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Clayreon : Over
and over again, The Dutch musical centipede Arjen Lucassen succeeds to
present something new to his fans. He started heavier with Vengeance and
released some splendid progressive metal, concept albums as Ayreon, each
time accompanied by an elite of musicians and vocalists. He turned a bit
more quiet with Ambeon, the ambient/Ayreon project with the young but
very talented Astrid van der Veen. And then the space metal-project Star
One turned up. After the first time I heard it, I wasn’t completely
convinced because it was a bit too metal for me. But after the gig of
Star One in Hof Ter Loo in Antwerp, I was definitively sold for this
project. And I better admit it right away, I’m a real Ayreon fan, just
take a look at my nickname.
Fortunately, this unique concert was recorded and now released on a
double album. The recordings were made in Rijssen (Holland) but the set
list is almost the same as on the other 6 gigs in Belgium, Germany and
Holland. The least you can say, is that the concerts were unique,
because Arjen doesn’t appear live that often. Each Ayreon fan was
waiting for years for this to happen. If you couldn’t be there during
the autumn of 2002, you can wash away your tears by buying this live
double-CD, which will also be released as a limited edition with a
bonus-DVD that contains footage of the gig. It’s a pity, the DVD wasn’t
included in the promo, but according to the mailing list of Ayreon, the
DVD is also brilliant.
Arjen
called on vocalists Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson
(Threshold), the Jansen sisters (After Forever) and Robert Soeterboek
(Wicked Sensation) who replaced Dan Swanö (Nightingale). Because of the
heterogeneity of the musicians, there wasn’t a lot of time to rehearse,
but no one noticed it during the shows.
It seemed
as if they were touring together for years.
And
what about the set list? Almost the whole Star One was set loose on the
public, but a lot of them were there to hear some typical Ayreon songs.
When you listen to this CD, it’s as if you’re experiencing the whole
concert again. The sound is marvellous, the production is splendid and
the public is enthusiast. The public even succeeded in staying silent
during the quiet pieces, but after that, they bursted into cheering
their idols. It’s unbelievable, how they succeeded in showing the
instruments to full advantage, which I’m missing on many other live
CD’s.
Although the complete band is convincing enough, I would like to
specially mention some of the individual contributions. First of all,
there’s the strong performance of Sir Russell Allen. What a powerful
voice and what a great charisma the man has! I was also enormously
charmed by the, unknown to me, but very talented, young keyboard player
Joost van den Broek from Sun Caged. And last but not least, the man
who’s in the centre of it all, Arjen Lucassen himself, who is one of the
appealing musicians within the progressive metal style, with his
beautiful compositions and his flawless guitar playing. A guitarist who
doesn’t tinkle endlessly, but who has an eye for the melody, even during
the heavy tracks.
The
set list is a mix of Star One and Ayreon songs and can hardly be called
a real rock opera, although the alternating appearances of the different
vocalists point a bit in that direction. Off course, the whole show
stands in connection with the great passion of Ayreon, science fiction
and space.
Just listen
to the narrated pieces.
The whole
concert is one highlight, but maybe I can pin-point some special moments.
After
the predictable “Lift Off”, the gig starts with the heavy metal track
“Set Your Controls”, which reminds me often of Deep Purple, but the
solos of Lucassen and van den Broek immediately set fire to the show.
During ‘Songs of the Ocean’, there’s a first real interaction with the
public, and the chorus is sung along by everyone.
This happens again in “The Eye Of Ra”. (The Seventh Sign).
In
“The Dream Sequencer” Arjen Lucassen himself, conjures a beautiful
guitar solo out of his sleeves, followed by the equal beauty of “Into
The Black Hole”, one of my favourite Ayreon-songs.
Once
more, there’s a very strong vocal performance by Russell Allen in “Dawn
of a Million Souls”.
The
bluesy “Intergalactic Space Crusader” is a breathtaking duel between
Arjen and Joost, which you can only experience at a live gig.
“Isis
and Osiris” with the guest performance of Ewa Albering (ex-Quidam).
“The
Two Gates” with the introduction of the band, on a strong groove and
with the necessary humour.
The
only minus on this album is the not always consistent vocal performance
of Robert Soeterboek, but this is largely compensated by Russell Allen.
We
must certainly not forget the splendid art-work by Mattias Norén.
Do I
need to mention it? This is an absolute must for every Ayreon fan!
It’s
a pity, I can’t judge the bonus DVD. This live double-CD belongs to the
best live albums ever made, both qua production, compositions and the
quality of the musicians. Perfectionist Arjen will discover some minor
mistakes, but for me this is top! You should be in the shop already!!
