LOST IN THE NEW REAL

Arjen Anthony Lucassen is a Dutch songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Arjen started his career in 1980 in the Dutch band Bodine. His next band was Vengeance, a band formed in 1984. Arjen considers his time with them quite enjoyable. He had more freedom to do what he wanted and compose songs. After a successful tour in 1992, Arjen parted from Vengeance. A few years later, in 1995, Arjen released an album titled "Ayreon: The Final Experiment", in which he sang, wrote every song and played most of the instruments. The album leads to the creation of the extremely successful project Ayreon, which established him as a notable composer of rock operas. Following Ayreon's success, Arjen has been involved in many other projects. He is the creator of Star One, Guilt Machine, The Gentle Storm, the currently inactive band Ambeon, and of Stream Of Passion. In 2012, Arjen released "Lost In The New Real", his first solo album since "Pools Of Sorrow" and "Waves Of Joy". On "Lost In The New Real" he sang all leading vocals, wrote all lyrics and played almost all instruments. The album is better than his two first attempts as a solo artist.

The line up on "Lost In The New Real" is, besides Arjen Anthony Lucassen (vocals and instruments), Rutger Hauer (narration), Wilmer Waarbroek (backing vocals), Ben Mathot (violin), Maaike Peterse (cello), Jeroen Goossens (flute), Liesbeth De Weer (vocals and Hammered dulcimer), Ed Warby (drums) and Rob Snijders /drums).

"Lost In The New Real" is an album with two disks. The first one is a loose concept album and the second one feature songs that tie into the story but couldn't quite be worked in chronologically, as well as a selection of classic rock covers that are tangentially related to the themes of the story. It gives us an insight into how Lucassen tackles music by other people. His covers of Pink Floyd, Blue Oyster Cult, The Alan Parsons Project, Led Zeppelin and Frank Zappa are second to none. So, Lucassen proves himself in one more different role. The man is really a gifted and talented person.

The story of the concept follows the thoughts of a man known simply as Mr. L who, after being cryogenically frozen to prevent his body from succumbing to an incurable disease, awakens several generations into the future. After being cured, he comes down with the world's worst case of culture shock, and the story follows how he deals with the progress and changes, for both better and worse, that humanity has made. To help him deal with being thrown without foothold into this vastly different reality, he is assigned a shrink named Voight Kampff, played by none other than the also Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. Those of you more film literate no doubt already picked up on the film "Blade Runner".

"Lost In The New Real" isn't really wandering too far afield for this prolific Dutchman. I think that anyone who is a fan of the man's previous works will hear immediately who it is that has written this music. But, what Lucassen seems to be going for here is a strange and very referential mix of the melodic progressive rock with all the music and culture European, primarily English, but also American. Not counting the five covers on disc two, including of Led Zeppelin's classic "Battle Of Evermore", the references to the 60's and 70's rock are very thick, making of it a very eclectic album.

Musically, the first disc shows that Lucassen has lost none of his potency when it comes to writing strong and memorable music. There are lots of cool synth lines and guitar solos. But Lucassen is also able to surprise with a more back to basics approach. Thus, he honours us with moments of folk and Medieval music and even pop. In any case, the man doesn't shy away from any challenge and it came off for him marvelously, displaying his amazing ability to turn just about anything into gold. Besides the standard space rock influences we've grown accustomed to with Lucassen's projects, we are treated to a variety of other styles as well, like folk and Medieval music, pop, hard rock, metal and so on, as if this whole science fiction concept album was a tribute to the music of the past this traveler in time came from.

Conclusion: All in all, "Lost In The New Real" is really a wonderful conceptual album, a great mix of all of Lucassen's sounds, and a worthy follow-up to Ayreon, Star One and Guilt Machine. This is a very solid album from start to finish, full of inspired moments. The album is serious in its intention and execution, but Lucassen has a lot of fun with the music as well, making several amusing references to the music we all know and love. Aside from the dated references, "Lost In The New Real" is a remarkably enjoyable prog rock album from one of the brightest musical minds of our generation, highly recommended nearly and instantly as a classic album worthy of carrying on Lucassen's huge musical legacy. Whichever name he decides to go he can usually be relied upon to deliver the goods. The man still has the magic touch and we can only hope to hear more new music from him sooner rather than later. A special reference to Hauer's fantastic voice. Man, that guy had a great voice. A final mention should also go to the beautiful hardback book style packaging with Claudio Bergamin's stunning retro sci-fi artwork perfectly capturing the mood of Lucassen's work.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Share this ARJEN ANTHONY LUCASSEN review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to VianaProghead
• Report this review (#3038385)
• Buy ARJEN ANTHONY LUCASSEN music online with PA partners
• Show all ARJEN ANTHONY LUCASSEN MP3/Stream
• Go to ARJEN ANTHONY LUCASSEN page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Lost In The New Real page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ARJEN ANTHONY LUCASSEN related discussions