EUROPEAN TOUR 2001 SOUVENIR CD (WITH ERIK NORLANDER)

The year 2000 was a simply incredible year for Lana Lane and Erik Norlander, giving rise to both the masterpiece album that is Secrets Of Astrology and Norlander's own best solo album Into The Sunset (the two respective sleeve pictures of which have been combined for the present one). This "souvenir" CD was made to promote the subsequent tour in support of these two great albums, and has later been made available for download on iTunes.

This promotional disc samples tracks from other releases from Think Tank Media (the Norlander/Lane couple's own record company). The first track here is the otherworldly Astrology Suite, which here is a merger of three tracks from the Secrets Of Astrology album (Astrology Prelude + Secrets Of Astrology + Astrology Postlude) into one massive, 16 minute track. Norlander's solo album Into The Sunset is here represented by Rome Is Burning, Fanfare For The Dragon Isle, and Fly (with the latter two merged into a single track). Two live recordings are included: Lana Lane's covers of Marillion's Seasons End and King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King (the latter featuring excerpts from In The Hall Of The Mountain King!). Norlander's Symphonic Prog band Rocket Scientists (also on the Think Tank label) is also represented here with a live recording consisting of Pink Floyd's In The Flesh? introducing Rocket Scientists' own Oblivion Days (a track that Norlander originally wrote for ELP, but instead became the the title track from the third Rocket Scientists album!). Inspiration On Life is a track by Don Schiff (another member of Rocket Scientists). It is an instrumental dominated by the so-called "stick" and reminding of the style adopted by King Crimson in the 80's and 90's.

The disc closes with Alchemy And Astronomy, a 17+ minute Erik Norlander piece that alone makes this souvenir CD worthwhile. This massive, spacey ballad, was included as a bonus track on the Japanese CD version of Into The Sunset (and can now be streamed, divided into two parts, from Norlander's official website). Obviously, the place to start is with the Secrets Of Astrology and Into The Sunset albums. But if you don't happen to have the Japanese CD version of the latter, this special disc is a good addition to your collection.