Eclipse One

Eclipse are one of the very few bands who managed to bring their 80’s influenced slab of Melodic Hard Rock to the masses. They are now back with the release of their ninth studio album aptly entitled MEGALOMANIUM: a word that well describes the grandiose sound and plans that the band has for their new music.
Coming off their most successful album yet, "Paradigm" (which includes the massive single 'Viva La Victoria' that has almost 25 million streams and counting!), Sweden's Eclipse released their last album “Wired” in late 2020 at the height of the pandemic times. Still, notwtihstanding the lack of touring they managed to continue the path of growth that started when the band appeared at the Melodifestivalen in 2016 with their song “Runaways”.

Separation Songs (2013/2018)—a transcendent, slowly-evolving set of 54 variations on four-voice hymn tunes——juxtaposes and weaves together an array of tunes from William Billings’s New England Psalm Singer (1770), gradually altering them as the piece unfolds. Although its architectural surface remains fairly consistent throughout, the 70-minuter work for two string quartets is at any given moment alluring and eloquent in its simplicity and beauty. The composer writes, “Throughout the piece, hymn tunes appear and reappear in ever-expanding loops of music. . . . Each time they return, the tunes filter through a ‘separation process,’ whereby selected notes migrate from one quartet to the other . . . generating new rhythms and harmonies.” On this recording, L.A.’s acclaimed Eclipse Quartet accompanies and interacts with itself—playing both quartet parts via overdubbing.