RESISTOR has been busy working on the new album, titled "To the Stars". We're months behind our original schedule, but we're getting fantastic results. I think you'll agree it's worth the wait when it comes out early next year. We've got all but two tunes recorded, and the last two tunes are fully written; we're just rehearsing them now so we get killer takes for the album. The audio textures and vocals of "Rise" return for this album, but it's in no way a rehash of previous stuff... I suppose I could say that if you loved "Rise", you'll probably love "To the Stars", but there are lots of musical surprises, experiments, and adventures in store.
I'm about 95% done with the stereo mix of our RoSFest show. Mike Potter of Orion Studios got a great clean multitrack recording for us, we're very happy with how we played that day, and I've put a ton of work into mixing and polishing the sound so it leaps out of your stereo speakers. I imagine we'll make a CD of the show; the audio is certainly worthy of the album treatment.
I mentioned a while back that I had written a 15-minute tune for the upcoming Colossus Lovecraft project. That large project (a 3-CD set) is in the final stages of production now, and should be on the market within a couple of months. Like other Colossus/Musea collaborations, the packaging is amazing. I was honored to be asked to select the track running order, and that was a fun job! It also turns out that our track, performed with the Samurai of Prog and special guest Lalo Huber of Nexus, was requested by the project coordinator to be the first track, also an honor. I don't know what was in the water when bands were writing music for this project, but this project is filled with amazing music. If you're a fan of weird-sci stories a-la Twilight Zone, X-Files and Fringe, and you love progressive rock, this project is NOT TO BE MISSED. My favorite of all the Colossus projects so far.
I'm playing violin and flute on the new Willowglass album. You can find info on Willowglass at this link:
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1694. It's a very neat project, the style of which should appeal to fans of my solo albums, particularly the instrumental sections of Song to the Sky. I originally agreed to play two or three violin and flute parts, but fell in love with Andrew Marshall's music and wound up recording violin and flute throughout almost the entire thing. I'm about 80% done with my parts, and am really looking forward to seeing how this album comes together in the coming months, especially if the artwork is as good as the previous Willowglass CDs.
We're wrapping up the new Samurai of Prog album. This is our second album of progressive rock cover tunes. It's like our first album, but better! We've amplified the musical creativity with lots of unique twists and additions to the compositions, and our guest artist roster is amazing... the album includes major contributions from Jon Davison (Yes), Roine Stolt (Flower Kings), Phideaux Xavier, Mark Trueack (Unitopia), Guy LeBlanc (Camel), Robert Webb (England), Linus Kåse (Anglagaard), David Myers (The Musical Box)... and more!
I'm slated to play violin on the new Unitopia album. This came about because Unitopia front man Mark Trueack sings on one of our Samurai of Prog songs, on which I play violin. Mark heard and loved my violin playing and asked if I'd be interested to play on their new epic, to which my answer - obvious to anyone familiar with Unitopia - was of course, "yes!".
Whew... and that's it! I'm not taking on any new musical projects for a few months while I get these all under wraps. Then I'm sure it'll be a few live shows with RESISTOR, some promotional stuff when these new albums all start getting released, and who then knows what else. Only time will tell!
-Steve
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