product: Intelligent Music Project - The Creation

release date: March 5th, 2021

label: Intelligent Music

PR territory: Europe

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After the great success of the previous album of the band “Life Motion”, the expectations of the rock fans for the new one are logically high and we dare say that they will be fully justified!

This was said by the creator, producer and author of the music and lyrics of Intelligent Music Project Milen Vrabevski, MD.

“The Creation” is the newest piece of rock art by the Bulgarian businessman, philanthropist and patron of arts. In his own words, this is an album about the creative approaches, a key to success in a meaningful life.

This 6^th album by Intelligent Music Project showcases the chemistry and the creative style of all five previous albums of the supergroup. The musical diversity and the positive messages of the twelve songs from “The Creation” make it exclusively interesting and attractive to listen. Moreover the 6^th album again features well-known, world famous, rock singers – Ronnie Romero (Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Vandenberg, Lords of Black), John Payne (ex-Asia) and Carl Sentance (Nazareth).

“The Creation” is the 4^th Intelligent Music Project album in a row in which the fans of the band can enjoy the beautiful voice of the ex-Asia lead singer John Payne. He says about the album:

And while Ronnie and John are well known members of Intelligent Music Project from the previous albums, here comes the big surprise for the old hard rock lovers. The drums in the album are played by two brand new for the band, but otherwise legendary drummers – Bobby Rondinelli (Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Black Sabbath) and Todd Sucherman (Styx).

This is the third album with the band also for the warm, progressive voice of Richard Grisman (River Hounds).

“The Creation” talks about the fear, the inner signals, voices and the techniques to cope with everyday life’s challenges. It is about the status of an empathetic witness of your own life.

Except Ronnie, John, Todd, Bobby, Carl and Rich in the recordings take part one of the best Bulgarian musicians – Bisser Ivanov (guitars), Ivaylo Zvezdomirov (bass guitar), Vasil Vutev (drums, percussions) and Ivo Stefanov (keyboards).

“The Creation” is recorded, mixed and mastered by Ivo Stefanov at Intelligent Music Studios, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Featuring: Ronnie Romero (lead and backing vocals), John Payne (lead and backing vocals), Bobby Rondinelli (drums and percussion), Todd Sucherman (drums and percussion), Carl Sentance (backing vocals and adlibs), Richard Grisman (lead and backing vocals)

Previous albums by the same author, featuring Simon Phillips, Ronnie Romero, Joseph Williams, John Payne, Nathan East, Tim Pierce, Carl Sentance & John Lawton are Intelligent Music Project I, II & III, IV, V respectively titled “The Power of Mind”, “My Kind O' Lovin'”& “Touching the Divine’’, “Sorcery Inside”, “Life Motion”.

product: Stranger Vision - Poetica

release date: 23.06.2021

label: Pride & Joy Music

PR territory: world, except Italy

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STRANGER VISION is one of the most exciting new Heavy Metal bands around, bred on a wide range of influences from across and beyond the realms of melodic heavy metal. Facets of melodic and symphonic power metal and melodic death unite in a stunning attack in the vein of BLIND GUARDIAN, SAVATAGE, IN FLAMES, among others.

The group was founded in May 2019 by Riccardo Toni (guitars) and Ivan Adami (vocals), aiming to create and realize an extremely personal vision and sound with a strong focus on melodies & harmonies plus a powerful, rich sound. Luca Giacopini (drums), Daniele Morini (bass) and Gabriele Sarti (keyboards) shortly after completed the STRANGER VISION line-up.  

Adami and Toni then immediately started the song-writing process which was finally completed in June 2020. The recordings for the album “Poetica” took place at Domination Studio in San Marino from June to August 2020 with recording engineer Simone Bertozzi (Ancient Bards) at the desk. Mixing and mastering followed in September 2020 and were handled by Simone Mularoni (DGM).

