"Northumbria" - title track nearing completion

This past weekend the drum track was recorded for "Northumbria," the title track of the new Aethellis album. As stated before this tune will have a cacophany of dissonance blended with sweetness all stirred together in a pyrotechnically-performed proggy stew. Okay, it's obvious I just came off from watching Julie and Julia, but it's time for lunch!

As this track is nearing completion and I'm VERY excited about it, I'm going to post an excerpt from it online in March for folks to hear. Hopefully it will stimulate more interest in the new material which will be for the most part a departure from the style in the first album. It will still have the "Aethellis" sound however.

As mentioned on the website, a concert is planned for later this year which will be videotaped and feature material from both albums. Of course the live versions tend to be a tad more adventuresome; "Djibouti" in particular takes on a new life when performed live with Mark Van Natta's guitar solo taking the jazz-influenced tune "way outside." So we hope to capture that on video for people to hear.

I still have a load of soundtrack work to do, but with Beside The Manor Selby completed and premiering soon, Aethellis: Northumbria will be my focus in the months ahead with a tentative completion in the Spring.