Wetton Downes' iCon Trilogy of Studio Albums Re-Released with Bonus Tracks – OUT NOW !

London - The John Wetton Estate and Geoffrey Downes are pleased to announce the re-release of the iCon Trilogy of albums, now remastered with bonus tracks in six panel digipacks.

The re-releases have been personally overseen by Geoff Downes and are intended to be a return to the marketplace of individual albums for fans who may wish to purchase a definitive edition.

Of his song-writing relationship and the formation of iCon, Geoff Downes says, “Throughout my entire career, there is no doubt in my mind, that some of my proudest achievements have been the songs that I wrote with the late John Wetton. Not only were we great friends, but also blood brothers in the song-writing department. His magic rubbed off on me immensely, and outside of the hugely successful Asia template, we decided to step out together with our Icon project. It was a 'bromance' made in heaven, because here we had the chance to expand our innermost thoughts and variety of influences, without interference. It was effectively 'us'. We also had the luxury of working with some of the finest musicians in the world who were willing participants in the project.”

For fans of the whole iCon legacy, a box set is being planned out featuring these albums and all the other recordings of the iCon duo, including previously unreleased material.

Geoff Downes continues,“The Wetton Downes Icon catalogue spans across some 4 studio albums, this trilogy plus a prequel album called Zero and various live releases, and incorporates some of our greatest collaborations I firmly believe, and I am happy to impart the news that this entire body of work is being re-released with all of the bonus tracks and some previously unheard renditions of our classic songs. It is in fact Icon in its entirety. If you appreciate the music of John & I, then I sincerely hope you will appreciate these re-issues. Please sit back and enjoy. I know John would be equally proud to see these projects back on the market. All of these recordings mark special periods in our personal and creative lives.  

“'Icon 1' was the foundation of the Asia reunion. 'Rubicon' is thronged with the mysticism, symbolism and multi layers that illuminate John's lyrical prowess, virtually unrivalled in any era of creativity. John married events occurring in both our personal lives with Classical events in Roman History, crossing the Rubicon, the die is cast and some intensely personal reflections. His vocal performance is astounding. I look forward to discussing this amazing period in our lives at greater length in the box set planned for Christmas 2019.

“'Icon 3' was a further milestone for us, with Dave Kilminster reuniting with John, a Japanese tour and possibly the most fulfilling DVD I have ever been involved in, Urban Psalm, filmed in St Mary Le Bow Church. I could reflect for hours and hours, take up the entire booklet, but for now...May our music live on forever.”

The albums are OUT NOW on the duo's own Epicon Records via Cherry Red.

To purchase:
iCon: http://geni.us/iCon1
iCon II Rubicon: http://geni.us/iCon2
iCon 3: http://geni.us/iCon3

A previous re-release of the Wetton/Downes recordings of the 1980s, re-vitalised and re-packaged as iCon Zero continues to be available on Amazon ( http://geni.us/icon0 ) and iTunes ( http://geni.us/icon0dig )

Official Websites: www.johnwetton.com and www.geoffdownes.com

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158 (US), glassonyonpr@gmail.com

Bass Legend Jeff Berlin To Release 30th Anniversary Edition 12-inch Vinyl "Joe Frazier - Round 3" Feat. Steve Vai & David Sancious!

Joe Frazier - Round 3 smokes because the players are smoking. They took a wonderful piece of music and lit a fuse under it! - Jeff Berlin

Nashville – Legendary bassist Jeff Berlin will be releasing on May 11th a 30th Anniversary Edition 12-inch vinyl of his signature song “Joe Frazier.” The EP “Joe Frazier - Round 3” will include a newly remastered version of the original song from his critically acclaimed 1987 album “Pump It!” and a completely re-imagined version, composed and performed by Jeff, Steve Vai (lead guitar), David Sancious (keys), Keith Carlock (drums) and Tom Hemby (rhythm guitar). This limited-edition EP will be available as signed audiophile vinyl, signed CD, or digital release, with collector's editions including an autographed chart of the new arrangement. Digital “mix minus” tracks of the single will also be offered so you can play along with these iconic musicians.

Says Jeff, “'Joe Frazier' is a song that has remained with me throughout my career. No matter where I am in the world, people ask to hear this song. 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of the rendition that I recorded on my second solo record, 'Pump It!' While chatting about the tune with producer John McCracken, we thought to come up with a new version, calling it 'Joe Frazier - Round 3.' For me, this new song is almost entirely different from the previous two renditions and, quite honestly, I think that this is one of the best tunes I ever wrote.”