There are several contributions from well-known Metal musicians from Italy on some of the album tracks, i.e. singer Fabio Dessi (ARTHEMIS & HOLLOW HAZE) on “Hero Of The New World”, singer Alessia Scolletti (TEMPERANCE) on “Memories Of You”, TRICK OR TREAT guitarist Guido Benedetti with a solo on “Rage”, TREAT OR TREAT, TWILIGHT FORCE and LUCA TURILLI’S RHAPSODY singer Alessandro Conti on “Rage” and Zak Stevens (SAVATAGE, TSO, CIRCLE II CIRCLE) on “Before The Law”.

STRANGER VISION’s involvement in the contemporary metal scene is testified to the high expectations that already surround the group, after the sensational covers of Space Oddity (David Bowie), Mad World (Tears For Fears) and Moonshield (In Flames), shared freely by STRANGER VISION during the difficult times of the lockdown.

product: Silent Winter - Empire Of Sins

release date: 23.06.2021

label: Pride & Joy Music

PR territory: world

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SILENT WINTER was initially formed in the middle of 90's in the city of Volos in central Greece. Back then, the band recorded and released two demo tapes entitled "Silent Winter" and "War of an Angel” and also played some gigs and appeared on local festivals.

In 2018 the group was reformed with new members and released an EP with 5 songs. One of the featured tracks is a new version of the old demo song “Far Away” which also was released as their first video clip under the production of Progressive Vision Group (Bob Katsionis). This EP received positive feedback and reviews throughout the world. Kiriakos Balanos (guitars) and Giorgos Loukakis (bass) are the original members from 1995’s line-up. For the EP, they were joined by Giannis Antonopoulos (drums), the well-known Mike Livas on vocals (Maidenance, Keepers Of Jericho, Timo Tolkki tour singer), Vaggelis Papadimitriou on guitar and Yiannis Manopoulos (Thelemite) on keyboards.

In May 2019 SILENT WINTER released their first album 'The Circles of Hell' via Greek label Sonic Age Records. The reviews coming in from all over the world again were excellent and “The Circles of Hell” appeared in many ‘best of listings’ of that year. Several 3d lyric videos were released in collaboration with Harry Kountouris who is also now responsible for all the live visuals of Sabaton, as well as for some 3D lyric videos for Rotting Christ. SILENT WINTER played lived with Skyclad in Larissa, and with Acid Death and Nightrage at the Golden R festival in Volos, and a release show together with Floating Worlds in Athens’ Remedy club.

“Empire Of Sins”, the group’s second full-length release, now will be released via Pride & Joy Music on March 26^th, 2021. The album was recorded at Kalovidouris Sound Studios, in Volos, Greece between July and October 2020, and mixed and mastered by Dionysis Christodoulatos at CFN recording studio Athens, Greece. Kiriakos Balanos designed the front cover. One of the highlights featured here is the Metal cover of Belinda Carlisle’s smash hit “Leave A Light On”.

product: Paris - 50/50

release date: 26.03.2021

label: AOR Heaven

PR territory: world

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Dechavanne and Montet first met as kids at school in their hometown Bouffémont which is located around 15 km north of the French capital Paris. They have stayed best friends since. Both started to play guitar at the age of 15 - influenced by the leading hard rock bands from the mid 80’s like Scorpions, Iron Maiden or Def Leppard. A few years later, Dechavanne switched to keyboard, and the two musicians spent most of their high school years writing songs and rehearsing with other friends.

Studies and various job locations drew them apart but the friendship always remained, and so did the song-writing collaboration.

PARIS recorded their first full-length release with Italian producer Alessandro Del Vecchio. “Only One Life” came out in 2013 on a Germany based AOR label.

The follow-up record, “The World Outside”, was produced by Steve Newman (NEWMAN), whose backing vocals could already be heard on the first album at the time. “The World Outside” was released in the summer of 2016 on Melodic Rock Records and received good reviews worldwide.

The brand new release “50/50” was recorded with the same team as “The World Outside” including Steve Newman (production, mastering, backing vocals), Dave Bartlett (bass, backing vocals) and Rob McEwen (drums)… and once more with Sébastien’s good friend Robert Säll (Work of Art, W.E.T.) who plays one mighty solo on each and every album PARIS released so far.

