Ayreon | |
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 Arjen Anthony Lucassen, the main creative force behind Ayreon | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Waalwijk,North Brabant, Netherlands |
| Genres | |
| Years active |
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| Labels |
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| Members | Arjen Anthony Lucassen |
| Past members | Guest performers |
| Website | ayreon |
Ayreon/ˈɛriən/ ⓘ is a musical project by Dutch songwriter, singer, musician and record producerArjen Anthony Lucassen. Ayreon's music is described asprogressive rock,progressive metal[1] andpower metal[2] sometimes combined with genres such asfolk,electronica,experimental andclassical music. The majority of Ayreon's albums are dubbed"rock operas" (or "metal operas") because the albums contain complex storylines featuring a host of characters, usually with each onebeing represented by a unique vocalist.
Each Ayreon album tells a different story, but all, with the exception ofActual Fantasy,The Theory of Everything, andTransitus, take place in the same fictional,science fiction universe; additionally, Lucassen's solo albumLost in the New Real is also set in the Ayreon universe. Ayreon's music is characterized by the use of traditional instruments in rock music (guitars, bass guitar, drums,analogue synthesizers,electric organs) mixed with instruments more native to folk and classical music (e.g.mandolins, violins,violas,celli,flutes,sitars anddidgeridoos). Lucassen writes the music and the lyrics, sings and plays most of the instruments on all of the Ayreon albums, alongside many guest musicians. His most regular collaborator is drummerEd Warby.
Due to the project's particular nature, Ayreon live performances are rare. Several Ayreon songs were first included in twolive albums by other Lucassen bands:Live on Earth byStar One (2003) andLive in the Real World byStream of Passion (2006).
The first Ayreon CD, released in 1995, isThe Final Experiment, which has a mixture of science fiction and medieval themes. The album features thirteen singers and seven instrumentalists, most of them Dutch.The Final Experiment is often mentioned as one of the firstmetal operas. The album was originally titledAyreon: The Final Experiment, with the artist listed as Arjen Lucassen, but upon re-release, the title was changed toThe Final Experiment, and the artist was changed to Ayreon.
Actual Fantasy from 1996 is the only Ayreon album without a continuous story. With its individualfantasy stories, it can still be considered aconcept 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. The album did not sell as well as its predecessor.
Thedouble albumInto the Electric Castle followed in 1998, continuing the Ayreon storyline fromThe Final Experiment. The album features eight singers, each playing a role of a single character, and eleven instrumentalists. Arjen has stated that he wanted this particular album to be a more flight-and-fancy-free record, or "pure escapism" than the previous albums' more serious tones, and portrayed his characters in more of aB movie light. The album was a huge success and is widely regarded as one of Ayreon's best albums.[3][4]
The twinUniversal Migrator albums were released in 2000. The first album,The Dream Sequencer consists of soft, atmospheric progressive rock, whereas the second album,Flight of the Migrator, consists of a more heavy-metal theme. Both of the albums feature around ten singers supported by many instrumentalists. One of the more notable guests wasBruce Dickinson ofIron Maiden, who made an appearance on theFlight of the Migrator album.
Shortly followingUniversal Migrator cameAyreonauts Only, an album generally meant to be only for diehard fans of Ayreon. The album itself was the second to not follow a specific storyline; it instead contained alternate versions (With different vocalists or instrumentalists) of existing songs, or the original demos used when recording them. In addition, it contained a preview of Arjen's then-upcoming project,Ambeon. It is the only Ayreon album not to see re-release on InsideOut.
In 2004 cameThe Human Equation. As onInto the Electric Castle, there are several singers, each playing their own role. WithThe Human Equation, Ayreon turned away from the usual science fiction and fantasy themes with a seemingly semi-normalpsychological theme.
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.
