Now & Then/Frontiers Records geben nun genauere Details zum GARY HUGHES-Rockopern-Soloprojekt “Once and Future King” bekannt. Der erste Teil der Saga um King Arthur wird am 25. August erscheinen, mit dem zweiten Teil wird uns der TEN-Frontmann ab dem 06. Oktober beglücken.
“After the completion of Ten’s last album, the highly acclaimed “Far Beyond The World”, Gary decided that the time was right for something that he had been planning for several years. As such he had to decline any other collaborations. His task was very ambitious: write a rock opera in two chapters, based on the myths and stories of King Arthur, the legendary King of Britain.
Gary spent more than two years writing the complex music and lyrics before trying to finding the appropriate singers to play the various
parts in this majestic piece of work.
In the end he managed to compose a stellar cast. Part One includes;
Damian Wilson (Threshold, Ayreon) – Prologue Narrator
Gary Hughes as King Arthur
Lana Lane – as Guinevere
Danny Vaughn (Tyketto) – as Lancelot
Irene Jansen (Karma) – as Morgana
Bob Catley (Magnum) – as Merlin
Sean Harris (Diamond Head) – as Galahad
While, appearing on Chapter 2, as well as Gary, Lana, Irene, Bob and Sean are:
DC Cooper (Silent Force, ex-Royal Hunt) – as King Aelle
Sabine Edelsbacher (Edenbridge) – as Nimue
Doogie White (Rainbow, Cornerstone, Yngwie Malmsteen) – as Mordred Harry Hess (Harem Scarem) – Epilogue Narrator.
Musicians involved on the album include all of Gary Hughes’ Ten band mates including the newest member Chris Francis on lead guitars, John Halliwell on guitars, Greg Morgan on drums, Steve McKenna on bass and Paul Hodson on keyboards, with additional keyboards by Graham Woodcock (The Quest). Gary also welcomed the input on keyboards of Mr. Ayreon himself, Arjen Lucassen, who played the intro to the song Excalibur which opens the first of the two volumes.
The incredible cover artwork for both records has been specially designed by none other than world renowned fantasy artist Chris Achilleos (creator of Whitesnake’s Lovehunter artwork as well as work on films such as “Heavy Metal”, “Bladerunner” etc).
The stunning final result is guaranteed to set in stone the talents of Gary Hughes as a songwriter and producer and shows him to be the
true heir to the tradition of such giants of British Hard Rock as Whitesnake, Rainbow, UFO, Magnum and Thin Lizzy!
Now And Then/Frontiers Records will release the first chapter of this immense piece of work on August the 25th 2003. The second chapter will be released on October the 6th 2003.
Soundbytes from all the tracks on Part One of “Once And Future King” can now be heard at www.nowandthen.co.uk where samples of the artwork are also to be found.