Echolyn
Encyclopedia
Echolyn is an American progressive rock
band
based in eastern Pennsylvania
.
With this lineup, Echolyn recorded a second album, Suffocating the Bloom, and a 4-song EP, ...and every blossom, and with these releases attracted the attention of Sony Music. In 1993, Echolyn was signed to a multi-album deal on Sony's Epic Records label, and their major-label debut, As the World
, was released in March 1995.
However, the band and the label did not agree on the band's musical direction, and the band was forced to promote As the World without the support of Sony. Disillusioned, the band split up, releasing a posthumous album of demos and live tracks in 1996 called When the Sweet Turns Sour (featuring a cover of the early Genesis track "When The Sour Turns To Sweet", which Sony refused to allow to be included on a Magna Carta Genesis tribute CD entitled "Supper's Ready").
Chris Buzby formed a jazz-influenced progressive rock band called Finneus Gauge
It was during this time that Echolyn were asked by Magna Carta Records
to contribute to a Jethro Tull
tribute album. Weston, Kull, and Ramsey (who owned the Echolyn trademark name) chose "One Brown Mouse," recorded the song, and the CD To Cry You a Song: A Collection of Tull Tales was released July 2, 1996. The CD contained Tull covers by prog giants Keith Emerson
(with Mick Abrahams
, Clive Bunker
, and Glenn Cornick
), Magellan
, and John Wetton
, among others.
After playing as a guest with the band in 2002 and early 2003, Tom Hyatt officially rejoined Echolyn later that year. The first album from the fully reformed lineup was The End Is Beautiful
, released in September 2005. Subsequently, the band embarked on their first European tour. They also contributed a new track called "15 Days" to the benefit album "After the Storm" (NEARfest Records), in support of the survivors of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The band was later featured at the inaugural Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montréal in Quebec, Canada in September 2006.
2008 saw the release of a newly remastered Cowboy Poems Free as well as solo work from Brett Kull. Work was progressing toward a new album at the end of the year with the following working titles for tracks announced:
Echolyn continued to tour sporadically through 2009. The band worked on new material off and on over the next couple of years, and are now expecting to finish work on the as-yet-untitled new album by the end of 2011.
, Gentle Giant
, Yes
, Steely Dan
, Jethro Tull
, Igor Stravinsky
, Electric Light Orchestra
, and The Beatles
as influences.
While the band's style has varied over the years, those influences have been consistently reflected in their music. Intricate guitar leads, unorthodox harmonic structures influenced by modern classical music, and complex contrapuntal vocal passages have remained significant aspects of the musical sound of Echolyn.
The albums they recorded before their 1996 breakup sounded more like "classic" progressive rock, with layered keyboards and extended arrangements. Following their reformation, they have streamlined their style significantly, emphasizing strong, tightly constructed songwriting and more prominent rhythmic grooves, while maintaining much of the subtle sophistication that has caused their music to be labeled "progressive."
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
based in eastern Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
Origins and first phase (1989-1995)
Echolyn was formed in 1989 when guitarist Brett Kull and drummer Paul Ramsey, members of a recently split cover band called Narcissus, joined with keyboardist Chris Buzby to form a new band to focus on original songs. They were soon joined by fellow Narcissus veteran Ray Weston on vocals and bassist Jesse Reyes, and quickly began playing live and recording their eponymous debut album, which was released in 1991. During the recording of that album, Reyes was replaced on bass by Tom Hyatt.With this lineup, Echolyn recorded a second album, Suffocating the Bloom, and a 4-song EP, ...and every blossom, and with these releases attracted the attention of Sony Music. In 1993, Echolyn was signed to a multi-album deal on Sony's Epic Records label, and their major-label debut, As the World
As the World
As the World is an album by the progressive rock band Echolyn, released in 1995. It features many complex arrangements and vocal harmonies, showing at times the influence of classic progrock bands such as Gentle Giant and Genesis....
, was released in March 1995.
However, the band and the label did not agree on the band's musical direction, and the band was forced to promote As the World without the support of Sony. Disillusioned, the band split up, releasing a posthumous album of demos and live tracks in 1996 called When the Sweet Turns Sour (featuring a cover of the early Genesis track "When The Sour Turns To Sweet", which Sony refused to allow to be included on a Magna Carta Genesis tribute CD entitled "Supper's Ready").
Interim (1996-1999)
Ray Weston, Brett Kull and Paul Ramsey formed a new, semi-progressive rock band called Still and released a disc called "Always Almost" in early 1996, on Geoff Logsdon's Pleasant Green label. Later that year the band changed its name to Always Almost, releasing a much more progressive-oriented album entitled "God Pounds His Nails", also on Pleasant Green.Chris Buzby formed a jazz-influenced progressive rock band called Finneus Gauge
It was during this time that Echolyn were asked by Magna Carta Records
Magna Carta Records
Magna Carta Records is an independent record label located in Rochester, New York. Magna Carta was formed in 1989 and is owned by Peter Morticelli and his partner Mike Varney. The label has a diverse line-up consisting of musicians from many different genres, but is best known for many of its...
to contribute to a Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
tribute album. Weston, Kull, and Ramsey (who owned the Echolyn trademark name) chose "One Brown Mouse," recorded the song, and the CD To Cry You a Song: A Collection of Tull Tales was released July 2, 1996. The CD contained Tull covers by prog giants Keith Emerson
Keith Emerson
Keith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...
(with Mick Abrahams
Mick Abrahams
Michael Timothy 'Mick' Abrahams was the original guitarist for Jethro Tull. He recorded the album This Was with the band in 1968, but conflicts between Abrahams and Ian Anderson over the musical direction of the band led Abrahams to leave once the album was finished...
