Life Line Project
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Topic: Life Line Project
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Life Line Project
Date Posted: October 10 2010 at 10:37
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Life Line Project is a project in the true meaning of the word. It is build around one musician, Erik de Beer, either playing all instruments himself or contracting all the necessary vocalists or players according to the needs of the work in progress. Life Line Project has just released a new album and I got in touch with Erik for the full story. =======================================================
Your
biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let's
bypass the biography details. But which bands were you influenced by
and why did you choose that name ?
When
I had finished my studies at the conservatory for music, I started
to work as a guitar and keyboard teacher at a school for music. I
also started projects for rock bands, organising rehearsal sessions,
rock concerts and we even went to recording studios to make demo
recordings. Some of these bands made it to radio broadcastings and
one could even play abroad. All material for these bands was composed
and arranged by me, but always considering the musical tastes of my
pupils and not necessarily mine. I had to write songs that had little
or nothing to do with symphonic rock, the musical style that I have
always considered of vital importance to me. Many of my pupils could
start a musical career in their own style, but I still remained empty
handed. So in 1988 I once more started to record symphonic rock
compositions, playing all instruments myself as a sort of Life Line
towards my musical roots. For the vocal parts I looked for the
appropriate people and I worked with them in a project form, thus the
name LIFE LINE PROJECT was born. Composers
who have been important for my musical development are Antonio
Vivaldi and his fluent style of writing, Hector Berlioz and his
inventiveness both in compositions and arranging, Arthur Honegger
and Francis Poulenc for the sheer beauty of their compositions. My
preference for keyboard orientated symphonic rock was aroused by
keyboard players like
Jürgen Fritz (Triumvirat), Rick van der Linden (Trace) and of course
Keith Emerson, although I always preferred bands who displayed a
beautiful collective, both in band playing and compositions. A
composition must never be enslaved by vain virtuosity. Virtuosity
without a cause isn’t what I’m looking for. If the beauty of a
theme requires virtuosity, so be it. Therefore I have always admired
albums like “Song Of The Marching Children” (Earth & Fire),
“Le Petit Violon de Mr. Grégoire” (Mona Lisa) and “Storia di
un Minuto” (P.F.M.). I think this sort of albums have determined my
musical direction.
Please
tell us more about your previous bands Brancard and Zoundworks.
After
having played in a band that didn’t practise that hard, I wanted
something that was more challenging. When I met bass player Ruud
Slakhorst in
1979, we decided to start a trio, consisting of
keyboards/bass-vocals/drums. We did auditions for a drummer and with
King van der Rassel the band was completed. I played on lots of
keyboards, among which two Moog synthesizers, an ARP Pro-Soloist, a
Kawai 100F, a huge Viscount drawbar organ, a Hohner electric piano,
bass pedals and a Solina String Ensemble. In some pieces like “I
Miss You More” I also played the classical guitar. Our music was a
bit like U.K., but a bit more symphonic. Because of that more
symphonic sound we had to look for a second keyboard player, so we
could create a more massive sound on stage. Brancard never really
brought what I hoped for and after having lived through several line
up changes, I decided to quit myself in 1982. The band went on for
another couple of years and they even recorded an official demo,
containing five songs, of which I wrote one. In 1985 the other
members decided to call it a day as well.
When
I left Brancard, I started to record songs with a female singer,
Ankie Jansen, under the name of ZOUNDWORKS.
The music was, though very electronic, quite symphonic with a touch
of New Wave caused by the sometimes Nina Hagen like talents of Ankie
(she had a classical trained voice but later on finished her studies
at the conservatory for rock & jazz music). After Ankie’s
departure I still made an instrumental demo under the name of
Zoundworks, called “Without Tears” on which more jazz-rock
influences were notable.
Then I started to
work as a fulltime teacher at the Rotterdam School for Music and for
a couple of years I couldn’t find the time to make symphonic rock
(until 1988).
