Arjen Lucassen’s rock-opera centered solo career called Ayreon began in 1995 with the release of The Final Experiment. Since then there have been Ayreon albums, as well as projects such as The Gentle Storm, Star One, Stream of Passion, and Guilt Machine. Ayreon even managed to head out on tour with some of those. But in over 20 years since the Ayreon debut there was one thing that Arjen had not been able to do, and that was to bring Ayreon to the stage. That all changed in September 2017.
The new release, Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live documents two years of planning, a large cast of musicians, 16 singers, and fans from 54 countries coming together for a magical weekend in Tilburg at the 013. Along with the show itself the video releases contain 100+ minutes of bonus footage, most of which is a very in depth documentary on the process of pulling such a big production together.
During the interview we of course talked a lot about the show and the upcoming release, with a focus on items that are not covered during the documentary or going more in depth on some of the things that are. We also of course touched on a few other subjects, including Arjen’s new home, which is by default now the “Electric Castle” where future projects will be recorded. Arjen was even kind enough to share a couple of photos of his now home being built as a schoolhouse in the 1920s, and you can see them included in the video below.
You can buy Ayreon Universe at this location.
The live pictures used in the video are courtesy of Thorsten Seiffert. You can find more of Thorsten‘s excellent work by visiting his Facebook page and his website
Podcast: Download (Duration: 46:44 — 107.3MB)
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