AYREON: 'Actual Fantasy' Album To Be Re-Recorded And Reissued

September 16, 2004

AYREON, the brainchild of Dutch guitarist Arjen Lucassen (ex-BODINE, VENGEANCE),are planning on reissuing their second album, "Actual Fantasy".

"Arjen wanted to experiment with releasing his music as a 5.1 surround remix, and 'Actual Fantasy' — a little bit of a 'forgotten' album in the AYREON collection — is sonically and electronically the most extreme release," reads a posting on the group's web site. "Furthermore it is hailed by many fellow musicians as their favorite AYREON release.

"In order for Arjen to make this 5.1 surround remix, he needed to piece together all recordings and to separate the parts that had been 'glued together' in the studio at the time of the recording... This meant re-recording some parts as well.

"Well, once he knew he had to go through all that trouble... why not immediately re-record that what was an 'ear-sore' for Arjen all along? The drums! The drums on 'Actual Fantasy' are generated by a drum computer, which bothers Arjen to this day! And... well... why stop there and really make it truly challenging and exciting project?

"For this purpose AYREON drummer extraordinaire Ed Warby will enter the studio next week to record drums for the 'Actual Fantasy' re-issue. After this, STAR ONE bassist Peter Vink will replay all bass guitar, and Arjen will re-record nearly all guitar and keyboard parts, and then rework the vocal performances — essentially making this album a new AYREON release of sorts.

"The new and improved 'Actual Fantasy' (including the 5.1 remix) won't hit stores until early 2005. After this release, 'The Final Experiment' re-issue with some special added elements, will be released soon after that!

"The re-issue of 'The Universal Migrator Part 1 & 2' is already in stores everywhere and the next re-issue by the InsideOut label is already on our doorstep. The long-awaited 'Into the Electric Castle', AYREON's best seller double album, will be available (again) in stores on September 27th, 2004 in Europe, and October 12th, 2004 in the United States.

"The re-issue features revamped artwork and also linernotes written by Arjen.

"On top of this, the release comes with two CD-ROM tracks (Quicktime movie),one on each disc, in which Arjen tells you about what went into making this stellar album.

"Among other things, you get to hear stand-alone vocal performances of each of the vocalists as well as some instrumentalist sections. Total duration of the CD-ROM tracks is 30 minutes!"

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