Please
also tell us more about Tempesta Consort
My
working with Life Line Project is divided in two parts, from 1988 to
1995 and from 2003 up to the present time. In between I worked for
eight years with a baroque orchestra, I formed in 1996.
Our purpose was to record and perform principally unknown or lesser
known compositions by forgotten masters of the baroque, although we
also did lots of recordings of never performed pieces by Antonio
Vivaldi. Afterwards I wrote articles on their possible authenticity,
or I proved them to be forgeries. Most of the compositions we worked
on, don’t exist in print, so you have to work from 18th
century manuscripts, transcribing them to modern notation. Sometimes
early prints could be found. The basso continuo parts (the
accompanying harpsichord parts) had to be formed over a figured bass
line. The difficulty was, that you couldn’t just listen to other
people playing the same piece, in order to get an idea of how it
would sound. You just had to imagine how it would sound, only by
looking at the scores. Of course I had been trained to do so, but
still I learned a lot of making this manuscripts audible and of
making harpsichord parts for other people’s compositions. Most of
these manuscripts were provided by musea and by university libraries. With
the orchestra, which consisted in its largest form of 29 players, we
played as much as possible on authentic instruments. I for example
used a copy of a 1635 chitarrone, a 1761 baroque guitar and a lute.
My wife Elsa played a transverse
flute made after a 1720 model, while Dineke, also a member of the
present time Life Line Project line up, played on several 18th
century oboes, like the oboe d’amore.
With
the Tempesta Consort we made over sixty cd’s and apart from baroque
music we also recorded several cd’s containing renaissance dance
music and
even some with music by 20th
century modern composers.
Working
with the Tempesta Consort I have learned a lot of new things. Working
in recording sessions and on stage with an orchestra requires a
different approach than working with a rock group. Furthermore my
musical insight developed a lot in these years. But the call of
symphonic rock became stronger and stronger and so in 2003 I picked
up the progressive thread again. For my new projects I could call
upon lots of well-trained baroque musicians as well.
Am
I right to say that Life Line Project is a studio project which
includes you and hired in musicians or is Life Line Project a band ?
Life
Line Project is mainly a studio project, although in particular
during the nineties we did lots of concerts with several live
formations (Beyond Time contains some of the live recordings of that
time). Most concerts were done with my first singer Anja Dirkzwager.
We still have to try to refurbish some of the
video stuff made in that period. During
the first period I played all instruments myself, with only singers
participating in the project. The last album in that line was “Time
Out” with singer Marion Stroetinga.
Since
2003 I have
always recorded with a complete band. After having worked with an
orchestra I felt the need of working with a complete band, because
that way your music gets more alive and you have a constant feedback
with the other musicians. The present line up could well perform at
concerts if it weren’t for me getting ill in 2006, making touring
more difficult. I try to push the other band members to compose as
well. Up to now only guitarist Jason has delivered five excellent
compositions.  Let's
go straight to the first album. Please tell us more about Beyond Time
from 1994
Chronology
in our albums has always been a bit difficult. Recorded in 1994,
Beyond Time
is the oldest album to be officially released, but it is actually the
sixth album we produced after “Life Line” (1988), “Deadline”
(1989), “Headlines” (1990), “Journey To The Heart Of Your Mind”
(1990), “Duplo” (1991) and “The Final Word” (1993). All these
albums didn’t surpass the demo-stadium, although most of them have
been reviewed in several progrock magazines, The Journey and Duplo
being the most successful ones. Duplo even sold hundreds of cassette
copies.
Beyond
Time is the first completely instrumental album. When I started it I
wanted to make the most symphonic album ever and in fact it became my
most “old
school” symphonic rock-album with practically no interferences from
other musical styles, some of the compositions already made in 1976.
