Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) is back with a new Star One album titled “Revel In Time.” The new album comes more than 10 years since the previous release and is due out on Feb 18th, 2022 on Inside Out Music. Today, Arjen is pleased to share the first single and video from the album’s closing track “Lost Children of the Universe.” Watch the video below.
Arjen has this to say about the track: “This 10-minute epic is the first video clip/single of the new Star One album Revel in Time. The lyrics are inspired by the movie Interstellar. This is a slightly different version than on the CD. On CD1 Roy Khan sings the lead vocals and on CD2 Tony Martin sings the lead vocals. For this YouTube version I combined their voices. Both such great singers, I just couldn’t choose! Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your attention!”
The album will be available for pre-order on Dec. 17th and it will come as Ltd. 2CD Digipak, Ltd. Deluxe 3CD+Blu-Ray Artbook (incl. a poster of the cover artwork), and as 180g Gatefold 2LP (incl. the album on CD & an LP-Booklet).
CD 2 features alternate versions of the same songs as CD 1, but with different vocalists. Also available will be a 5.1 mix, a high-res audio version, and an exclusive, hour-long Behind the Scenes video, on the Blu-ray included in the Artbook.
For this Star One release, Arjen has decided to use a different singer for each song, and those singers as well as the instrumentalists are slowly being revealed on Arjen Lucassen’s Facebook page.
“Revel In Time” Track-Listing:
- Fate of Man 5:29
- 28 Days (Till the End of Time) 7:21
- Prescient 6:34
- Back from the Past 4:50
- Revel in Time 4:38
- The Year of ’41 6:20
- Bridge of Life 5:14
- Today is Yesterday 5:46
- A Hand on the Clock 5:52
- Beyond the Edge of it All 4:52
- Lost Children of the Universe 9:46
CD 2 features the same songs as CD 1, but with different vocalists
Arjen explains the decision to return with a new Star One album: “Ayreon is like the mothership for all my music. It contains all the different musical styles that I like to listen to and that I love to create. But I’m always looking for challenges and trying to create something new and original as well. Working within a set of constraints forces you to do that, so sometimes I like to limit myself and focus on just one style. For example, with Star One I focus on the metal-side of Ayreon. That means you won’t hear the exuberantly liberal use of acoustic instruments that are so often featured on Ayreon albums, like violin, woodwinds, cello, horns, dulcimer, mandolin, etc.”
The artwork was designed by Ayreon artist Jef Bertels, Arjen explains: “As always, Jef’s painting is wondrously labyrinthine; I can sit in front of it for hours and discover new details all the time. Now you might be thinking “Hey, isn’t Jef Bertels the designated artist for Ayreon, but not for Star One?” Of course I thought about that myself. But when I realized how much I liked this album I felt that it deserved a painting of its own and a special place alongside Jef’s other front-cover masterpieces. And anyway, I’ve been breaking rules ever since the very beginning of Ayreon. So… there you have it!”
