David Hentschel to produce "Art in America" album

I see Art in America are included on this site in the Symphonic Prog category. Do you expect the new album to be of that type, or will it be a different style? 

Easy Livin wrote: I see Art in America are included on this site in the Symphonic Prog category. Do you expect the new album to be of that type, or will it be a different style?    When will the album be released?   I see the biography on this site says the band were "finishing an album for release in 2006". Is this essentially the same album? If not, what happened to that release?

This tuneage has an updated sensibility and sound. The harp, per Mr Hentshcel will be featured on this record as opposed to being part of the fabric of the instrumental back-up.  We have been knee-deep these past 2 weeks Skyping with D.H. and working out harp parts and arrangements. If I had to categorize the writing, I would say it ranges from pop-prog to full out progressive,  at least to these ears.  I realize that these days , these are tightly defined formats, and I can honestly say that is MY interpretation of the style.  Calling us "Symphonic Prog" was certainly not my moniker, but as an avid listener and classical music collector, I am happy to embrace it. Song lengths range from 4 or 5 minutes to 7 to 9 minutes.  Lyric content ranges from very dark to melancholy to hopeful to extensive Lewis Carroll type word play.

I do have some full band demos and personal demos up on the www.myspace.com/artinamerica website for those of you that can deal with that snail like page.

By mid February we  fully, intend to have a web page and forum. That is included in our budget. BTW,  I do have a button link  for Progarchives.com  on my MySpace page and have these past 8 years.

The ill fated 2006 release ...sigh.... was never realized. We did however participate in the Sony Music re-issue of the 1st album and had 7 bonus tracks (2 also recorded in concert) included.  Release dates for that re-issue were 1996 and 2009.

 As the main writer for this band, I have been writing tuneage these past 20 years and I have a  full 3 records woth of tuneage (approx 50 songs)  in the can,  Two thirds of those are home demos of course and one third of them are full out band in the-studio recordings -   fully fleshed out and composed.  2 or 3 of them are up on Youtube in concert at the Troubadour.

This will most likely be a year long project.  The first stage  is being fully funded by the band. For the 2nd and end stage (final 1/2 of the record) we will obviously be seeking record label involvement,  either boutique small label,  or dare I say one of what is left of the majors.

Tony Levin is currently at work on bass parts for the first stage.  He has been tapped to play bass (he has finished his work on 3 songs).

Chris Flynn

P.S. any one wishing to contact the band, please email Shishonee, our harpist at :  [email protected]

Steve actually played the guitar solo in Undercover Lover on that record (just 1 tune).. that was when I broke my shoulder and we actually never even finished the recording.  I basically just left... Steve played the solo for us... and he did quite a bit better than I could have.  He did not want credit because he wasn't happy with his performance.  We would love to have him.

thanks Dennis.. Hope you like the record !

Thanks for the kudos on that guitar solo in The Line.  Eddy thought it was sort of a take-off on the "Ticket to Ride" main guitar part.

The bass on these 1st 6 songs was played by Tony Levin, so it's a nice fat bottom bass sound. He also played his upright electric bass on 1 song so far. I think you will be very pleased to hear the new bass work by Mr. Levin. It goes without saying that when we get the funds from a label, or we pick the money off of a money tree,  that we would like Tony to record the entire album with us.

So happy to hear there's a new album in the making, Chris! I bought the first album in '84 and one of my favorite love songs of all time is "Undercover lover". We actually did a cover of it in a band I used to play in at that time, don't think I nailed Steve's end solo quite though...

Still working on obtaining funding to continue work on this album.. We've got these 6 songs in the can... It's going very slow in finding interest.

Chris.  These new songs sound fabulous.