The album was recorded on eight analogue tracks, so I had to do
several in-between-mixes to maintain enough recording space. For the
official release I added two well succeeded live recordings of the
same year, played with one of the many changing line ups of that
time.  Please
tell us more about your second album Modinha from 2008
When
put properly Modinha is our second latest album, being recorded after
The Finnishing Touch. I was learning
Portuguese at that time and I was heavily influenced by the beauty of
“Mar Morto”, a book by Brazilian author Jorge Amado. In that book
a blind negro is constantly singing a haunting Modinha (a melancholic
song) and in my head a melody was forming every time I read that book
and that theme became the actual main theme of the completely
instrumental Modinha album. This theme is returning in different
forms in several compositions of the album. The first version on the
album is exactly the version I heard in my head when reading the
book. The theme returns in different styles, ranging from jazz to
classic to symphonic and even to metal and folk in the final version.
The
album is saturated with Moog solo’s and the biting guitar leads by
Jason, the oboe and flute maintaining the feeling of sadness put by
the main theme. Modinha is one of the albums I enjoyed most when
recording and rehearsing it. It felt really good playing the piano
solo in the jazz
intermezzo and it gave me a true kick playing the Moog solo’s in
Keeper of the Keys, a song dedicated to Bob Moog.
Modinha was the
first album to be officially released and thanks to the way it was
received in particular by ProgArchives it could become a starting
point for a line of (up to now five) albums.  Please
tell us more about your third album The Finnishing Touch from 2009
The
Finnishing Touch, in chronology
the third official release, is the most jazz-rock orientated album.
The actual line up with bass player Iris Sagan and guitarists Jason
Eekhout and Jody van der Gijze had just been formed. After the
recording of the epic album “The KING”, during which I thought I
would die of a terminal disease, I strongly felt the need for a
change in our musical direction. Like
on Modinha, I
used a central theme, this time an anonymous Finnish folksong, which
evolutes throughout the album from classic to jazz to symphonic to
metal. Apart from the jazz-rock influenced pieces in which in
particular guitarist Jason displays his skills, the album contains
new versions of some of the compositions of the Brancard and the
Zoundworks periods, the Brancard compositions being the most
symphonic pieces on the album. Thanks
to the beautiful cover by Helen van der Weck and the nomination for
Progawards “The Finnishing Touch” was very well received in all
magazines and
on most Progrock sites. In musical respect the album was really a
step forward.
 Please
tell us more about your fourth album The King from 2009
The
history of The King is the most dramatic of my musical history.
Originally conceived in 1978 and played with my first band J.S.
Quasar, it has lived through lots of changes in which it grew
steadily. The second version was made in 1983 with Zoundworks. In
1990, recorded on “Headlines”, The King already reached 23
minutes. After
having made new recordings of “The Journey” (2004) and “Duplo”
(2005), I wanted to make the definite version of the King. I thought
I had only months to live left, because medics diagnosed I had a
fully disseminated cancer and I wanted The King to be my musical
testament. Most
of the other band members knowing of my disease, recording “The
King” was at times very emotional. In between recordings I still
had to be operated, or I had to undergo exhausting medical tests. The
story of
The King is a condemnation of all abuse of religion and democracy to
establish a totalitarian government. I completed the up to then
fragmentary story line and I used the music to underline the lyrics,
I used for example a gospel like tune to symbolise the madness of
religious fanaticism. A renaissance-like dance is used as an example
for culture, disdained by the dictator to be. Art and culture being
driving forces behind individuality, are things a dictator cannot
tolerate.
Like
on “The Journey” and on “Duplo” the vocals are provided by
the more folk orientated voice of Maruschka Kartosonto and the more
aggressive way of
singing by Peter van der Stel personifying the King. In arrangements
The King is the most elaborate album, using a wide ranged woodwind
section with lots of recorders, flute, oboe, clarinets and bassoon.
The album is extremely symphonic, containing only some folk elements.
