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leonalvarado View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: New CD featuring members of Brand X and Yes
    Posted: June 05 2010 at 13:22
Hello everyone,
Some of you might be aware of my upcoming EP following the "Leon Plays Genesis" album. The EP is part continuation of the previous project, part new and more original material. The CD will consist of around twenty or so minutes of music spread on three tracks. The new CD will also have some very special guests playing on it. 

One of the tracks is the Genesis instrumental "Second Home By The Sea". The song is one that I didn't finish in time for the previous record because I ran out of time and money. Well, I went back and completed it and sounds pretty good. I'm quite pleased with the subtle arrangements that I did on it and hope that most of you will like it too. 

Another track in the CD is an extended version of "Broken Promises", the last song on the previous CD. I started the song with the intent of creating a re-mixed version that would sound a bit more progressive than the original version. I ended up re-recording about four minutes of music, adding a lovely Hammond sound and making the drum track more of a segue-way to the drums in "SHBTS". 

The final track is something completely different and my first venture into progressive/fusion. For this song I enlisted my friend John Goodsall (founder member of Brand X) to do the guitar parts. I also used Bill Bruford performing on the drum tracks. The drums were a bit tricky because I had to "edit" them into fitting the composition. Basically we started with the drum bits and then I built the song around them. Many thanks go to Bill and Bill Bruford Productions for helping me in the matter. Needless to say, this track is a continuation of a dream come true for me. To have musicians of such calibre performing on my composition is something that goes well beyond my original expectations. 

The CD is schedule to be released on October 7. I am currently working with the final mixes and then it will be off to London for mastering over at the famous Abbey Road Studios. Then the one thing to do will be the artwork for the cover. Two of the songs are somewhere between seven to eight minutes and the third one is at least five minutes long. The overall length of the CD is good enough for me to want to make another gate-fold cover. Ideas are well underway and I promise the final product will be another cool cover. 

I am very excited about this second project and hope that those of you who bought the last one will find the new one to be a good addition to your collections. There is enough there for Genesis fans, Brand X fans and even those few-but- very kind Leon fans out there. In the upcoming months I'll be posting new stuff like photos, artwork and any new developments regarding the CD over at the facebookpage 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leon-Alvarado-Plays-Genesis/45610852481

You can visit (or re-visit) my website with the original project over at:
http://leonplaysmusic.com
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leonalvarado View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2010 at 13:27
The new CD will be titled "Strangers In Strange Places". 

The tentative song order is:

1. "More Broken Promises" (Parts I and II)∞
2. "Second Home By The Sea"†
3. "Strange Places"*

Personnel:
Leon Alvarado∞†*
John Goodsall*
Bill R. dos Santos†
Bill Bruford*

I'll try to post updates under this thread but I don't frequent this site as much as I wish I did. My facebook page will be most likely the place to check new developments.

Edited by leonalvarado - June 05 2010 at 23:08
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 16 2010 at 23:39
It has been a very busy year for me. I try to put as much effort into the artwork as I do into the music. For me an album is an all-encompassing thing. The music, the presentation and even the packaging all form part of the experience that is to have somebody's album in your hands. As I write this I realise that I need to get back into the producer role and finish the mixes prior to taking them to Abbey Road studios. The last thing we recorded were the guitar tracks by John and we had a very rough mix integrating those into the rest of the music. In the upcoming week I have several things going which will make working on my project a tough proposition. Next week I will be in NYC working with Paul D'Adamo for his upcoming project. His studio band is Phil Collins touring band so we'll have everyone under one roof since they are backing up Phil on his motown shows. Phil's shows will be taped for a future DVD release and, there will also be a film crew at hand to tape some of our meetings on Paul's project. I never been in a documentary before so this should be interesting (the closest thing I've ever done is been an extra on  "Tin Cup", "RoboCop II" and "The Trust"). I feel the music panorama is slowly changing tilting the balance towards the independent artist. Twenty years ago I wouldn't have been able to record music with one of the founding members of Brand-X as well as one of the most respected and prolific drummers of our times. I do feel very fortunate indeed and can only hope that others can get excited as well.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 17 2010 at 03:29
Good luck! The project sounds great. Thumbs Up
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 17 2010 at 16:14
Bruford playing Genesis?
Cool!!!
Michael's Sonic Kaleidoscope Mondays 5:00pm EST(re-runs Thursdays 3:00pm) @ Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio(http://www.deliciousagony.com)

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 17 2010 at 16:24
Originally posted by ProgressiveAttic ProgressiveAttic wrote:

Bruford playing Genesis?
Cool!!!

I'm sorry, Bill doesn't play on the Genesis song. His drumming is on one of my songs "Strange Places". Both Brufford and Goodsall'a playing are on that song. "Second Home By The Sea" has me doing most of the stuff and Bill dos Santos doing the extra keyboards just as he did on my previous album. I can see why you thought of that in looking at my photo. By the way, I love your photo of the Vytas Brenner album jacket. I met him once and later after his death, I met his sister Karen and spoke with his brother Aaken in Spain. Vytas was certainly an original talent.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 29 2010 at 07:43
A quick update:
The project is coming right along with only the final mix on the last song missing. After that, we'll start dealing with the CD's jacket and all the artwork related to the project.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 26 2010 at 20:46
I can't remember all the places that I have posted information regarding my latest EP so I'm making sure to follow it up here. 
The CD is out and is available on both physical and as a download. The physical CD comes with a gatefold cardboard jacket that's very similar from the Japanese mini-LPs. It also has some pretty cool artwork on it. You can get the CD over at CD Baby or Amazon.com. The downloads are also available at CD Baby as well as iTunes & Digstation. Like the previous album, the EP will eventually be available through many other outlets and webstores world-wide. However, CD Baby does ship to anywhere around the world.

Please feel free to check out more info over at any of the attached links.




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