CD) includes a 48-page perfect binding LP-sized book with plenty of artwork, the bonus DVD with a making of feature, full length interviews and the recording session time lapse footage and in addition all tracks as instrumental versions on 2CDs
– Special Edition 2CD+DVD Mediabook
– Gatefold black 2LP+2CD incl. Booklet with additional artwork
– Standard 2CD Jewelcase
– Digital Download

Lineup:

Vocalists (in order of appearance):
JB (GRAND MAGUS) as The Teacher
Sara Squadrani (ANCIENT BARDS) as The Girl
Michael Mills (TOEHIDER ) as The Father
Cristina Scabbia (LACUNA COIL) as The Mother
Tommy Karevik (KAMELOT, SEVENTH WONDER) as The Prodigy
Marko Hietala (NIGHTWISH) as The Rival
John Wetton (ASIA, KING CRIMSON) as The Psychiatrist

Instrumentalists:

Ed Warby – drums
Rick Wakeman (YES) – keyboards
Keith Emerson (EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER) – keyboards
Jordan Rudess (DREAM THEATER) – keyboards
Steve Hackett (GENESIS) – lead guitar
Troy Donockley (BAD SHEPHERDS, NIGHTWISH) – Uilleann pipes and low flute
Arjen Anthony Lucassen -electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, mandolin and keyboards.

BraveWords’ review of The Theory Of Everything can be found here.

‘The Theory Of Everything’:

Official album trailer: