Hello again my friends!
I really appreciate all of the kind attention and gracious notes that this thread has elicited - you are all wonderful and I am so very pleased to be associated here! ![Hug Hug](smileys/smiley31.gif)
With that in mind, and in the spirit of sharing some more information on the project, I thought that I might post our "band bio" for you to check out (has a bit more background and information than the press release). ![Smile Smile](smileys/smiley1.gif)
Brockmann/Andrade is the collaborative
writing team of multi-instrumental recording artist and composer Steve
Brockmann (Bredstedt, Germany) and freelance writer/editor George Andrade (Fall
River, MA, USA). In 2008 (or
thereabouts), George approached Steve with the idea of writing an album from a subplot to a novel that he had planned to write based
loosely on the “punishment” of the Manisses Indians on Block Island, Rhode
Island for the “accidental” murder of the captain of a trading vessel by a
chieftain’s son and the subsequent “claim by right of conquest” and resettlement
thereafter. Great idea, huh?
It was a book that was to deal with the individual mistakes
that can bring down families and communities (and nations) and become the
sins of fathers visited upon sons … and the transcendence of this guilt of
lineage by ultimately reconciling one's self-perception with one's reality and
coming to terms with the “space between the bars” of such self-imposed
prisons. It was about a miller and
stonemason’s son who returns home from prison to mend the
walls and fences that he has destroyed and soon learns to speak of wind and air
- not stone and mortar - and through the help of those he's injured understands
that our hearts are on strings … as his father had always dreamed. How rock n roll is that?
The idea quickly grew from a concept album to
a full blown rock opera and was named, well, “Airs – A Rock Opera” – and Brockmann/Andrade was born.
Steve Brockmann has written 74
minutes of exciting and emotional music that runs the gamut of rock, metal,
blues, pop, gospel and even cinematic score in a classic rock opera style that
has been described by some as a “mixture of Eloy
and Camel and Savatage” and “Toto-esque AOR-flavored hard rock, utilizing
progressive twists and turns a la Spock’s Beard … as well as many a salute to
the complex metal structures of Iron Maiden”.
The story by George Andrade is Bradbury-esque and naturalistic presented
through lyrics that are drawn as if working from a “word palette”, interspersed
with narrative passages that set the stage for Brockmann’s oftentimes cinematic
score.
"A theatrical feast for the heart and
mind, “Airs - A Rock Opera" tells her story with simplicity and elegance:
on a small circular island in the Atlantic, Owen Doane has rolled through a
stop sign and driven a car carrying two tourists – a mother and her 9 year old
daughter - from the road to strike a stone wall. The accident caused the
girl to suffer injuries that paralyzed her from the waist down, confining her
life to a chair and thereby forcing Owen's father, Derrick Doane, to suffer the
collapse of his company that had been built upon the Doane family heritage of
pulling stone from fields before harvest and building walls after milling grain
since they had first settled Manisses Island in 1664. Owen returns home
from prison to mend the walls and fences that he has destroyed and soon learns
to speak of wind and air - not stone and mortar - and through the help of those
he's injured understands that our hearts are on strings. A powerful,
vintage '70s/'80s rock score by Steve Brockmann conveys all of the loss,
disillusionment, rekindled hope, reconciliation and ultimate redemption that is
Owen's journey and is rich with soaring cinematic passages!"
Steve
and George first "met" on the Spock's Beard message board awhile back
(4+ years ago) where they also had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Barry
Thompson (The ANABASIS), John Fontana (Shadow Circus), Paul Adrian Villarreal
(Sun Caged), Josh Sager (Din Within), Jamie McGregor (Singularity) and Martin
Kornick (artwork for The ANABASIS) to name a but few ... those were some pretty
heady times filled with exciting company for all!
The musicians there would
occasionally send music files back and forth to collaborate for personal
satisfaction as well as for charity (The Tsunami Projekt, being the most
famous) and George would always be "that guy" on the outside looking
in, jumping up and down at the perimeter of the circle hoping to one day be
permitted to join in! Well, after much hinting on his part that day
eventually came – the group decided to let "the writer guy" take a
shot at writing lyrics to a song. He was thrilled when his words were
well received and it was soon thereafter that he received an email from Steve
Brockmann asking if he would consider writing lyrics to a song that he had
written intended for his next solo album (Pools Under Ganymede, TBA).
George jumped at the
chance and the song became "The Moment's Eye" … Steve and George hit
it off immediately and very quickly found that they saw eye to eye (no pun
intended) artistically. They quickly realized,
too, that they shared an emotional and aesthetic kinship as well as the uncanny
ability to develop each others' vision through their respective crafts.
They also found that they each had the proclivity and the eye to tell
stories through songs in complimentary ways; George’s lyrics tended to be
narrative in nature and Steve’s music was sweeping and cinematic in scope
(though firmly rooted in rock).
It was then that George decided
(rather boldly) to approach Steve with the thought of perhaps writing an album
together ... he told him the idea that he had based upon a book he was
developing and proceeded to send a 20 page, single-spaced synopsis in English (not Steve’s native tongue, of course) to
Germany! A couple of weeks
passed … and then George (who had been getting a bit worried) finally heard
back from Steve who sent him an instrumental that was gorgeous, ornate and majestic
- a perfect opening number! That evening, unable to sleep, George finally
got up not long after midnight with the song swimming in his head and wrote the
words to what would become the opening track (“Fateful Days”) of their debut
rock opera ... and they were off! Fateful days, indeed.
Steve assembled a magnificent cast of
vocalists to perform the roles of the characters from “AIRS”; beginning with
the lead “Owen”, Steve’s strategy was to cast the voices based upon the multiple
emotional intensities required for the “scenes”/songs as well as the
psychological undercurrents of the action – Paul Adrian Villarreal (Sun Caged),
Gordon Tittsworth (Images of Eden/Dread The Forsaken), Tilman Eckelt
(Grailknights), Cornelius Kappabani (Bifrost) and Jan Hoving (Stonefly/A.
Vandenberg) all rose to the occasion and fleshed out the character
superbly. Gordon Tittsworth also
performed as “Derrick” (Owen’s father) while Cornelius Kappabani played the
roles of ”Derrick”, “Craig” (Owen’s brother) and “The Islanders”. The lead female role of “Annabelle” was
performed beautifully, soulfully by Floor Kraaijvanger (Superfloor/Floored) and
the role of young “Hannah” was tenderly portrayed by Antila Thomsen.
The band of musicians was just as impressive
with Steve performing all guitars, bass and keyboards except for bass on “The
Great Salt Pond” played by his brother Christoph Brockmann (North Band -
Germany) and special guest appearances by Dave Meros who played bass on two
songs (“Annabelle” and “Flight II”) and Alan Morse who provided his signature
guitar effects and sailing solos to the finale (“Flight II”). The drums were played by Jochen Ohl (North
Band – Germany) with Phil Robertson (Warner, Polygram, Electra, EMI, Atlantic
session player) behind the kit on “Grounded II”.
The album was recorded and mixed by Steve
Brockmann at his Fencesound Music Studios, Nordfriesland, Germany and mastered
by Andy Horn at The Red Room, Berolzheim, Germany.
Floor Kraaijvanger and Jan Hoving were
recorded at EDGETIP recording studio, Arnhem, Netherlands by Raoul Soentken. Gordon Tittsworth was recorded at Astral Sun
Studios in Red Lion, PA, USA. Paul
Adrian Villarreal was recorded in a Large Wooden Badger in KluBerath, Germany. Antila Thomsen, Tilman Eckelt and Cornelius
Kappabani were recorded by Steve Brockmann at Fencesound Music Studios,
Nordfriesland, Germany. Alan Morse was
recorded in Monrovia, CA, USA. Dave Meros was recorded at Pollo Del Mar in Fair
Oaks, CA, USA. Phil Robertson was
recorded at Crawlspace in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Tony Kost, Seann Jackson, Leigh Andrade and
Nicolette Collard-Andrade were recorded in Providence, RI, USA and Fall River,
MA, USA by George Andrade.
Album art was designed by Matt Willett ( http://www.mattwillettdesign.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.mattwillettdesign.com/ ).
Please visit the official website (due to
launch during week Feb 13): http://airs-arockopera.com/" rel="nofollow - http://airs-arockopera.com/
For daily updates and coverage of the release
please visit the official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AIRS.Brockmann.Andrade" rel="nofollow - https://www.facebook.com/AIRS.Brockmann.Andrade
Brockmann/Andrade are proudly self-released
under Fencesound Music: http://www.fencesound.de/" rel="nofollow - http://www.fencesound.de/
“Airs – A Rock Opera” will be available for
immediate delivery from Fencesound Music as well as for sale in all major
retail outlets and digital download sites on February 29, 2012.
The track listing for “Airs – A Rock Opera” is:
Now I Know
1. Fateful Days (featuring Paul Adrian
Villareal)
2. Grounded (featuring Gordon Tittsworth)
3. Kites (featuring Tilman Eckelt)
4. Flight (featuring Cornelius Kappabani)
5. Current Events
-
Winds of Change (featuring Gordon Tittsworth)
-
Heirs (featuring Gordon Tittsworth & Cornelius Kappabani)
- Winds
of Change II (featuring Cornelius Kappabani)
-
Errs (featuring Gordon Tittsworth)
Book of Airs
6. History (instrumental)
7. Heritage (featuring Gordon Tittsworth)
8. Experiments (featuring Gordon Tittsworth)
9. Floating (instrumental)
The Flyer
10. Annabelle (featuring Jan Hoving)
11. The Center (featuring Floor Kraaijvanger
& Gordon Tittsworth)
12. Fateful Days II (featuring Antila
Thomsen)
13. Hannah (featuring Cornelius Kappabani
& Antila Thomsen)
Airs
14. The Great Salt Pond (featuring Floor
Kraaijvanger)
15. Grounded II (featuring Gordon Tittsworth
& spoken cast)
16. Kites II (instrumental)
17. Flight II (featuring Floor Kraaijvanger,
Antila Thomsen & Cornelius Kappabani)
18. Owen (featuring Paul Adrian Villarreal)
http://www.steve-brockmann.de/" rel="nofollow - Steve Brockmann , music composer,
arranger and producer, is a multi-instrumentalist who has played an active role
in Northern Germany’s music scene since the early 1980s. Amongst others, he has
played support gigs for such rock legends as Uriah Heep, Moody Marsden Band,
and Hawkwind. Steve currently concentrates his http://www.myspace.com/stevebrockmann" rel="nofollow - musical work on various projects in his personal
studio. Steve’s releases include “Don’t Sing” (2001), “Broskro Skrobro” (2002),
“Expected Errors” (2007). He has also composed
and contributed charity singles for The Haiti Project,
a collaborative album of 40 musicians and bands including Neal Morse, Roine
Stolt, Dave Meros and IZZ (“For You” 2010), and for Förderkreis für krebskranke Kinder und Jugendliche. e.V., a center for young children and teens living with cancer in
Northern Germany (“For Those Who Left, For Those Who Came (Christmas
Eve)” 2011).
http://10trecords.com/artists/genres/progressive-experimental/the-anabasis/" rel="nofollow - George Andrade , story, lyrics and
narratives, is the lyricist and Executive Producer for the progressive metal band
The ANABASIS (10T Records). He has
written adult and children’s fiction, ../Collaborators.asp?id=12608" rel="nofollow - reviewed
albums for such progressive bands as Mars Hollow,
Shadow Circus and Relocator, reviews novels for http://horrornews.net/author/george-andrade/" rel="nofollow - HorrorNews.net , provides critical
readings for screenplays and is a freelance editor. He is listed in the http://www.locusmag.com/index/s18.htm" rel="nofollow - Locus Magazine author index and has been an
artist-in-residence for Very Special Arts Rhode Island. He also wrote, produced and directed the
short film “Supports’ which won a RI Cable Award for “Best
Entertainment/Variety” in 1992.
------------- "Time is the only critic without ambition"
- John Steinbeck
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