Suggest New Bands and Artists - Masque Premiere (U.S.) for Symphonic Prog

Yeah, there was a post about them on progressive ears: http://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/10688-Lost-Symph-Prog-Album-from-back-in-the-day-%28Free-Download" rel="nofollow - http://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/10688-Lost-Symph-Prog-Album-from-back-in-the-day-(Free-Download ), and if we mention here that the thread was started by band member Jim Jose (posting as ProgMusician)...and includes some info that can be used to create a biography, then Iván might take an interest in evaluating them.

This progressiveears thread is about the only thing that exists on the web about this release - other than the bandcamp page itself. This text is copied from his post about a third of the way down the page: http://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/10688-Lost-Symph-Prog-Album-from-back-in-the-day-%28Free-Download%29?p=310548&viewfull=1#post310548" rel="nofollow - http://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/10688-Lost-Symph-Prog-Album-from-back-in-the-day-(Free-Download)?p=310548&viewfull=1#post310548

"The story is that the principal writers... Jim (myself - keyboards, vox) and Forrest (guitars, vox) were very enthusiastic prog fans just out of High School (18 and 21 respectively). We recorded this album in two go rounds. In 1980 the first 3 songs were recorded at prog fan/engineer Richard Owens' Nashville recording studio Horizon Studios (sadly, Richard passed away a few years ago - the album is dedicated to him). We recorded that batch so that we could enter a contest at Nashville rock station WKDF. The winning band was supposed to get signed. An AC/DC knock off called "Lust" won the contest (...come to think of it, I don't think they probably even considered listening to 10 minute songs! haha).

The last 2 songs are a bit more involved musically (written a year later). Engineer Richard graciously offered us a day of free studio time to get them recorded. The quality isn't quite as good as the 1st three because we felt there were limits to what we could ask of our friend in that short amount of time. Add to this that after it was recorded, we unwittingly gave all of our copies away (one was given to Kerry Livgren of Kansas as he was getting on to the tour bus). At this point the other guys in the band were all going on to other things,... and when I realized we didn't keep a copy, I was panicked. Was finally able to track down a girlfriend of a friend who had gotten a dub somehow. She let me copy hers (after a few days of being coy about it).

Most of this music was recorded live. The vocals were overdubbed, as well as some of the solos.

The two writers have both had careers in music. I have played well over 1000 gigs (mostly cover bands). Have had bumper music on MTV and Good Morning America. Have released other album projects. As for Forrest - if you like, do a youtube search for Forrest York - The Nonprophet. That's a fairly proggy tune, great guitar playing (live in his studio). Drummer Bruce Tanksley (from the above project) plays drums. I admire them both... great musicians!"

Just for interest, here is the video of 'Forrest York - The Nonprophet' that is mentioned above:

This bandcamp release of the 5 tracks has been painstakingly remastered from the WAV files taken from the original cassettes (the only surviving copies of the music from that time), and Jim talks about a possible CD release some time next year - as well as a vinyl issue!

Jim Jose himself used to have a website: http://www.jimjose.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.jimjose.com/ , which sold his CD Sampler Volume 1. It disappeared from the Internet sometime between 12th April and 27th August 2004, but The Wayback Machine has it saved: http://web.archive.org/web/20040412115308/http://jimjose.com/" rel="nofollow - http://web.archive.org/web/20040412115308/http://jimjose.com/ .

OK Iván...It's all yours now!!

Edit: This 5-track Masque Premiere album was available as a free download as long ago as July 2000 (it was then spelt 'Masque Premier' without the final 'e' on Premiere)...Jim mentions it in this thread discussing Fuehrs & Froehling's 'Ammerland' album (apparently it was available from a Masque/Premier page on his own personal website): https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.music.progressive/wqXU7uKJcXE/6VylCq7UEBUJ" rel="nofollow - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.music.progressive/wqXU7uKJcXE/6VylCq7UEBUJ . I don't see the link to it on any of the Wayback Machine saves though.