, Clive Bunker
Clive Bunker
Clive William Bunker is a British rock drummer. He was the original drummer in the British band Jethro Tull....
, and Glenn Cornick
Glenn Cornick
Glenn Douglas Barnard Cornick was the bespectacled, first bass guitar player in the progressive rock band, Jethro Tull....
), Magellan
Magellan (band)
Magellan is a progressive metal/rock band from California, United States, formed by the two brothers Trent Gardner and Wayne Gardner in 1985. The band has had a number of well known guest musicians, such as Ian Anderson , Joey Franco , and Tony Levin...
, and John Wetton
John Wetton
John Kenneth Wetton is an English bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He was born in Willington, Derbyshire, and grew up in Bournemouth. He has been a professional musician since the late 1960s...
, among others.
Second phase (2000-present)
Echolyn formally reformed - without Tom Hyatt - in the spring of 2000. Ray Weston took over bass duties and new member Jordan Perlson (a Berklee College of Music graduate and former student of Buzby) supplemented Ramsey on drums and percussion. This lineup produced the 2000 album Cowboy Poems Free, a loose concept album centering on Americana, and the 2002 album mei, which contains only a single, 50-minute-long track.After playing as a guest with the band in 2002 and early 2003, Tom Hyatt officially rejoined Echolyn later that year. The first album from the fully reformed lineup was The End Is Beautiful
The End is Beautiful
The End is Beautiful is an album by the progressive rock band Echolyn, released in August 2005. It is their sixth full-length studio album.-Track listing:#"Georgia Pine" – 5:49#"Heavy Blue Miles" – 6:48#"Lovesick Morning" – 10:12...
, released in September 2005. Subsequently, the band embarked on their first European tour. They also contributed a new track called "15 Days" to the benefit album "After the Storm" (NEARfest Records), in support of the survivors of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The band was later featured at the inaugural Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montréal in Quebec, Canada in September 2006.
2008 saw the release of a newly remastered Cowboy Poems Free as well as solo work from Brett Kull. Work was progressing toward a new album at the end of the year with the following working titles for tracks announced:
- Accumulated Blur
- Hey Little Man
- Moments Without Sound
- Some Memorial
- What Comes After
- The Cardinal and I
Echolyn continued to tour sporadically through 2009. The band worked on new material off and on over the next couple of years, and are now expecting to finish work on the as-yet-untitled new album by the end of 2011.
Musical style
The members of Echolyn have cited GenesisGenesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
, Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members. All of the band members, except the first two drummers, were multi-instrumentalists...
, Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
, Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
, Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
, Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra
Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...
, and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
as influences.
While the band's style has varied over the years, those influences have been consistently reflected in their music. Intricate guitar leads, unorthodox harmonic structures influenced by modern classical music, and complex contrapuntal vocal passages have remained significant aspects of the musical sound of Echolyn.
The albums they recorded before their 1996 breakup sounded more like "classic" progressive rock, with layered keyboards and extended arrangements. Following their reformation, they have streamlined their style significantly, emphasizing strong, tightly constructed songwriting and more prominent rhythmic grooves, while maintaining much of the subtle sophistication that has caused their music to be labeled "progressive."
Current Lineup
- Ray Weston - vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Brett KullBrett KullBrett Kull is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer, best known for his work with the progressive rock group Echolyn.-Solo works:-Echolyn:...
- guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Chris Buzby - keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Paul Ramsey - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Tom Hyatt - bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Former members
- Jesse Reyes - bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(on Echolyn) - Jordan Perlson - percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
(as a full member on Cowboy Poems Free and as a guest musician on mei)
Discography
- Echolyn (1991)
- Suffocating the BloomSuffocating the BloomSuffocating the Bloom is the second studio album by the progressive rock band echolyn.-Track listing:# "21" – 5:49# "Winterthru" – 3:45# "Memoirs From Between" – 8:01...
(1992) - ...and every blossom (1993)
- As the WorldAs the WorldAs the World is an album by the progressive rock band Echolyn, released in 1995. It features many complex arrangements and vocal harmonies, showing at times the influence of classic progrock bands such as Gentle Giant and Genesis....
(1995) - When the Sweet Turns Sour (1996)
- To Cry You a Song: A Collection of Tull Tales (contribution) (1996)
- Cowboy Poems Free (2000)
- A Little Nonsense (Now and Then) (2002) (box set)
- meiMei (album)Mei is the fifth full-length studio album by the American rock band Echolyn, released in 2002.Unlike its precursor Cowboy Poems Free , mei is a typical progressive rock album in that it consists of few, longer, songs with many instrumental sections and complex structures instead of the normal song...
(2002) - Progfest '94 (the Official Bootleg) (2002) (released for trading among fans)
- Jersey Tomato, Volume 2 (Live at the Metlar-Bodine Museum)Jersey Tomato vol. 2 (live at the Metlar Bodine Museum)Jersey Tomato vol. 2 is a live album by progressive rock band Echolyn. It is available as a digital download , but had only a limited physical release of 100 CD-R copies, printed by the band. Thirty-five of these went free to those fans who paid $50 to attend the show in question...
(2004) - Stars and Gardens, Volume 4 DVD (2004)
- The End Is BeautifulThe End is BeautifulThe End is Beautiful is an album by the progressive rock band Echolyn, released in August 2005. It is their sixth full-length studio album.-Track listing:#"Georgia Pine" – 5:49#"Heavy Blue Miles" – 6:48#"Lovesick Morning" – 10:12...
(2005) - After the Storm: A Benefit Album for the Survivors of Hurricane Katrina (contribution) (2006)