STRATOVARIUS' 'Dreamspace'-Era Lineup To Release New Album In January

April 25, 2011

Former STRATOVARIUS leader and current SYMFONIA guitarist Timo Tolkki has teamed up with fellow ex-STRATOVARIUS members Tuomo Lassila (drums),Anti Ikonen (keyboards) and Jari Kainulainen (former member of EVERGREY) to record a new studio album. The CD, which will be released in January 2012, will celebrate STRATOVARIUS' 30-year anniversary and will feature the same lineup as the one that recorded STRATOVARIUS' "Dreamspace" LP, originally released in 1994.

For legal reasons, the band's original name — PROJECT STRATO — had to be scrapped. More than 20 songs have been written for the project, including "Return To Dreamspace", "Digital Jesus", "Santiago", "Chevaliers De Sangreal", "Full Circle" and "Farewell No. 2".

"Return To Dreamspace" will see Timo Tolkki handling the vocals again and the fans of the "Twilight Time"/"Dreamspace" era will surely not be disappointed.

Regarding the musical direction of the CD, Tolkki previously said, "It has been [17] years from [STRATOVARIUS' 'Dreamspace'] album, so it will be interesting, for sure... It's not a 'remake,' but a brand new album. A closure for [what] I consider to be the end of STRATOVARIUS. It completes the cycle and returns to the beginning."

In 1982, Tuomo Lassila (drums) formed STRATOVARIUS and came up with the band's name. Timo Tolkki (guitar) and Antti Ikonen (keyboards) joined the band in 1984 — that is some 25 years ago, and as a result the group recorded such classic albums as "Twilight Time", "Dreamspace" and "Fourth Dimension". After the departure of Lassila and Ikonen in 1995, STRATOVARIUS went to more neo-classical sound and style exploring Timo Tolkki's songwriting and producing skills earning the band a Finnish Grammy and sales exceeding over two million records.

Tolkki drew up and signed an official waiver on May 20, 2008 giving up all rights to the STRATOVARIUS name. The remaining STRATOVARIUS members — Timo Kotipelto (vocals),Jens Johansson (keyboards) and Lauri Porra (bass) — have since recorded and released two additional STRATOVARIUS albums with guitarist Matias Kupiainen.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).