Erik Norlander - The Galactic Collective (2010)

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Erik Norlander - The Galactic Collective (2010)

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If you're a fan of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Rick Wakeman, this is definitely something for you. Big instrumental symphonic rock from the keyboardist most well known for his work with Lana Lane and Rocket Scientists. Backed by a bunch of experienced musicians, among them his wife Lana Lane, fellow Rocket Scientist member Marc McCrite and John Payne (Asia).

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Erik Norlander has a new album out called The Galactic Collective which is a reworking of instrumental Erik created for Lana Lane, Rocket Scientists and his own solo releases. The reworking breathe some new air into the songs present on this album. I would go as far as saying theses are the definitive versions and are the way they were meant to sound especially on the epic of the album , “The Dark Water“. Up until now it has been presented in pieces on several Rocket Scientists‘ albums.
Erik assembled a bran new band to back him on this ambitious album. Joining Erik are John Payne, Mitch Perry, Mark McCrite, Ron Redfield and Freddy DeMarco (guitars) Mark Matthews (bass) & Nick LePar (drums) and choral vocal sections by Lana Lane and John Payne. These musicians help Erik recreate some beautiful magic on the entire The Galactic Collective.

The entire album is amazing from start to finish with some songs that stood out to me like “Fanfare For Absent Friends”, “Neurosaur”, “Trantor Station” and the afore mentioned epic 20 minute , “The Dark Water”.

All of this was inspired by the 2007 sessions featured on disc 4 on the Rocket Scientists’ box set Looking Backward (highly recommended!), which was absolutely brilliant. Just like Looking Backward, there’s supposed to be a DVD of The Galactic Collective. I read it’ll be released late in 2010, hopefully.

In closing if you’re a fan of Erik’s solo albums and the Rocket Scientists and Lana Lane’s then this album is a must have for your collection. Newbies to Erik’s music will also need to have this album as a perfect introduction. I’d also recommend fans of keyboard driven progressive music to look into this album ASAP. Highly recommended release of 2010.

~ Ron Fuchs on July 4th, 2010

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Erik Norlander - The Galactic Collective (2010)

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Erik Norlander:

ERIK NORLANDER is the keyboardist for the ROCKET SCIENTISTS and also for his wife Lana Lane's band. He has also worked as a session musician for MARK BOALS, AYREON, STAR ONE and many others. He has released five solo albums and a live album in between working with his two bands. On his solo albums, he has worked with such well-known artists as Glenn Hughes, Edward Reekers, Arjen Lucassen, Robert Soeterbek and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, as well as his wife and his bandmates from the ROCKET SCIENTISTS.

His first solo excursion, released in 1997, was an entirely instrumental affair, primarily a symphonic keyboard-driven album, although also including drums and bass guitar. Keith Emerson was so impressed with Norlander's "Threshold" album, that he wrote the liner notes for it. On his second solo album, released in 2000, he moved away from the completely symphonic, embracing a much harder prog style, with vocals this time and with Arjen Lucassen providing guitars and several vocalists from the hard rock/heavy prog arena singing.

In 2003, Norlander released "Music Man", a 2CD rock opera concept album about the dramatic rise and fall of a genetically engineered rock star. With this release he again produced an album primarily in the heavy prog arena, although there was also some symphonic as well as some ambient/electronic work on the album as well. The following year, he released two albums, the live "Stars Rain Down" combining tracks from his first three solo releases as well as a ROCKET SCIENTISTS song and a cover of the theme to "Space: 1999".

For his second release of the year, "Seas of Orion" he returned to the fully instrumental, but this time focusing more on the ambient/electronic side of prog, although there were still touches of the symphonic. In 2007, he released an album of covers titled "Hommage Symphonique". On this album, he covered songs by ELP, PROCOL HARUM, YES and JETHRO TULL, among others.

Erik's music has some echoes of work of AYREON and full of breaks close to EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, TRACE or SOCIAL TENSION with classical, jazzy, medieval and even hard accents. Erik's evocative synthesizer technique is reminiscent of the legendary RICK WAKEMAN, KEITH EMERSON and JON LORD while still very unique and forward-moving in its own right.

Erik is from Southern California but many of his guest appearances and tours have taken him to Europe where he is better known. All his recordings are recommended

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Erik Norlander - The Galactic Collective (2010)

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Erik Norlander - The Galactic Collective (2010)

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