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Ayreon

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Ayreon is the name of one of many musical projects by Dutch composer and musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen.

Ayreon's musical style derives mostly from heavy metal and progressive rock, but combines them with genres like folk, classical and electronica to form what some call a completely new style of music. The majority of Ayreon's albums are dubbed "rock operas" due to the fact that the albums contain complex storylines featuring a host of characters, each represented by a unique vocalist.

Ayreon's music is characterized by the use of traditional instruments in rock music (guitars, bass guitar, drums, synthesizers, electric organs) mixed with instruments more native to folk and classical music (i.e. mandolins, violins, violas, celli, flutes, sitars and didgeridoo). Lucassen writes the music and the lyrics, sings and plays instruments on all of the Ayreon albums, alongside many guest musicians.

Contents

History

The first Ayreon CD, released in 1995, is The Final Experiment, a story of a man in 6th century Britain, the minstrel Ayreon. Perhaps because he has been blind since birth, Ayreon has a sixth sense that allows him to receive messages from scientists in the year 2084, when humankind has almost destroyed itself in a final great war. The album features thirteen singers and seven instrumentalists, most of them Dutch. The Final Experiment is often mentioned as one of the first metal operas and a reviver of the rock opera genre. The album was originally titled Ayreon: The Final Experiment, with the artist listed as Arjen Lucassen, but upon re-release, the title was changed to The Final Experiment, and the artist was changed to Ayreon.

Actual Fantasy from 1996 is the only Ayreon album without a continuous story. With its individual fantasy stories, it can still be considered a concept album, though. There are only three singers and three instrumentalists on Actual Fantasy. Themes inspired by songs on this album can be found on later Ayreon releases, particularly the two Universal Migrator albums.

Into the Electric Castle promotional poster featuring Arjen Anthony Lucassen and the singers on the album.
Enlarge
Into the Electric Castle promotional poster featuring Arjen Anthony Lucassen and the singers on the album.

Into the Electric Castle (1998) followed. The double album is a story of eight people from different eras of humankind, locked together in an unusual "place of no-time and no-space". There, a mysterious voice talks to them, guiding them on their dangerous quest to find a way home through the Electric Castle. This story is told in psychedelic rock by eight singers, each playing a role of a single character, and eleven instrumentalists.

The twin album The Universal Migrator (2000) features a science fiction story of the last human alive, living in a colony on Mars. In the story of the first CD, ', he begins a trip back in time to flashbacks of different peoples' memories during human history (memories he apparently lived in his past lives), using a device called the Dream Sequencer. This first album consists of soft, atmospheric progressive rock. Later, he "pre-incarnates" further back, all the way to the big bang in the heavy second album, '. Again, both of these albums have about ten singers supported by many instrumentalists. One of the album's guests was Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, who made an appearance on Flight of the Migrator.

The latest Ayreon release is The Human Equation, released in 2004. As on Into the Electric Castle, there are several singers, each playing their own role. With The Human Equation, Ayreon turned away from the usual science fiction and fantasy themes with a story taking place inside the head of a man lying comatose in a hospital bed after a bizarre car accident in broad daylight, with no other cars in sight. His emotions become personified and begin to take him through various incidents in his life.

Starting in 2004, after changing from Transmission Records to InsideOut, Arjen began rereleasing his Ayreon catalog on the new label, with enhancements ranging from basic (The Universal Migrator, issued as a two-disc set instead of two separate albums) to drastic (Actual Fantasy, "Revisited" with completely re-recorded drums, bass, synth and flute). In 2005, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Ayreon, The Final Experiment was reissued with a bonus semi-acoustic disc.

Concept

Ayreon's concept is a continious one, with loose connections between each of the albums. The Final Experiment alluded to the events that led to The Universal Migrator albums (during the course of events in the specified album, the man using The Dream Sequencer faces the minstrel Ayreon's return). The inlay booklet of the Universal Migrator double-album alludes to Into the Electric Castle, with the castle being shown in the same page with the song, Planet Y. Also, Arjen's notes at the beginning mention the possibility of the character using the Dream Sequencer being the Futureman.

So far, there happens to be little to no proof about the connection of The Universal Migrator to Into the Electric Castle; except for the part where Forever of the Stars uses The Dream Sequencer to launch "The Human Equation Program". Coupled with the Time-Telepathy experiment, Ayreon's return and Planet Y, it can be said that Forever of the Stars' experiment was due to it receiving Ayreon's message, but not being able to understand which part of the history went wrong. Afterwards, however, the experiment sways and turns into a quest to understand emotions itself.

Discography

Guests

See also

Other bands and projects by Arjen Anthony Lucassen:

Bands Arjen has been a member of: Related genres:

External links

 

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