At the end of September 2006, when Arjen's new studio was finished, he began making a new album entitled01011001, which was released on 23 January 2008. This album was noticeably darker than previous Ayreon releases, Lucassen attributes this to a depression and his divorce in the preceding year.[5]
On 25 April 2008, Arjen released a new Ayreon EP namedElected. The EP features two tracks from01011001, one fromThe Human Equation and anAlice Cooper cover (Elected), with vocals by Arjen andTobias Sammet.[6]
On 16 September 2008, Arjen announced in his official website the release ofTimeline, his second compilation album, that will reunite selected songs from all Ayreon albums and an unreleased one in three CDs and a DVD. The album was released on 7 November 2008 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and all of the EU on 17 November 2008. It was released in America on 13 January 2009.[7]
Arjen took a break from Ayreon and completed a new side project,Guilt Machine, in 2009. He also went on to release a secondStar One album in 2010, and then a solo album under his own name in 2012.
The Theory of Everything was released on 28 October 2013. In 2015,The Human Equation was performed in its entirety live in an unofficial full-scale theatrical production calledThe Theater Equation, with Lucassen making an appearance and helping promote the project. It was performed four times, all at the Nieuwe Luxor theater inRotterdam between 18 and 20 September. Although produced as an unofficial series of performances, it was recorded and released in June of the following year as an official Ayreon release,The Theater Equation, produced and mixed by Lucassen himself.[8][9]
The Source was released on 28 April 2017, marking a return toscience fiction and the Ayreon storyline. It is Lucassen's first album under his new label,Mascot Label Group.[10]
In November 2016, Lucassen announced the first ever official Ayreon concerts for September 2017, entitledAyreon Universe. The show featured 16 singers and 11 instrumentalists, all of which had previously worked together with Lucassen on his studio albums.[11] UnlikeThe Theater Equation, it consisted of unrelated songs from Ayreon performed after each other as in a traditional concert, with a few songs fromStar One featured as well.[12] One of the performances was released as a live album/DVD on 30 March 2018, titledAyreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live.[13]
On 7 December 2017, Lucassen stated that a new Ayreon concert would take place on 22 June 2018 atGraspop Metal Meeting, where they would headline the Marquee stage.[14][15] It featured the same instrumentalists as the Ayreon Universe shows and most of its vocalists, along withSimone Simons andTom S. Englund, who had never performed live with Ayreon before, andMark Jansen, who had never collaborated with Lucassen before, andBarry Hay; Lucassen himself also performed a few songs.[16]
Between 13 and 15 September 2019, the albumInto the Electric Castle was performed inTilburg in its entirety similarly toThe Theater Equation in 2015, this time as official Ayreon performances.Fish,Anneke van Giersbergen,Damian Wilson,Edward Reekers, Edwin Balogh, and George Oosthoek returned from the original cast, alongside Ed Warby and flutistThijs van Leer, who also performed on the original album.Simone Simons andMark Jansen ofEpica,Praying Mantis singerJohn Jaycee Cuijpers,Marcela Bovio, Bovio's husband andVUUR bassistJohan van Stratum, andEx Libris membersDianne van Giersbergen and Bob Wijtsma were also featured, with actorJohn de Lancie acting as narrator.[17][18] One of the performances was released as the live albumElectric Castle Live and Other Tales on 27 March 2020.[19]
Ayreon was supposed to headline the Night of the Prog Festival in Germany on 18 July 2020 to performInto the Electric Castle once again, however the event was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[20]
On 8 May 2020, Lucassen revealed on his YouTube channel that his next album would be an Ayreon album, titledTransitus and to be released the same year; the album would be released alongside a tie-in comic book.[21]
On 13 May 2020, he announced the first member of the cast, actorTom Baker, providing spoken vocals as the character of "The Storyteller".[22] The rest of the cast was announced during the following week, also includingTommy Karevik ofKamelot andSeventh Wonder as the lead character of Daniel, Cammie Gilbert ofOceans of Slumber as Abby, Micheal "Mike" Mills ofToehider as The Statue,Amanda Somerville as Lavinia, Paul Manzi ofArena andThe Sweet as Henry,Dianne van Giersbergen ofEx Libris as The Soprano,Threshold drummerJohanne James as Abraham,Simone Simons ofEpica as The Angel of Death, andDee Snider ofTwisted Sister as Daniel's Father;Marcela Bovio ofMaYaN (and Lucassen's former bandStream of Passion) and Caroline Westendorp ofThe Charm the Fury portray a duo of characters known as the Furies.