Musicians:
Bass and Keyboards: Jeff Berlin
Guitar Solo: Steve Vai
Additional Keyboards: David Sancious
Drums: Keith Carlock
Rhythm Guitars: Tom Hemby
Shakers: Gabriela Sinagra

Says Jeff, “Steve Vai's guitar solo was searing. He showed why he is one of the greatest of the great guitarists in the world. David Sancious' keyboards put color and style into JF. The man is a legend and helped to put the 'orchestra' into 'Joe Frazier.' Keith Carlock’s drumming is like a train clicking down the tracks. He instantly grabbed the quarter note and never let it go for over seven minutes of musical percolating. Tom Hemby is one of Nashville's top studio guitarists. But on 'Joe Frazier,' he sounded like the guitarist for James Brown and AC/DC.”


Photo by Arnie Goodman Photography

Credits
“Joe Frazier – Round 3”
Written and Arranged by Jeff Berlin
© 2018 Sejavi Music BMI

Produced by: John McCracken for Headstrong Media Group
Engineered and Mixed by: John McCracken @ Studio 225 Brentwood, TN
Drums Recorded at: Velvet Cinema Studio, Franklin, TN
Mastered by: Randy Merrill @ Sterling Sound, NYC

Jeff's Equipment: 
Markbass “Jeff Berlin” and “Players School” bass cabinets
Cort Rithimic bass
Babicz Bass Bridge
DR Bass Strings
Steinberg-Cubase

Release date: May 11, 2018.

Five options, all accessible for purchase at: https://www.jeffberlinmusicgroup.com/jbmerch/

I. The Collector's Package
1. Signed 180g audiophile 12” vinyl EP with a newly remastered version of the original (“Joe Frazier - Round 2”) and a completely re-imagined version (“Joe Frazier - Round 3”) written and performed by Jeff and an all-star group: Steve Vai (guitar), Keith Carlock (drums), David Sancious (keys), and Tom Hemby (rhythm guitar)
2. Signed CD of both songs, and
3. A signed and dated print of the full score for “Joe Frazier - Round 3”
All of Jeff's signatures will be original!
Available July 2018 (pre-order bonus!!: digital bundle sent to you FREE on May 11, 2018)
$39.95 + shipping and handling. International shipping available

II. “Joe Frazier” 30th-Anniversary Edition CD
This signed, special-edition CD will include a newly remastered version of “Joe Frazier - Round 2” and the all new “Joe Frazier - Round 3”
$14.95 + shipping and handling. International shipping available

III. “Joe Frazier” 30th-Anniversary Digital Bundle
This packed special-edition digital bundle will include:
1. the newly remastered “Joe Frazier - Round 2”
2. the brand new “Joe Frazier - Round 3”
3. an extra bonus track: the original “Joe Frazier - Round 2” demo
4. a digital download of the full “Joe Frazier - Round 3” score
$7.99

IV. “Joe Frazier - Round 3” “Music Minus One” Alternate Mix Bundle
This interactive “Music Minus One” digital bundle will include alternate mixes of “Joe Frazier - Round 3” that allow you to play along with Jeff Berlin, Steve Vai, Keith Carlock, David Sancious, and Tom Hemby. This bundle includes the full digital score and 4 alternate mixes:
1) Minus drums
2) Minus bass
3) Minus guitars
4) Minus bass solos and guitar solos
$14.99

Each of these “Music Minus” mixes is available for individual purchase ($4.99) and will also include the full digital score along with the alternate mix.

Pre-orders accepted now at: jeffberlinmusicgroup.com

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@gmail.com

UK's Debut Album To Be Released On Limited Edition 180 Gram Vinyl

Exclusively To Record Store Day Participating Retailers

Los Angeles - Celebrating the 40th anniversary of UK's critically acclaimed self-titled debut record released on Polydor in 1978, Eddie Jobson is making this seminal album available on vinyl for the first time since its original release. It will be released on April 21st, and available exclusively to Record Store Day participating retailers worldwide. The record is pressed on 180 gram vinyl, and includes an 8 page full color booklet designed exclusively for this release. The album is remastered from the original tapes located at Abbey Road Studios in London, which is the same master that was used in the now out of print “Ultimate Collector's Edition” box set that compiled all the works of UK's 3 albums, along with rarities, live material and 5.1 versions across 18 discs.