In the arrangements I could use everything I learned working with the
Tempesta Consort. In spots also instruments like the chitarrones, the
baroque guitar and the lute can be heard. When
we had finished recording “Is This The End”, of which I was
convinced it was to be my last song, the doctors changed their
diagnosis into sarcoïdose, another disseminated disease of the
lymphatic system. Of course we were all happy with the new diagnosis,
but with death having been so close this required a complete new
attitude to life. My wife got into a severe depression after stress
suffered during what we both thought my last months and I couldn’t
put myself to doing anything with the recordings. Finally I started
working with a new band on what would become “The Finnishing Touch”
and finally after three years in which I was encouraged by internet
critics Massimo Salari and Carlos Vaz, I made a definite mix down and
mastering of the King and we published it. The album was very well
received and up to now it is our best selling album.
 Please
tell us more about your brand new album Distorted Memories
To
me Distorted Memories has become the ideal synthesis of the symphonic
sound of the older Life Line Project and the more modern jazz-rock
and metal based sound of the later albums. I think it has once more
become a very symphonic album with elaborated melodic themes
alternated with the necessary tempo changes and more complicated
solo’s. After two completely instrumental albums there are again
three songs with vocals, once more provided by the gentle voice of
Maruschka. In fact, I don’t think our music would be suited for too
pushy vocals, because the music itself is already very extensive, so
I think the modest simplicity of Maruschka’s voice is ideal for our
music. Another new feature on this album is the participation of one
of the violin soloists of the Tempesta Consort, Josine Fraay, who is
playing a terrific virtuoso electric violin in some of the songs.
I
think that Distorted Memories is our best succeeded album up to now,
although it is not up to me to judge that. We all enjoyed a lot
rehearsing and recording this album and I think you should be able to
hear it in the music.
The
pieces on Distorted Memories are more elaborate than on the previous
two albums with the ten minutes lasting “Life Line Suite 2010”
and the over 13 minutes lasting “The Final Word”. The band
playing and the band sound have improved very much. I have finally my
long desired Mini-Moog and added to the Moog Little Phatty I can now
create exactly the sounds that I want to. The keyboard sounds on the
album are very vintage again and give the album a seventies’ touch.
How
is your creative processes from coming up with a theme/riff/idea to
you got it down onto an album ?
When
I have an idea for a composition I don’t immediately start playing
on an instrument. I wait until the piece has matured in my head and
is completed in all its themes and arrangements. I then write it down
and start practising it, like I would be practising someone else’s
composition. When during band rehearsing it appears that some parts
need small changes, I will make the necessary adaptations. The same
goes for Jason. He started as one of my guitar pupils when he was
only 12 years old, but now he is learning to make complete
arrangements. All Jason compositions exist in scores and parts as
well. Only the improvising solo’s over riffs are left up to the
player. Some of them are even played spontaneously in one take.
The
actual recording of the music is done in two separate stages. We
first record the drums and
the basic keyboards and guitar riffs on a mobile eight track digital
recording set. Then we transfer these recordings to a 24 track stand
alone digital recorder and we start recording the lead parts, the
woodwinds, the vocals and occasional extra’s like a tambourine or a
triangle. Then the mix down follows and finally we transfer it to cd.
All our studio equipment is hardware, we don’t use any digital
editing devices.
Just
to give those of us who are unknown with your music a bit of a
reference point or two: How would you describe your music ?
Our
departing point is still the sound of the seventies, being the time
in which I started my career in symphonic rock. We try to fill our
compositions with beautiful symphonic themes and even our improvised
solos have to lead to solid themes. I will always try to make my
music sound warm-blooded by making the arrangements as complete as
possible. We don’t use much vocal parts in our music, because the
“story” is most of the time told by the music itself. Therefore
most vocal parts are kept uncomplicated, although we often make use
of harmony vocals. I think I am right if I call I music extremely
melodic.
What
is your experience with the music industry and the new internet music
scene ?
