Project

Alan Parsons was 19 years old when he landed a job at the world famous Abbey Road Studios, an important first step on his journey to becoming a world class engineer, producer and artist. Following his beginnings with George Martin and The Beatles, his contribution to Pink Floyd's classic 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' earned him worldwide attention. As a producer he had many hits with Pilot, John Miles, Ambrosia and Al Stewart. Together with his manager and creative partner at the time, Eric Woolfson, he developed the Alan Parsons Project. Following their debut album "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination" (1976), they released a series of hit albums; namely "I Robot" (1977), "Pyramid" (1978), "The Turn of a Friendly Card" (1980), "Eye in the Sky" (1982), "Ammonia Avenue" (1984), "Vulture Culture" (1985), "Stereotomy" (1986) and "Gaudi" (1987).

Devin Townsend, possibly more widely known as the frontman for the extreme metal act Strapping Young Lad, began creating solo albums in 1997. Sometimes referred to as the 'Mad Scientist of Metal', Townsend produces a wide variety of music. This ranges from soft ambience designed, as he has stated, to put the listener to sleep, to high levels of thrash and extreme metal reminiscent of SYL. His works often feature a 'wall of sound', built by adding many layers of guitars and keyboards that are playing in unison or harmony. The end result is a number of carefully produced and mixed albums that favor high-end sound systems. Devin Townsend Project is another venture of Devin Townsend, considered separate from the material released as Devin Townsend. The project was originally conceived to comprise four albums of differing musical styles, each with a different set of guest/session musicians backing Townsend, but ended up continuing beyond that.

Life Line Project is a project in the true meaning of the word. It is build around one musician, Erik de Beer, either playing all instruments himself or contracting all the necessary vocalists or players according to the needs of the work in progress. Born in The Hague, Holland Erik started to play the guitar when he was 14 years old and keyboard at the age of 16. Right from the start his preference was symphonic rock. Erik started his studies at the conservatory for music in 1977 and finished them in 1983. He now works as a guitar & keyboard teacher. He started his first symphonic rock band J.S. Quasar in 1975 in which he played both keyboards and lead guitar. After some short stays in several bands Erik founded keyboard-dominated power-rock trio Brancard in 1979…

It seems as though the Alan Parsons Project's conceptual grandeur began to lose its potency right around the mid-'80s. With Stereotomy, the message that Parsons is trying to reveal by way of his music begins to dissipate quickly, and the album is saved only somewhat by a couple of interesting instrumental pieces…