New Advent

[interbellum]

Haven't seen any recent news about the coming Advent-CD, so I thought I start a thread with the news posted on Alan's site last month:

New album update
by ALAN on MAY 18, 2015
After some unexpected delays, the band is very happy to report that 11 of the new album’s 14 tracks are now fully mixed. It’s also a great pleasure to announce that the new album will, once again, feature cover art by the very talented Michael Phipps. Additionally, the group has already reengaged Bob Katz to provide his state-of-the-art mastering services for the 77-minute release. If all goes as planned, the new CD is expected to be out in July. Further updates to come shortly.

http://www.adventmusic.net/archives/309

[rickawakeman]

Great news! I was a late-comer to the first and only album, picked it up when I saw the band at MarProg at Toad's a few years back, then had the pleasure of seeing the band again at the NJ Proghouse Homecoming weekend.

[gflorio]

Cantus Firmus is Advent's 2nd release, they have a self-titled release from the mid 90's as well that is also very good. Given their pattern of releasing discs every 9-10 years I figure we'll see the new one shortly. When it comes it'll be an auto-buy for sure.

[Adv3MP]

I'm finishing mixing on the last tune left, and that should be done by next weekend. After that, we'll be sending to Bob for mastering starting the week after that. Sorry for the long gap between albums, but a few of us had some difficult personal issues over the past few years that made delays unavoidable.

Anyway, the good news is (if you're the type to consider this good news), the disc will be offering almost a double album's worth of material. And that material, to my mind, is some of the best we've ever done - so you're in for one helluva musical ride, if I do say so myself. All of us in the band are really looking forward to this release….we've put so much of ourselves into it, and all members performed so wonderfully. We sincerely hope you'll enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it. (Pretty sure it's looking like an August release, btw, but Alan can weigh in on those details when they're more readily available).

Thanks for the continued interest. It's comforting to know there are still people out there waiting to hear this stuff. That's really touching…

Best,
Mark

[interbellum]

Thanks Mark for the update.

I'm glad you've choosen Michael again for the cover. Really love what he did on "Cantus Firmus". The details are showed on his site: http://www.michaelphipps.net/advent-cantus-firmus.html

[Adv3MP]

Yes, Michael is an EXTREMELY talented artist, and we are all champing at the bit to see his finished cover art, which should be just about any day now. We loved his CF cover, and I've seen glimpses of some of his work since then……really astonishing.

[AdventAlan]

Greetings,

Thanks a lot for the thread, Rene--as well as the other kind feedback guys! As Mark said, we are definitely in the home stretch with only half of the last song left to finish mixing. Even though we've suffered through some additional unexpected delays (since I updated the website), I think we may still have a reasonably good chance of having the CDs in our hands by the very end of July--or, if not, most likely sometime in August. In the interim, for those who haven't seen or heard any previews, here are two YouTube clips that we hope you'll enjoy:


An old one from a couple of years back, featuring a near-complete mix of the tune that finishes our 24-minute "split suite" for which the album will be titled


A "behind-the-scenes" rehearsal clip from the first time Greg and I practiced the beginning of the suite's opening track (warts and all)

Take care and thanks again,


Alan

[progeezer]

Oy! Another album to (auto) buy!

At my age I should stop buying music entirely and just listen to the vast collection I already have.

Yeah, that'll happen.

Congrats on fruition being in sight, Alan & Mark.

[Fracktured]

Excellent news. Auto buy for me. Loved the first one. Time to give it another spin.

[3RDegree_Robert]

Is the 77 minutes all "interconnected" or part of a concept? If not could you have put out 40 minutes of it in say....2011?

[Adv3MP]

I don't know if it's a concept album, per say. But there is definitely a common theme running throughout most of it (musically & lyrically) --- time - the measuring of it, how one uses it, wastes it, the lack of it, how you can't get it back (much to your consternation), etc. We wanted the subject to be timeless, so we picked….time, lol. Don't think releasing it midway thru woulda made sense. It's more of a complete thought this way.

(And so I can beat you to the punch, yes, it's about time. )

[3RDegree_Robert]

I ask because we had a situation recently where we had a 74 minute album and we just thought 1. so many people can't get past 50 minutes in a sitting and 2. we take long to release albums and you can't really charge much more just because an album is long so...

...we cut it down to 50:30 and now have 24:00 toward a part two of a 2 part album. Now we just have to write/record/mix/master 25-30 minutes of music!

[No Pride]

Auto-buy for me too; can't wait to hear it!

[Scott Bails]

(And so I can beat you to the punch, yes, it's about time. )

Sounds like a great album title.

[Koreabruce]

This is great news! I'll be in the U.S. at that time, so... fingers crossed... I'll be looking to pick me up a copy o' that just as soon as it's hot off the presses!

[AdventAlan]

Hi again,

Thanks very much for all the kind words!

I don't know if it's a concept album, per say. But there is definitely a common theme running throughout most of it (musically & lyrically) --- time - the measuring of it, how one uses it, wastes it, the lack of it, how you can't get it back (much to your consternation), etc. We wanted the subject to be timeless, so we picked….time, lol. Don't think releasing it midway thru woulda made sense. It's more of a complete thought this way.

(And so I can beat you to the punch, yes, it's about time. )

Our original target was actually about 40-50 minutes for the album, but it ended up growing to over 77 minutes before we realized it. As Mark stated, it's not really a concept album, but there is quite a bit of content that ties much of the album together (the details being more obvious in some ways than others)--so I'd almost say it's actually sort of a hybrid in this regard. Also, to add to Mark's list about the overarching theme, I'd say that the perception and distortion of time are also particularly relevant as well.

We really can't wait to share it with you all and very much hope that you'll enjoy the results!

All the best,


Alan

[Supersonic Scientist]

As stated by others....AUTO-BUY !

...July release?...just in time as a birthday present to myself !!

[Adv3MP]

Sounds like a great album title.

Don't tempt us....lol.

[interbellum]

At my age I should stop buying music entirely and just listen to the vast collection I already have.

Yeah, that'll happen.

I started telling me this when I hit the 2500 mark, the 4000 and recently the 5000. I even sold some albums I had an older version of. Then I thought, at 50 years I stop buying.... 55 now and still counting

[bill g]

Oy! Another album to (auto) buy!

At my age I should stop buying music entirely and just listen to the vast collection I already have.

Yeah, that'll happen.

Congrats on fruition being in sight, Alan & Mark.

Funny, I've run out of room for additional cds so I started going through my collection to see what I can purge, and was shocked at the number of really good cds that I completely forgot I had. I had even purchased music I already had And then, I was surprised by how few cds I was actually willing to part with!

The new Advent is going to be really special. Can't wait to spend an evening soaking in every cranked note and wallowing in the passion and power of compositional profundity

[progeezer]

Funny, I've run out of room for additional cds so I started going through my collection to see what I can purge, and was shocked at the number of really good cds that I completely forgot I had. I had even purchased music I already had And then, I was surprised by how few cds I was actually willing to part with!

That post could have been written by me, word for word!

[bill g]

That post could have been written by me, word for word!

What is that saying about great minds?

[Scrotum Scissor]

Looking forward to this.

[HilltopMan]

Great news, roll on July

[AdventAlan]

Hi again,

Thanks so much for all the additional encouragement, guys!

All the best,


Alan