STEPAN PROJECT

Crossover Prog • Romania

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Stepan Project biography
Ilie Stepan was born on November 24, 1953, in Caransebes, Romania and is one of the great legends of Romanian rock. Not only a fine composer, guitarist, instrumentalist, arranger and author - he is also a radio and television producer - and producer of film and theatre music, as well as other artistic projects. Founder of the group Pro Musica, whose first performance was in January 1973 - and the author of one of the most impressive songs of the Romanian Revolution "Timisoara" - he was also an active member of the group Progress TM from 1975 to 1977, playing bass and acoustic guitar.

He reorganized Pro Musica in 1978, orientating it towards progressive rock influences and Balkan national ethos.

STEPAN PROJECT:

Ilie Stepan established the group 'Stepan Project' to work on the musical project "Trilogia Sensului Vieţii" (A trilogy called "The Meaning of Life"), which included "Sensul Vieţii" (Meaning of Life), the CD for which appeared in 1996, "Undeva �n Europa." (Somewhere in Europe .), which appeared as a double CD in 2001, and "Lumina" (Light), a lavish triple CD and DVD box set, which was finally issued in 2012.

The launch performance of the first part of the trilogy, "Sensul Vieţii", released in 1996, was attended by 24 invited musicians from folk, pop-rock, jazz-rock, classical and folklore, alongside musicians from Ilie's former band Pro Musica. In addition to the traditional rock instruments, the group used a variety of other more esoteric instruments. "Sensul Vieţii" was nominated in all Romanian rankings for 1996, and was named as the disc of the year by Panoramic TV.

The double CD "Undeva �n Europa." continued the concept behind "Sensul Vieţii". Launched on the Internet in the first second of 2001, the music video for the track "Lumina" signified the first signs of the new millennium on a planetary scale, and the album itself contains 22 tracks in total, covering 130 minutes of music. Along with Ilie Stepan himself, over 30 musicians are used. The album took three and a half years to make and a launch 'megaconcert' was held on 31 December 2006, occasioned by the accession of Romania to the European Union, and performed in front of over 100,000 spectators.

"Lumina" itself contains three CDs and a booklet of 80 pages, and took 11 years to complete, finally closing the trilogy. It is indeed a great epic fusion, with 33 tracks on three CDs, 3 bonus tracks, 7 slideshows, 3 videos, 2 c...Ilie Stepan was born on November 24, 1953, in Caransebes, Romania and is one of the great legends of Romanian rock. Not only a fine composer, guitarist, instrumentalist, arranger and author - he is also a radio and television producer - and producer of film and theatre music, as well as other artistic projects. Founder of the group Pro Musica, whose first performance was in January 1973 - and the author of one of the most impressive songs of the Romanian Revolution "Timisoara" - he was also an active member of the group Progress TM from 1975 to 1977, playing bass and acoustic guitar.

He reorganized Pro Musica in 1978, orientating it towards progressive rock influences and Balkan national ethos.

STEPAN PROJECT:

Ilie Stepan established the group 'Stepan Project' to work on the musical project "Trilogia Sensului Vieţii" (A trilogy called "The Meaning of Life"), which included "Sensul Vieţii" (Meaning of Life), the CD for which appeared in 1996, "Undeva �n Europa." (Somewhere in Europe .), which appeared as a double CD in 2001, and "Lumina" (Light), a lavish triple CD and DVD box set, which was finally issued in 2012.

The launch performance of the first part of the trilogy, "Sensul Vieţii", released in 1996, was attended by 24 invited musicians from folk, pop-rock, jazz-rock, classical and folklore, alongside musicians from Ilie's former band Pro Musica. In addition to the traditional rock instruments, the group used a variety of other more esoteric instruments. "Sensul Vieţii" was nominated in all Romanian rankings for 1996, and was named as the disc of the year by Panoramic TV.

The double CD "Undeva �n Europa." continued the concept behind "Sensul Vieţii". Launched on the Internet in the first second of 2001, the music video for the track "Lumina" signified the first signs of the new millennium on a planetary scale, and the album itself contains 22 tracks in total, covering 130 minutes of music. Along with Ilie Stepan himself, over 30 musicians are used. The album took three and a half years to make and a launch 'megaconcert' was held on 31 December 2006, occasioned by the accession of Romania to the European Union, and performed in front of over 100,000 spectators.

"Lumina" itself contains three CDs and a booklet of 80 pages, and took 11 years to complete, finally closing the trilogy. It is indeed a great epic fusion, with 33 tracks on three CDs, 3 bonus tracks, 7 slideshows, 3 videos, 2 concert recordings on landscape DVD, with 5.1 Surround Sound (the first Romanian DVD to feature this). In total it contains five and a half hours music. Dozens of instruments were used once again, from the archaic (leaf, bagpipes, dulcimer, cobza, violin trumpet, chop, taragot, pipe) to the more typical modern rock instruments. Not only musicians, but painters, photographers, graphic artists, filmmakers and writers were employed. This final part of the project also included Bards, religious choirs, opera singers, musicians from the world of folk, pop, rock and jazz, as well as specialists in electronic and computer music. The official release concert took place in Timisoara in the Great Hall of the Council of CJTimis, on 20th November 2012, under the title "Extraordinary Concert Ilie Stepan, Dietrich Krauser, Horia Crisovan and their guests." At one point of the concert members of Ilie's former group group Pro Musica were on stage together for the first time in 18 years. read more