Monday, September 20, 2010

Northumbria update

All the main parts for the new Aethellis album, Northumbria, have been recorded. There are just some vocal parts to record along with some bass, guitar and drums on the final track (by Erik Marks, Chris Marks, Mark Van Natta, and Mike Harrington respectively). All these are scheduled to be done in October after which mixing will commence.

So things are taking longer than planned, but then again I've expanded the scope of the new album and the process of adding new things pushed the completion date back. That said, most keyboard tracks are pretty much pre-mixed so that should shorten the overall completion time.

The track listing has been firmed up and is as follows with approximate track lengths -

1. Northumbria (Hall, 10:48)
a) Northumbria
b) Mephisto Breeze

2. The Awakening (Hall/Van Natta, 3:27)

3. Van Diemen's Land (9:58)
a) Dire Need (Hall)
b) The Penal Colony (Van Natta/Hall)

4. Without A Sound (Hall/Gill, 5:30)

5. Celui Qui Soit La Bosse (Hall, 2:54)

6. Exchequer Prague (Hall, 3:16)

7. The Peace Path (Hall, 10:09)

8. Sounds Good (Hall/E. Marks, 4:44)

Sure there are some shorter tracks (and to some that's not PROG!) but they are more in the vein of eccentric miniatures rather than standard pop tunes (not that there's any thing wrong with pop tunes, eh?). The closest any song comes to a standard pop tune would be "Without A Sound" which is sort of a prog ballad, if you will.

I plan to release the full version of "Northumbria" as a single along with a music video of the first section.

Also in the video front, from the the first album, "Saint Augustus" will be released in December along with a new version of "Hubris." I'll be retooling "Hubris" as it was rendered for YouTube with their bandwidth, file size and video resolution limitations back in 2007. Things have changed rapidly since then. I have the original footage and will get a high quality re-render and put out the revision by year's end.