Arjen Lucassen

Template:Guitarist infobox Arjen Anthony Lucassen (born April 3 1960) is a composer and musician from the Netherlands and is most widely known for his albums released under the name Ayreon. Arjen plays a wide variety of instruments, chiefly guitars and synthesizers, but also less commonly others such as the flute and mellotron. He also occasionally uses his voice in his music. Although Arjen cannot read or write sheet music, he is a proficient musician and adept in technical aspects. He has a penchant for directing talent, characterized by the successful Ayreon albums, in almost all of which he pools together the talent of many separate vocalists and musicians who record their performances individually. Unfortunately this makes arranging live performances very difficult, and thus Arjen is rarely seen in a live performance, although it has happened (such as during his Star One and Stream of Passion tours.)

Early Life

Born April 3rd, 1960 in Hague. He and his brother Gjalt were reportedly good students, although Arjen was known for being a troublemaker in class.

He became a big fan of The Beatles and then early glam-rock like Alice Cooper and David Bowie. At first, he did not want to play an instrument, and instead started a play-back project. He started to play guitar when a friend gave him a copy of the Deep Purple album "Made in Japan". After learning to play, Arjen played in many bands until 1980, one called "Mover".

Bodine

In 1980, Dutch band Bodine was looking for a new singer. Bodine was one of Arjen's favorite bands, and brought his guitar to the audition in hopes of becoming their second guitarist. After being rejected for his singing abilities, he then played some Bodine songs on his guitar. The rest of the band hired him as their guitarist.

Arjen stayed with Bodine until 1984, recording two albums with them, "Bold and Brass" and "Three Time Running".

Vengeance

Arjen got a call from a new band called Vengeance, looking for a guitarist. He told them that he was available, and quickly quit Bodine shortly after.

He reportedly had more creative freedom in Vengeance, being able to write and compose songs. Still, much creative problems were present, seeing as the band all hailed from different musical backgrounds. In the early nineties, the band wanted to go into more of a grunge and alternative rock direction, much like many other bands at the time. Arjen, however, wanted to go into more of progressive direction. Arjen left the band in 1992 to pursue a solo career.

Solo Career

Due to the new found creative freedom, Arjen started writing and recording songs from many different styles. After hearing some of these songs, a record company decided to record an album with him. Arjen released the album "Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy", under the name "Anthony", his middle name, in 1993. Arjen played most of the instruments himself except for the drums and synthesizer.

Even though the album spawned three singles with radio spots, the album flopped. It is no longer available, and is considered a collector's item.

Ayreon

After the not-so-successful solo album, Arjen wanted to create an album that would be all him, and would not conform to any one genre or style. He was inspired by the rock operas of the 60's and 70's like Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Jesus Christ Superstar", The Who's "Tommy", and Pink Floyd's "The Wall". He found a small Dutch label called Transmission who was interested, and he started recording his next album.

The original name for the album was just going to be "Ayreon: The Final Experiment", with no band name given. The label then suggested that the artist name should be given as Ayreon, and the album should be called "The Final Experiment". Ayreon's "The Final Experiment" was released in 1995. Much like his first solo album, he played many of the instruments himself and wrote all of the lyrics.

The album featured a very wide array of musical styles, ranging from folk to progressive metal. Because of this, Arjen didn't think the album would be too successful. In contrast, the album was hailed as one of the greatest progressive rock operas of all time, and got high critical reviews. The album also contained many singers and guest musicians, with Arjen only singing on two of the songs.

The album's concept was about a blind minstrel in the 1500's named Ayreon, who gets visions from scientists from the year 2084, when mankind has nearly destroyed itself. Their last resort is to contact someone from the past to try and warn humanity of its eventual downfall. Many of Ayreon's later albums would follow a sci-fi storyline.

After the success of The Final Experiment, Arjen started on his next Ayreon album. In 1996, he released his second Ayreon album, "Actual Fantasy". Unlike his previous album, Actual Fantasy has no continuous storyline. Each of the eight songs featured it's own storyline, either taken from folk tales or storied Arjen wrote himself. Much like his previous album, the style ranged many different genres, but unlike the last album, this one only had three singers (neither of them Arjen) and only two other instrumentalists.

After "Actual Fantasy" failed to meet the popularity of the "The Final Experiment", Arjen wanted to do something extraordinary. After his cover project "Strange Hobby" flopped, he started working on his second rock opera.

"Into the Electric Castle" was released in 1998. It was released as a double album topping over 100 minutes. Unlike "The Final Experiment", singers were recruited to play a certain character in the story. The most notable of the cast is Fish, who was the singer for the progressive rock band Marillion, before he quit the band. Like all of his previous work, it is sci-fi oriented, with 8 characters from all over time being placed in a parallel dimension to journey to the Electric Castle. It was hailed as a masterpiece, and was the best-selling album until 2004.

Propelled by success, Arjen released the two-part album, "The Universal Migrator" in 2000. Both part 1 and 2 were released at the same time, with part 1 being "The Dream Sequencer", a softer, atmospheric and progressive album, while part 2, "Flight of the Migrator", edged more towards faster-paced, progressive metal. The idea between the two separate releases was to create an album specifically aimed towards the two different groups of Ayreon fans, the ones who like his progressive or fusion style, and the other that likes straightforward progressive metal and his harder side. Both albums were received pretty well by fans, however.