“I'm pleased to recognize the 40th Anniversary of this seminal album with this carefully remastered vinyl release. This is now a legacy recording, made even more significant with the recent passing of both Wetton and Holdsworth, that I hope will represent a benchmark for future musicians.” - Eddie Jobson

The Music
In October 1977 the new supergroup featuring Eddie Jobson, Bill Bruford, John Wetton and Allan Holdsworth entered the rehearsal room, each armed with a panoply of musical ideas. Each song, theme, part or riff was logged in, like a jigsaw piece, and so the organizing and arranging of the individual pieces began. External expectations were high, not just for what these four individual innovators might create together, but because Trident Studios in Soho was already booked to record the results of their highly anticipated collaboration.

The music of UK would be developed over several weeks. Wetton would reintroduce “Thirty Years,” a song first tried out with the Wakeman trio; Bruford brought in some harmonic, but mostly rhythmic ideas. Holdsworth's contributions revolved around his distinctive chord voicings, forming the foundation of such tracks as “Nevermore” and “Mental Medication.” Meanwhile, Jobson - the more formal composer of the group - brought in pages of musical notation that included the entire “In The Dead of Night” suite, minus vocal melody lines, but including “By The Light of Day” and the Zappa-influenced “Presto Vivace,” along with a complete version of “Alaska,” the verse of “Time To Kill” and half of “Nevermore.” The myriad musical ideas were painstakingly stitched together, mainly by Bruford and Jobson, but it would be Wetton's melodic and lyrical sense that would ultimately glue the disparate stylings into something resembling cohesive songs. Notwithstanding the considerable stylistic contributions of Holdsworth and Bruford, with a full sixty percent of the new album material emanating from Jobson's compositions, and with the addition of Wetton's vocal melodies and lyrics, the first UK album truly marked an auspicious beginning to the highly symbiotic Jobson-Wetton writing partnership.

Trident Studios, December 1977
The “U.K.” album was recorded over a six-week period. Holdsworth's classic guitar solo on “In The Dead of Night” was created on the fly. Wetton's dense harmonies were carefully overdubbed over the course of many hours. Jobson created the entire electronic section of “Nevermore” on the studio's massive ARP 2500 modular synthesizer. An amalgam of classical, jazz, rock and electronic, the first UK album was considered truly groundbreaking; Rolling Stone magazine called it “The great white hope of progressive music.”

In 2016 Rolling Stone selected the “U.K.” album as one of the Top 30 “best progressive-rock albums of all time.” Though, in a burst of collaborative brilliance, this towering lineup recorded only one album together, the pioneering musicians known as UK have still carved their place in rock history as one of the greatest progressive-rock bands of all time, and have left this classic recording as an exemplary standard for future musicians.

For more information
www.recordstoreday.com
#RSD18
@recordstoreday Twitter
@recordstoreday Facebook
@recordstoredayus Instagram

Eddie Jobson
http://www.zealotslounge.com ;
https://www.facebook.com/EJ.UK.fanpage/


The album is available exclusively from Amped Distribution/Alliance Entertainment. For more information contact alex@ampeddistribution.com and phone 954 255 4505.

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158 (US), glassonyonpr@gmail.com

King Crimson To Release "Earthbound - 40th Anniversary Edition" Expanded CD & DVD!

Now available for pre-order - to be released November 17, 2017

King Crimson's “Earthbound - 40th Anniversary Edition” expanded CD & DVD is now available for pre-order and wll be released on November 17, 2017! “Earthbound,” originally released in 1972, was one of the earliest (if not the first) “official bootleg” released by a major rock band, consisting of a series of deliberately lo-fi live recordings of King Crimson's “Islands” era line-up on tour in the USA. When issued, because of its mid-price it was excluded from the main album charts in the UK but topped the mid-price charts rubbing shoulders with Jim Reeves & Mantovani. Atlantic in the USA didn't even bother to release it. By then, the band had broken up and the label had already been alerted to the likelihood of a new King Crimson line-up promised for later in the year. Like the later live album, “USA,” “Earthbound” remained unavailable in the early CD era, with both finally being released in 2002 on CD. Ironically this non-availability served to enhance interest in the album while DGM's live releases made fans aware that there was a larger story to be told of this line-up's history.

