Lucassen

With a career spanning more than three decades, composer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen has firmly established himself worldwide as driving force in progressive rock. While best known for his rock opera project Ayreon, the multi-talented Dutchman also regularly embarks on musical side projects such as Ambeon, Guilt Machine and Star One. These projects all explore different aspects of Lucassen's musical personality. Lucassen strives to keep a consistent cast of vocalists for Star One rather than mixing it up with the ever-changing vocal line-up that characterizes Ayreon. For "Victims of the Modern Age" he reunited the stellar cast of lead vocalists from the first album, “Space Metal” (2002): Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swanö (Nightingale, Second Sky, ex-Edge Of Sanity)…

Revel in Time is the third studio album by Arjen Anthony Lucassen's progressive metal project/supergroup Star One, released via Inside Out on 18 February 2022…

With a career spanning more than three decades, composer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen has firmly established himself worldwide as driving force in progressive rock. While best known for his rock opera project Ayreon, the multi-talented Dutchman also regularly embarks on musical side projects such as Ambeon, Guilt Machine and Star One. These projects all explore different aspects of Lucassen's musical personality. Lucassen strives to keep a consistent cast of vocalists for Star One rather than mixing it up with the ever-changing vocal line-up that characterizes Ayreon. For "Victims of the Modern Age" he reunited the stellar cast of lead vocalists from the first album, “Space Metal” (2002): Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swanö (Nightingale, Second Sky, ex-Edge Of Sanity)…

Lost in the New Real (also referred to as Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Lost in the New Real) is the second solo studio album by Dutch songwriter, producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. It is Lucassen's first solo album since Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy released 18 years ago under the name Anthony, before he reached fame with his progressive metal/rock opera project Ayreon. He sang lead vocals for the first time since the first album, and played most of the instruments himself including all guitars, bass and keyboards.
On Lost in the New Real, Lucassen does a very good job at creating some wonderful sound textures, by mixing the melodic progressive rock with some guitar metal riffs and adding some excellent keyboard works, a solid drumming and some folk music amidst.

With a career spanning more than three decades, composer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen has firmly established himself worldwide as driving force in progressive rock. While best known for his rock opera project Ayreon, the multi-talented Dutchman also regularly embarks on musical side projects such as Ambeon, Guilt Machine and Star One. Arjen’s side projects all explore different aspects of his musical personality, with each new release being a creative reaction to the style of its predecessor. Star One is no exception.
The first Star One album, Space Metal (2002) was Arjen’s reaction to his previous project, the relatively soft Ambeon. After releasing the first few Ayreon albums, Arjen had noticed that many others were following in his footsteps and releasing their own rock operas…

17th May will see the release of Lucassen & Soeterboek's Plan Nine album 'The Long-Lost Songs' via Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group. It was the early nineties, and musical polymath Arjen Lucassen had begun working on several projects: a solo album, a progressive-rock opera and a rock album. Around this time, he watched singer Robert Soeterboek perform live with Bodine, his former early-eighties heavy metal band. "His vocals truly impressed me, a rarity!" Lucassen recalls. "He had the charisma and power of singers like David Coverdale and Robert Plant. Discovering that we really got along personally, we decided to collaborate on some songs, just for fun."

"Strange Hobby" is an uncredited cover album (Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Status Quo, Paul Simon, The Who, Kaleidoscope, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, The Hollies, The Move, The Box Tops, T. Rex, The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Donovan by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, released in 1996. The album and the booklet contains no information about Lucassen and don't explain who was responsible for the recordings, to make the album even more "strange".

"Strange Hobby" is a cover album (Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Status Quo, The Who, Kaleidoscope, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, The Hollies, The Move…) by Arjen Anthony Lucassen (Ayreon), released in 1996.
In the mid 1990s Arjen Anthony Lucassen wanted a break from composing epic prog operas for his long-running Ayreon project and decided to record a bunch of his favourite tunes from the 60s. Strange Hobby was originally released anonymously and, after being out of print for a decade, here it comes again, beefed up with four bonus cuts.
Lucassen plays and sings everything himself and gives everything a heavy glam rock sheen, although the decision to put so much compression and to layer effects on the vocals renders everything a little inhuman.