Unlike his previous opera, The Universal Migrator featured only one character, and the guest singers each played him on a different song. The most notable guest musician is Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, on Flight of the Migrator.

"Ayreonauts Only" was released also in 2000, and featured remixes of many Ayreon songs. Afterwards, Arjen got pre-occupied with many side-projects, including Ambeon, Star One, and Stream of Passion.

Ayreon did not release another album until 2004, with the release of "The Human Equation". It followed a similar formula as "Into the Electric Castle". It is a double album, and the guest singers each play their own character in the story. The most notable of the singers is James LaBrie of Dream Theater, along with Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad) and Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth). Unlike his previous albums, this one was not sci-fi oriented, although the final track does loosely tie the album into the storyline of his other albums.

Arjen has announced a new Ayreon album in production, but no release date has been set yet.

None of the Ayreon albums have been played live, but individual songs have been played in tours of Arjen's side projects.

Special editions of all of Ayreon's album were released in 2004 when Arjen switched labels from Transmission to InsideOut Records.

Strange Hobby

Between Actual Fantasy and Into the Electric Castle, Arjen released an album on which he covered many of his favorite songs called Strange Hobby. The album itself did not do well upon release, and went out of print. It is his only work where he sings on all the songs and makes all of the music himself.

Ambeon

After the Universal Migrator Albums, Arjen wanted to embark on two side projects that would explore both his ambient, atmospheric progressive side, and one that explored his heavier progressive metal side. This was his softer side.

This is how Ambeon got started, although it ended up something much different. When recruiting singers, he found out about a very talented Dutch singer named Astrid van der Veen, who at the time was only 14 years old. Arjen decided to focus Ambeon on just her singing abilities. "Fate of a Dreamer" was released in 2000, along with the single "Cold Metal". The album featured just Astrid on vocals and her lyrics, and Arjen on all the instruments. The album had limited success.

Although the project has not been officially retired, there are currently no further plans for Ambeon. Astrid is currently in a band called theEndorphins. Ambeon also never toured.

Star One

After the Universal Migrator Albums, Arjen wanted to embark on two side projects that would explore both his ambient, atmospheric progressive side, and one that explored his heavier progressive metal side. This was his heavy side.

Much like Ayreon, Star One had many guest singers and musicians, the most notable being Russel Allen of Symphony X. Arjen released Star One's "Space Metal" in 2002. Like Ayreon's Actual Fantasy, Space Metal did not follow one storyline, instead, each song was a different story with a sci-fi concept, most of the tracks based on existing movies and series like Star Wars, Star Trek IV, Blake's 7, and Dune. The album also had limited success, although it was more successful than Ambeon.

Like Arjen's other project Stream of Passion, Star One did tour and released a live album called "Live on Earth". Along with playing Star One songs, they also played many Ayreon songs on tour.

Stream of Passion

After completing the Ayreon album "The Human Equation", Arjen wanted to create a more conventional progressive metal band. He also wanted to showcase the talents of Mexican singer, Marcela Bovio, who sang on The Human Equation.

He recruited a bassist, drummer, and keyboardist and started the band now called Stream of Passion. Arjen allowed Marcela to be creatively free, with her writing and composing a lot of the music. The style ended up as a blend of metal and symphonic progressive rock. They released the album "Embrace the Storm" in 2005. Like the previous Star One, Stream of Passion toured and released a live album , "Out in the Real World", in 2006. Like Star One, the tour featured many Ayreon songs as well as songs from the album.

Due to internal difficulties, Arjen left Stream of Passion in 2007. The band itself has not broken up though, however, although there has not been another album announced.

Recent bands

Past bands

Bodine
Vengeance

Guest appearances

Pythagoras - After the Silence (1981)
Anthony - Pools Of Sorrow, Waves Of Joy (1993)
Ian Parry - Symphony of Dreams (1993)
Alex Bollard - Pink Floyd Songbook (1994)
Ian Parry - Thru the Looking Glass (1995)
Strange Hobby - Strange Hobby (1996)
Biscuit - Between you and me (1996)
Veralin - Opposites (1997)
Helloise - A Time And Place For Everything (1998)
Block Busters - Powder to the People (1999)
Ian Parry - Consortium Project (1999)
Peter Daltrey - Candy (1999)
Rocket Scientists - Oblivion Days (1999)
Erik Norlander - Into The Sunset (2000)
Ian Parry - Shadowman (2000)
Glass Hammer - Chronometree (2000)
Within Temptation - Mother Earth (2000)
Lana Lane - Secrets Of Astrology (2000)
After Forever - Emphasis (single) (2002)
Nolan / Wakeman - The Hound Of The Baskervilles (2002)
Wicked Sensation - Reflected (2002)
Nightingale - Alive Again (2003)
Ars Nova - Biogenesis (2003)
Gary Hughes - Once and Future King Part I (2003)
Space Mirrors - The Darker Side of Art (2004)
Amadeus' Spell (2004)
Elfonía - This Sonic Landscape (2005)
Shadow Gallery - Room V: Special Edition (2005)

Notes

Arjen is known for loving to get emails from his fans, and answers them rather diligently, as quickly as he can in his hectic schedule. He also opened a line of communication on the Ayreon website known as "Ask Arjen Anything", where fans could ask whatever they'd like to him, to which Arjen answers, and the completed list can be seen on the site itself.