When Robert Fripp was asked to guest on the second Grinderman project, Nick Cave noted: “I wanted to work with Robert Fripp because he has done some of the most uniquely unsettling guitar work I have ever heard along with some of the most delicate and finessed. I grew up listening to a lot of the King Crimson stuff. The vinyl copy of the phenomenal live album 'Earthbound,' is one of my most treasured possessions.”

Featuring:
Boz Burrell: Vocals, Bass
Robert Fripp: Guitar, Mellotron
Mel Collins: Saxes, Flute
Ian Wallace: Drums

The new version of “Earthbound” features an expanded version of the original album on CD & DVD. As a series of stereo only/low-fi recordings, a 5.1 edition was neither possible nor appropriate. However, also included on the DVD of this release is the full performance from Summit Studios, captured on the same US tour in 1972, appearing in both new stereo & quadraphonic mixes, providing the only live surround recordings of this line-up. This release also features 15 minutes of material not included on the original mail order only CD of Summit studios as issued by DGM in 2000. The DVD also features the “Schizoid Men” sequence from the “Ladies of the Road” live album & a transfer of a 1972 vinyl edition of the “Earthbound” LP.

• “Earthbound” – is the twelfth release in the acclaimed King Crimson 40th anniversary series.
• The album has been expanded ON CD & DVD
• CD features an expanded 12 track version of the original 5 track album.
• DVD features the 12 track expanded album in 24/96 hi-res stereo audio.
• DVD also features the Summit Studios performance in a new stereo mix & in quadraphonic.
This is the only surviving multi-track performance from the 1972 tour.
• DVD features the album length “Schizoid Men” sequence of edits of 21st Century Schizoid Men taken from the “Ladies of The Road” live album
• A transfer of the original vinyl album completes the audio selections.
• Presented as a 2 x digi-pack format in a slipcase with new sleeve notes by King Crimson biographer Sid Smith along with rare photos & archive material.
• Continues the highly collectable King Crimson series.

To pre-order King Crimson's “Earthbound - 40th Anniversary Edition” Expanded CD & DVD:
http://shop.schizoidshop.com/king-crimson---earthbound--40th-anniversary-series-p1700.aspx
( Distributed via Alliance Distribution)

DGM website: www.dgmlive.com



Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158 (US), glassonyonpr@gmail.com

French Music Legends Magma Release Remastered "Wurdah Ïtah" Featuring Unreleased Material!

Featuring 25 minutes of previously unreleased material!

Paris, France - French music legends Magma have released a new remastered version of their critically acclaimed 1974 album “Wurdah Ïtah” on CD! The release includes for the first time, “Wurdah Ïtah Prima Materia,” the Original Demo used for the soundtrack to the film “Tristan & Iseult.”

“Winter 1971. Between two series of concerts, we are pacing in circles like caged animals. Georgio Gomelsky senses the tension in the air and decides to book the little Chappell studio for us for a few days in order to release our pent-up energy. On 3 January 1972, Klaus Blasquiz, Jean-Pierre Lembert, René 'Stundëhr' Garber and I enter the studio. Despite the many imperfections of this recording, it remains an essential document to understand the origin of 'Wurdah Ïtah' and to feel our frenzy at the time.” - Christian Vander 1974 

“Wurdah Ïtah” was recorded in April 1974, just one month before the sessions which produced “Kohntarkosz.” It forms the second movement of “Theusz Hamtaahk,” an epic work in three movements of which “Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh,” recorded a year earlier by Magma, forms the final part. Performed by the core players in Magma at that time - Christian Vander (piano, drums, vocals), Jannick Top (bass), Klaus Blasquiz (vocals, percussion) and Stella Vander (vocals) - “Wurdah Ïtah” is music stripped down to its bare essence. Although a total contrast to the splendour and orchestral power of “M.D.K.,” it nevertheless has just as great rhythmic power and surprising vocal lyricism, unquestionably marked by the claws of Magma!

Recorded and mixed April 4th, 5th& 8th 1974 at Studio de Milan (Paris)  by Jean-Pierre Bameulle

New booklet – Lyrics included!

To purchase: http://www.seventhrecords.com/en/magma-19/wurdah-itah-remastered-25-mn-unpreviously-1263.html

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158 (US), glassonyonpr@gmail.com