PARIS is very proud to team up with Georg Siegl and AOR Heaven for the release of “50/50”.

product: Winding Road - s/t

release date: 26.03.2021

label: AOR Heaven

PR territory: world

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In 2018 Magnus Åkerlund (Blender) and Jan Hedlund (Coastline, Eagle Down) met up at Magnus’ studio to see if they could write music together. Both had played in numerous bands and played loads of different musical genres touring all over Sweden. Their true love however was melodic rock and AOR so there was no guesswork in what kind of music they were aiming for. After an hour they had their first song ready. They scheduled a weekly writing session and each week a new song was written.
Soon they came to realize that these songs had to be released and so Winding Road was born.
In search for a singer they didn’t have to look far. Jan’s old friend Jonas Tyskhagen (Incardine, Soxity, Yo Motherfucker, Bitches Brew) provided his soulful bluesy voice on one of the demos and the search for a singer was over. Guitar driven melodic rock with plenty of synths and a strong focus on the melodies was the concept when the album started to take shape.
Great consideration was taken in choosing what songs should be included on the album aiming for a diverse song list with no fillers.
They also asked Jonas childhood friend (and friend of the band) Fredrik Folkare to do some guest guitar work and he provided a couple of killer solos on two of the songs.
Winding Road have released three singles on Spotify which have been well received and have had airplay on Swedish radio, both national and regional.
They also entered a competition on Swedish national radio and got to one of the finals.

The album was produced, mixed and mastered by Magnus Åkerlund at Fieldgroove Studios.
In December 2020 the band signed a deal with AOR Heaven for the release of their self-titled debut album.

product: Stephen Crane - Kicks

release date: 26.03.2021

label: AOR Heaven

PR territory: world

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STEPHEN CRANE used to play in a band called Baby at the end of the 70’s but his opportunity as solo artist arrived in 1984 by the hand of the major MCA label. CRANE’S debut "Kicks" was produced by Jai Winding (Le Roux) who also played keys, and no-other than the great Steve Lukather. In fact, all TOTO guys were involved in the recording including groove master Jeff Porcaro on drums.
We also find Richard Page (Mr. Mister, Pages) and AOR guru Tom Kelly (I-Ten, Van Stephenson, Survivor) doing backing vocals, together with brilliant session guitar players such as Duane Sciacqua, Joey Brasler and Ray Pannell.

The multitude of guitarists has an explanation; "Kicks" for the most part is a guitar driven AOR / Melodic Rock album with a 1984's radio friendly sound. And on most tracks, we found three different six-string axemen playing together in the same song. CRANE's pumping bass lines add even more muscle to the tunes, and his sometimes raspy but melodic vocals reminds you a cross of a young Brock Walsh, Van Stephenson on the calmer moments and Paul Sabu on the edgy. The album features the best session players in L.A. like Steve Lukather + Jeff, Mike & Steve Porcaro (Toto), Richard Page (Mr. Mister, Pages), Duane Sciacqua (Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey), Jai Winding (Stevie Nicks, Molly Hatchett, Cheap Trick, America, Blue Öyster Cult), Tom Kelly (Madonna, Whitney Houston, Survivor, Van Stephenson), James Newton Howard (Elton John, Toto) & many more... In 1986, Stephen Crane joined the Glenn Frey band (from The Eagles) and toured in Japan & the USA. He also worked with Joe Schermie from Three Dog Night & Brian Ray from Paul McCartney's band and still remains very active in the U.S music scene.

There's not a single weak track here, going from hooky and catchy numbers like "Headed For A Heartbreak", "Joanne" or the urgent "Victims Of Love", to more AORish cuts such as the Toto-esque "Back On My Feet Again" (featuring a killer Lukather solo) and the Van Stephenson sounding "I'll Take Care Of You".

Criminally ignored not only by MR / AOR fans in general - but also by the industry as it never was released on CD - "Kicks" is one of the best records in the genre from that era.

This re-issue is available as remastered limited edition of 500 CD copies via AOR Heaven’s mailorder store only. Liner notes by Dave Reynolds.