ON THE AFTERTASTE

APOGEE is the solo project of Arne Schäfer, vocalist and guitarist of the German progressive rock band VERSUS X. All songs on "On The Aftertaste" is composed, arranged and performed by Arne. He has previously released two albums on the French Musea label: "The Border of Awareness" (1995) and "Sisyphos" (1998). This album contains previously unreleased material that was not included on those two albums. The music is complex 70's influenced progressive symphonic rock with lengthy instrumental passages and many rhythm changes. Arne's musical influences are many: JETHRO TULL, FRANK ZAPPA, GENTLE GIANT, RUSH, Peter HAMMILL, UK, UNIVERS ZERO, XTC, DREAM THEATER, MAGELLAN, QUEEN, Bruce SPRINGSTEEN, CARDIACS, BEATLES, Kate BUSH, 5 UU'S, THINKING PLAGUE, ANGLAGARD, Allan HOLDSWORTH, TRAFFIC, Igor Stravinsky and Gustav Mahler. The most obvious influences though are EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, GENESIS, KING CRIMSON and YES. The compositions are very good with lots of complexity. Unfortunately there are some rather boring songs to with similarities to ELEGANT SIMPLICITY. Although this album is splendid on some tracks I rather prefer VERSUS X.

This album was released by the Italian label Mellow Records in 2006 - not in 2000. "On the Aftertaste" is the fourth official CD release by Apogee, though this is actually the project's very first studio album . It consists of the tracks Arne Schafer composed and recorded from 1989 to 1991 (i.e. quite long before the appearance of "The Border of Awareness"), none of them were available previously, of course. Musically, there is a lot in common between "On the Aftertaste" and most, if not all, of the other albums that Arne released under the Apogee moniker. The only exception would probably be "Die Glaserne Wand & Schleifen". Recorded in 1988, this collaborative effort between Arne and singer/lyricist Gerald Heimann is much more classically influenced than any of Schaefer's subsequent releases.