28/10 - Ayreon : The Theory of Everything

Hey Ayreonauts! Most of the Ayreon-related internet action is now to be found on Arjen’s Facebook page, but below you’ll find the basic info on the new Ayreon album “The Theory of Everything.”



Arjen Lucassen soon to release new Ayreon album, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

It features a stellar cast of guests, with members past and present of Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Kamelot, Genesis, Yes, ELP, Asia, Toehider, Grand Magus, and Ancient Bards (see below)
It will be a double album
It begins a completely new story line for the Ayreon universe
It comprises four 20-plus minute “epics” divided into 42 separate tracks
It’s a true Rock Opera with a dramatic, real-world story
It will be released in 4 editions, including an exclusive limited edition and vinyl (details TBA)
The DVD for the special and limited editions features two and a half hours of behind the scenes content
The scheduled release date is 28 October, 2013
Pre-orders in Arjen’s webshop will start sometime in September (details TBA)
Arjen ran a series of “guess the musician” contests via Facebook. You can see all of the videos on his Youtube channel.

GUEST MUSICIANS

Vocalists

(in order of appearance)
JB (Grand Magus) as The Teacher
Sara Squadrani (Ancient Bards) as The Girl
Michael Mills (Toehider) as The Father
Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) as The Mother
Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) as The Prodigy
Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot) as The Rival
John Wetton (Asia, King Crimson) as The Psychiatrist

Instrumentalists

Ed Warby (Hail of Bullets, Gorefest) – drums
Rick Wakeman (Yes) – keyboards
Keith Emerson (Emerson Lake and Palmer) – keyboards
Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) – keyboards
Steve Hackett (Genesis) – lead guitar
Troy Donockley (Nightwish) – Whistles, Uilleann pipes
Ben Mathot (Dis) –violin
Maaike Peterse (Kingfisher Sky) – cello
Jeroen Goossens (Flairck) – flute , bass flute, piccolo, bamboo flute and contrabass flute
Siddharta Barnhoorn – orchestrations
Michael Mills (Toehider) – Irish Bouzouki
Wilmer Waarbroek – backing vocals
Arjen Anthony Lucassen – electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, mandolin, analog synthesizers,
Hammond, Solina Strings


Track Listing

CD1
PHASE I: SINGULARITY (23:29)
1 Prologue: The Blackboard
2 The Theory of Everything part 1
3 Patterns
4 The Prodigy’s World
5 The Teacher’s Discovery
6 Love and Envy
7 Progressive Waves
8 The Gift
9 The Eleventh Dimension
10 Inertia
11 The Theory of Everything part 2

PHASE II: SYMMETRY (21:31)
12 The Consultation
13 Diagnosis
14 The Argument 1
15The Rival’s Dilemma
16 Surface Tension
17A Reason To Live
18 Potential
19 Quantum Chaos
20 Dark Medicine
21 Alive!
22 The Prediction

CD2
PHASE III: ENTANGLEMENT (22:34)
1 Fluctuations
2 Transformation
3 Collision
4 Side Effects
5 Frequency Modulation
6 Magnetism
7 Quid Pro Quo
8 String Theory
9 Fortune?

PHASE IV: UNIFICATION (22:20)
10 Mirror Of Dreams
11 The Lighthouse
12 The Argument 2
13 The Parting
14 The Visitation
15 The Breakthrough
16 The Note
17 The Uncertainty Principle
18 Dark Energy
19 The Theory of Everything part 3
20 The Blackboard (reprise)


DVD content

(special and limited editions only)

Feature: The Making of The Theory of Everything (47:49)
Full length interviews with Arjen, Cristina Scabbia, Tommy Karevik, JB, Sara Squadrani, Marco Hietala, Mike Mills, and Ed Warby (Total time 1:31:19)
Time lapse clips of recording sessions (total time 12:56)
The artwork for the album cover (below) was painted by Belgian artist Jef Bertels, who has painted all of the Ayreon covers since Into the Electric Castle.

Additional artwork for the album booklet is by Christophe Dessaigne, who also designed the Star One “Victims of the Modern Age” and Guilt Machine “On this Perfect Day.”



Cover for the forthcoming Ayreon CD – The Theory of Everything

This is all the news that’s fit to print today, we’ll add updates as more details are confirmed.