Continuing in her established tradition of dramatic and powerful art rock releases, worldwide acclaimed symphonic rock artist Lana Lane announces her fifth and finest work to date, "Secrets of Astrology". The album features a new lineup of predominately European musicians who bring the Lana Lane sound to a new high. The sound is expansive and atmospheric, suitably heavy, and even orchestral at times through the use live strings which supplement the symphonic rock sound.
Lana's trademark soaring vocals lead the album supported by lush arrangements full of majesty and authority. Lana's vocals have been described as "angelic", "powerful", even "sorrowful". Indeed her unique lyrical vocal style is able to dramatically traverse extreme ranges from intimate ballads to bone crushing rockers. It is this rare blend of melody and energy that gives Lana Lane such a fantastically memorable sound. "Secrets of Astrology" achieves a new level of brilliant dynamics allowing Lana to soar higher than ever before.
After four studio albums, two EP mini-albums, a live album, a ballad collection and even a "Best Of" release, Lana was ready to break new ground and open a new chapter in her career. She had worked with essentially the same group of American musicians for all of these prior releases and covered a lot of musical ground. But all good things must come to an end, and all limits are eventually reached. Lana and producer / husband Erik Norlander felt that it was time to push the music further than ever before, and that push required some drastic changes. Lana Lane needed new blood.
Aside from Lana and Erik themselves, the only recurring musician from the past Lana Lane albums is fretless bass master Tony Franklin. Tony heard some of the "Secrets of Astrology" material and really loved it. Erik had helped Tony with some digital editing for Tony's solo album and heard some of Tony's great acoustic guitar work. Immediately upon hearing Tony's acoustic tracks, Erik said to him "Well Tony, there's only one problem here. Now you're going to have play acoustic on Lana's album as well." Tony was happy to oblige. In fact, Tony enjoyed the music so much, he also contributed harmony vocals and even percussion tracks to the album. Naturally Tony also plays his trademark distorted fretless bass on "Secrets of Astrology". To quote engineer Oscar Holleman, "He is a very violent bass player". Of course Oscar meant that as a compliment...
A drummer was needed to complete the package of musicians for "Secrets of Astrology". Many players were considered, including drummers famous and relatively unknown. As the choices were narrowed, Lana and Erik had an epiphone. Both Lana and Erik were working on their guest tracks for the latest Ayreon album project when they noticed the drumming. It was Dutchman Ed Warby, who had drummed on the previous Ayreon release, "Into the Electric Castle", as well as with his own band Gorefest. Ed's strong and authoritative drumming was exactly what Lana and Erik were seeking. And he was right there all along! His solid double bass technique combined with his sophisticated precision and overall heavy feel were perfect for the album. After a few emails, Ed agreed enthusiastically to play on the album.
Basic tracks for "Secrets of Astrology" were recorded at RS29 in The Netherlands with the known heavy rock engineer Oscar Holleman, who was one of the founding members of the Dutch rock phenomenon Vengeance and a former bandmate of Arjen Lucassen. The clear but heavy sound that Oscar offered was again perfect for the vision of Lana and Erik. After completing Ed's drum tracks and Arjen's guitar tracks, Lana and Erik returned to Los Angeles with the master tapes where they added the vocals, keyboards, bass, percussion and the rest of the guitars.
After six weeks of tracking in Los Angeles, Erik returned to The Netherlands to mix "Secrets of Astrology" with Oscar Holleman at RS29. Following the mix, Erik took the album to the world famous Abbey Road Studios in London for mastering. The combination of Abbey Road's custom - built vintage EMI console and the modern heavy sound of Holleman's RS29 blended perfectly.
With all of the changes in musicians and production, Lana wanted to reflect this change in the album's artwork. Although Lana Lane had used the work of Polish artist Jacek Yerka for her previous nine releases, this time she chose a painting by the American surrealist Michael Parkes. Lana's idea was to use a new painter to represent a new sound. The Michael Parkes cover art is compelling and evocative. It represents the album well, both musically and conceptually.
With a new team of master class musicians from around the world, Lana Lane is boldly marching into the next chapter of her career. Unwilling to stagnate or recycle old ideas, Lana proves once again that she is the Queen of Symphonic Rock by bringing forth her most dramatic and delightful vision yet in "Secrets of Astrology".