Featured musicians includeJoe Satriani and formerMegadeth memberMarty Friedman on lead guitars andYouTube musicianPatty Gurdy on thehurdy-gurdy.[23][24][25] Keyboardist Joost van den Broek, violinist Ben Mathot, and flutist Jeroen Goossens, all of whom had been featured on every Ayreon album since 2008's01011001, are also returning.[26] Juan van Emmerloot acted as drummer, makingTransitus Ayreon's second album after 2000'sUniversal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer not to haveEd Warby on drums, as Lucassen stated that he did not originally conceiveTransitus as an Ayreon album, and felt like it would need a completely different style of drummer. Although they had long lost track of each other, he and Van Emmerloot had worked together 35 years prior, when Lucassen was part ofVengeance and Van Emmerloot was a session drummer; after becoming curious about what had happened to Van Emmerloot since their last meeting, Lucassen looked his drumming videos on YouTube and realized he would be a perfect fit forTransitus.[27]
Transitus was released on 25 September 2020.[28]
On 13 October 2022, Lucassen announced more Ayreon concerts in September 2023 in Tilburg, in which the studio album01011001 was performed in its entirety.[29] The shows were recorded for a live album titled01011001 - Live Beneath the Waves, to be released on 17 May 2024.[30]
Lucassen said, "Though I do like the similarity of the sound of my own name Arjen and the project name Ayreon, this is purely coincidental. Yet no one seems to believe that! Originally I called the leading character of the first Ayreon album 'Aries'. But then I had to change it because it had to fit the meter of the song. I wanted the new name to sound old fashioned because of the medieval influences, so I used the old-English sounding 'AY' (Aylesbury, Ayrshire). But I also wanted it to sound modern because of the futuristic parts ("2084") so I used 'ON' (electron, neutron, etc.), hence 'Ayreon'."[31]
For guest members, seeList of Ayreon guest musicians.
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER [32] | FRA [33] | AUT [34] | SWI [35] | SWE [36] | NOR [37] | NLD [38] | BEL (WA) [39] | BEL (FL) [40] | |||||||||||
| The Final Experiment |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
| Actual Fantasy |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
| Into the Electric Castle |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | 49 | — | — | |||||||||
| Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer |
| 90 | — | — | — | — | — | 64 | — | — | |||||||||
| Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator |
| 87 | — | — | — | — | — | 61 | — | — | |||||||||
| The Human Equation |
| 50 | 160 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | |||||||||
| 01011001 |
| 18 | 90 | — | 85 | 54 | — | 2 | 96 | 80 | |||||||||
| The Theory of Everything |
| 21 | — | 37 | 41 | 46 | 26 | 3 | 36 | 58 | |||||||||
| The Source |
| 10 | 95 | 21 | 17 | 27 | 21 | 1 | 36 | 38 | |||||||||
| Transitus |
| 15 | 161 | 39 | 11 | — | 33 | 1 | 142 | 42 | |||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Title | EP details |
|---|---|
| Elected |
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| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NLD [44] | |||||||||||||||||||
| "Sail Away to Avalon" | 1995 | — | The Final Experiment | ||||||||||||||||
| "The Stranger from Within" | 1996 | — | Actual Fantasy | ||||||||||||||||
| "Temple of the Cat" | 2000 | — | Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer | ||||||||||||||||
| "Day Eleven: Love" | 2004 | 39 | The Human Equation | ||||||||||||||||
| "Loser" | — | ||||||||||||||||||
| "Come Back to Me" | 2005 | — | |||||||||||||||||
| "Hopelessly Slipping Away" | 2020 | — | Transitus | ||||||||||||||||
| "Get Out! Now!" | — | ||||||||||||||||||
| "This Human Equation" | — | ||||||||||||||||||
| "Talk of the Town" | — | ||||||||||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Title | Album details |
|---|---|
| Ayreonauts Only |
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| Timeline |
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| Title | Album details |
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| The Theater Equation |
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| Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live |
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| Electric Castle Live and Other Tales |
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| 01011001 - Live Beneath the Waves |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