Up
to now we have made the complete productions ourselves, sending the
master cd’s and the booklet designs to a factory. Fortunately we
have several companies, helping us distributing the cd’s, because
else wise it would be impossible to get our music distributed over
the world. Without companies like Musea France, the Swedish Record
Heaven, the Japanese Garden Shed and the incredible support of people
like Greg Walker from Synphonic it would be impossible to reach a
wider public. Most of these companies are managed by progrock lovers
or sometimes even by persons who have been playing themselves.
Of
course the internet has been one of the main reasons for the demise
of lots of record companies, cd-shops and bands, still
the net has proved its value as a source of information on all sorts
of music, making it easier getting to know new bands. Sites like
“Progarchives” and the French “Music Waves” are compensating
for the damage caused by illegal downloading, by providing often
lesser known bands with a platform to present themselves to a wide
and relevant audience. In fact, to be honest, if it weren’t for
people like Iván Melgar-Morey and Moris Mateljan from Progarchives I
wouldn’t know where we would be today. It may even be so, that
lesser known bands get a more equal chance on the internet. Likewise
there are many other sites offering a stage for new bands and they
often cooperate in an effective way, as can be seen for example with
the Progawards. The last past months I have met a lot of people who
use the Progarchives as a reference book that reads like an
encyclopaedia.
What
is your plans for the rest of this year and next year ?
We
have just finished recording a 1991 song with our first singer Anja
Dirkzwager. It had been 16 years since we last worked together. In
the coming months we are planning to put the song on our internet
site.
We
always use the sales profits to finance new albums. Unfortunately our
24 track recorder broke down two weeks ago, so that meant a severe
loss. Naturally
I bought a new one, but then you realize that working with hardware
equipment is far more expensive than making computer productions.
All
the same I
hope to be able to re-edit a 1995 album “Time Out”, recorded with
singer Marion Stroetinga and containing a 23 minutes lasting
instrumental track “Behind The Curtain Of Your Mind” that was
already listened to intensively on our myspace.
If
all goes well we hope to produce a new album in the course of 2011
with the current line up.
To
wrap up this interview, is there anything you want to add to this
interview ?
If
possible I would like to thank all at Progarchives for their
incredible support and I would like to thank all our fans from all
over the world for supporting us, because without them it would have
been impossible to produce five albums in such a short period.
ACTUAL
BAND LINE UP:
Maruschka
Kartosonto – lead & harmony vocals
Elsa
de Beer – flutes
Dineke
Visser – oboe
Josine
Fraaij – electric & acoustic violins
Jody
van der Gijze – classical & electric guitars & harmony
vocals
Jason
Eekhout – electric & acoustic guitars
Erik
de Beer – electric & grand piano, organ, harpsichord, Moog &
other synthesizers, guitars, chitarrones, lute, a lot of mandolins &
harmony vocals
Iris
Sagan – 4 & 5 string basses & harmony vocals
Ludo
de Murlanos – drums & percussion, renaissance drum, tambourine,
claves, cowbell & triangle.
http://www.myspace.com/lifelineprojectband -
http://www.myspace.com/tempestaconsort - Thank you to Erik for this interview His PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=4630 - and his homepage is http://www.myspace.com/lifelineprojectband - The Tempesta Consort homepage is http://www.myspace.com/tempestaconsort -
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Replies:
Posted By: Dutchman
Date Posted: November 05 2010 at 16:12
Great interview torodd.  Very interesting.
I reviewed one of the albums here on ProgAcrhives and love the music of this band.
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Posted By: Plato
Date Posted: February 07 2011 at 18:44
I love the band and have some of the albums!!!
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Posted By: ProgPanda 2/71
Date Posted: September 07 2012 at 17:30
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The band has a new release on September 10 called "20 Years After". You can already listen to some tracks on http://www.myspace.com/lifelineprojectband" rel="nofollow - www.myspace.com/lifelineprojectband Sounds great!!
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