World’s Prog Gurus Gather In One Album
What would it be like if five of the world’s finest progressive rock musicians joined forces on one album? Progressive rock/metal project Semantic Saturation, founded by guitarist Shant Hagopian is featuring world-class musicians and progressive rock icons such as drummer Virgil Donati (Steve Vai), bassist Ric Fierabracci (Planet X), with guests; keyboardist Derek Sherinian (ex. Dream Theater) and vocalist Andy Kuntz (Vanden Plas). Solipsistic is set to be released on January 21, 2013 in both CD and digital formats through the Semantic Saturation site and dozens of online stores like iTunes, Amazon, BandCamp and many others.
Pre-order Solipsistic through this link: http://tinyurl.com/camo8rs or through www.semanticsaturation.com First 50 CDs include free guitar picks and posters autographed by Derek Sherinian and Shant Hagopian.
Solipsistic consists of nine tracks, the first eight of which are instrumental, with the final track titled “What if We All Stop” bearing Andy Kuntz’s signature vocals. The epic song spans over 8 minutes, transitioning from a calm, mellow beginning towards an eagerly-anticipated heavier mid-section, before it reaches a grand finale capturing the essence of prog-rock along the way. Two tracks from the album, Stardust (the single) and Ambivalence are available to download, free to everyone who subscribes to the mailing list at www.semanticsaturation.com
On the album, Vocalist Andy Kuntz says: “I’m very proud to be part of a new project with my precious friend Shant Hagopian. He is such a great composer and a very unique guitar player with his very own fingerprint”. Bassist Ric Fierabracci follows up saying: “It was a great pleasure for me to play on Shant’s new CD. He is an extremely gifted writer, guitarist and producer as well”. On the process of creating the album Shant comments: “There’s this moment of transition during the recording process, when you put all the ideas together like pieces of a puzzle, and only then the bigger picture takes shape and you clearly see what the end result is going to be”.
Shant Hagopian is a Canadian songwriter/guitarist of Syrian/Armenian heritage. He has specialized in Jazz guitar studies and in 97 founded the prog. metal band Nu.Clear.Dawn with Poem of a Knight as the first metal record in Syria. Touring throughout the Middle East and performing in large festivals like Rock the Nations 2004 in Istanbul along names like Pain of Salvation, Epica, Sentenced, Vanden Plas and more, their album received positive reviews from acclaimed webzines such as Metal Storm and The Metal Observer. Shant moved to Canada in 2005 and started working on his solo project.
Source: http://www.semanticsaturation.com/