Bobo: When I heard the Star
One studio album for the very first time I knew there would be a live
performance one day. The music on this disc compared with the Ayreon
material was more suitable to be performed with a real live band. I
guess the fact Arjen uses loads of different vocalists kind of mortgages
the possibilities to go on the road. So when the word was out that Star
One was doing a tour which encompassed seven days of course I needed to
see the band at least once. I got to see them in Antwerp, Belgium yet as
a souvenir of this short tour a double live CD has been released
recorded during the last day of the tour in Rijsen, Holland. Arjen told
me it was impossible to take this thing on the road anywhere else except
Holland, Belgium and Germany as was done this time around. The huge
expenses didn’t make it possible to take this experience to America for
instance although of course everyone in this ‘occasional band’ would
jump at the chance to fly to the States for an extensive tour. Or to
South-America, or Japan or Australia for that matter. In order to do
well for those fans who didn’t get to see the shows there’s the live
album with the limited edition also containing a DVD with the entire
show, some additional footage and their superb rendition of the Deep
Purple classic ‘Space truckin’ and other extra’s.
Exactly one year after the release of the studio
album comes the Star One live double set “Live on earth” and you can
hear on the album that all individual members had great fun in doing
this. For Arjen it must have been a dream come true as it’s not that
obvious to get all of this on the road. When I saw the band in Antwerp
the sound was way too loud so a lot of details were lost in the mix.
Luckily here in Rijsen the mix is perfect which is a great compliment to
the address of the people ‘behind the scenes’. It’s not an easy task to
mix five vocalists (six if you include Arjen), the powerful drums of Ed
Warby and the flashy metalic guitars of Lucassen but they have done a
great job. Although of course the material from “Space metal” is ideal
to be performed live, the band also tackled several Ayreon ‘classics’ to
great delight. Hear Sir Russell Allen sing ‘Dreamtime’ from the
acclaimed debut album “The final experiment” which originally was sung
by Edward Reekers. Together with the Jansen sisters singing backing
vocals this is such a wonderful song ! The great thing about using
different singers is that you can chose who does which part so that it
fits certain atmospheres best. The rocker ‘Songs of the ocean’ is the
ideal cup of tea for the raunchy voice of Robert Soeterboek who at times
sounds a little like David Coverdale.
For sure the BIG surprise of the evening was the
talent of keyboardplayer Joost Van Den Broek, member of Sun Caged. Apart
from Ryo Okumoto I know very little keyboardplayers who are such party
animals like Joost so you’d better check out the DVD if you want to see
it for yourself ! Next to being a real showman he is also very, and I
mean VERY, talented. Being the youngest in the band his rack stood next
to that of bassplayer Peter Vink whom in turn was the oldest of the
company which once again illustrates that great music can be performed
and digested by ALL ages ! I really like the deep Hammond sounds Joost
uses throughout the performance. I’m not sure however whether at all
everything you hear on this album is truly what has been recorded that
very same night on october 5th, 2002 as for instance the
voice which preceeds ‘The dream sequencer’ sounds very cristalclear as
if it was pasted from the original mastertape. The song itself remains a
fantastic ‘pièce de résistance’ for Arjen’s talent as a guitarplayer and
a feast for guitarlovers the world over. The quality of our beloved
backing vocalists is apparent during the magnum opus ‘Into the black
hole’ culminating in some heavy riffs to great delight of the
enthousiastic crowd. Although obviously it’s the pure rocksongs which
have the audience sing and move along there’s also room for some softer
material. Introducing Ewa Smarzynska on flute especially ‘Valley of the
queens’ results in one of the nicest songs on the planet ! Since leaving
Quidam and Poland, Ewa now resides in Holland where she has become Ewa
Albering. Her flute and the angelic voices of the Jansen sisters
together with some harpsichord sounds out of Joost’s archive for me
deliver the highlight of the entire set.
Over to the second disc of the set which opens with
the ending sequence of the first disc so you can actually turn this into
one ongoing ‘saga’ if you have two CD-players switched on at the same
time that is. Again it’s Ewa’s fluteplaying which introduces a decent
folk influence during ‘Isis and Osiris’ with once again an outstanding
Russell Allen. Here Joost’s organplaying gets close to the sound of Jon
Lord. When Arjen sings part of ‘Amazing flight in space’ I can’t help
think about his tribute CD issued under the moniker of Strange Hobby
because the way he sings his part gets close to the authentic sixties
feel. The highlight here however is the part where Arjen and Joost
deliver a musical battle with Arjen on guitar and Joost on keytar. On
DVD this should be pure magic and illustrates perfectly the show element
tucked away deep inside Joost’s body. The actual set closes with ‘The
eye of Ra’ which is a very daring experience knowing the song closes in
pure a capella mode. The band gets back on stage for an encore which
consists of ‘Starchild’ and ‘The two gates’. During the latter Russell
introduces the full band whilst Soeterboeks’ voice reminds me of the
song ‘Old blind mole’ on the “Butterfly ball” album and Damian’s voice
sounds like a young Robert Plant. For a final time each individual
member of starship Star One gives his very best so the set closes with
the biggest exclamation mark in the history of rockmusic. With “Live on
earth” Arjen Lucassen proves that you don’t need to hop on a plane
direction Japan to deliver an outstanding live album. The ‘made in
Japan’ live albums are truly over !
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