NEW YORK (Chipster PR/ Artemis Records) - Legendary musician, producer and engineer Alan Parsons recently released A Valid Path, his first album of new material in five years, on Artemis Records/5.1 Entertainment Group/Immergent Records. A Valid Path marks a new shift in musical direction for Parsons. It has a distinct electronica sound while maintaining its roots in the pop-flavored progressive rock style of Parsons' famed Alan Parsons Project.
Parsons' last album, 1999's The Time Machine, started to incorporate washes of electronica. "I've always been interested in electronica, going right back to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. I started to get involved with it in the 1970s. I consider that Musique Concrete including that of Stockhausen, John Cage and Peter Zenovieff which was a part of my growing up was an influence on my career. In the mid-'80s, I worked with one of Stockhausen's recording teams at Abbey Road. The music of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream definitely influenced the development of electronica and they are still important today," the British-born Parsons says.
"Others have said that I had a hand in influencing electronica because of the production values of the Alan Parsons Project albums. That's really not for me to say, but if I was an influence I'm proud of that."
A Valid Path features special guest appearances by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, The Crystal Method, Shpongle, Nortec Collective and Uberzone. Narrative sections feature the voices of actor/comedian John Cleese and the late actor/director Orson Welles. Parsons himself contributes keyboard, guitar and vocal parts, and he works with a new core of collaborators including his son Jeremy Parsons on computer programming and sequencing and P.J. Olsson on lead vocals and additional computer programming and sequencing.
Fans of the Alan Parsons Project will notice that "Mammagamma 04" is a new version of the song first included on 1982's smash hit album Eye In The Sky and "A Recurring Dream Within A Dream" is a new composite of "A Dream Within A Dream" and "The Raven" from the 1976 debut Tales Of Mystery And Imagination.
"I just felt it was right to do something from the first album. My son Jeremy had an influence on remaking those three songs. He watched my career with the Alan Parsons Project unfold from the day he was born in 1977. He's a very talented guy and his knowledge of modern music and the beats-per-minute settings of the month are amazing!" says Parsons.
A Valid Path is deeply satisfying to Parsons, but it did not come together quickly or easily. "The songs are a series of individual collaborations. For example, 'We Play The Game,' which surprisingly I sing lead vocals on, was a total collaborative effort with The Crystal Method," he says. "But this wasn't a very quick album to make. It spent two years on the drawing board, mostly due to the various schedules of everyone involved."
Parsons says attracting new electronica-loving fans who are unaware of his past accomplishments would be the ideal result.
And what a remarkable history Parsons has. He worked at Abbey Road studios in London as an assistant engineer on the Beatles' last two albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be. He earned a Grammy nomination for engineering Pink Floyd's monumental The Dark Side of the Moon, certainly one of the greatest and most influential albums in the history of popular music.
Parsons formed the Alan Parsons Project with songwriting partner Eric Woolfson. With a core band of top-notch British session musicians and a trademark practice of employing a stable of rotating lead vocalists, between 1976 and 1987 the Alan Parsons Project released a steady string of impeccably produced best-selling albums. They include I Robot (inspired by the work of science-fiction author Isaac Asimov), The Turn Of A Friendly Card and the previously mentioned Tales Of Mystery And Imagination (based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe) and Eye In The Sky.
These albums often focused on a central theme. Several hit singles scaled the charts as well including "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You," "Games People Play," "Damned If I Do," "Eye In The Sky," "Time" and "Don't Answer Me."
The Alan Parsons Project never toured, and Parsons and Woolfson dissolved the group amicably after 1987's Gaudi. Parsons, who did production or engineering work for other artists including Paul McCartney, George Harrison, The Hollies, Al Stewart, Olivia Newton-John, Pilot and others, pursued a solo career and finally hit the road with the Alan Parsons Live Project in the mid-1990s.
The latest incarnation of the Alan Parsons Live Project includes Parsons (guitar, vocals, keyboards, percussion), P.J. Olsson (vocals), Godfrey Townsend (guitar, vocals), Manny Focarazzo (keyboards, vocals), John Montagna (bass guitar, vocals) and Steve Murphy (drums, vocals).
A European tour was completed in October 2004. South American tour dates are scheduled between February and mid-March 2005. The second European tour leg will commence in April 2005 and include Spain, France, Russia and the Balkans. Another U.S. tour leg is slated for May and June 2005.
Fans can expect to hear all of Parsons' hits as well as highlights from A Valid Path.
