You can hear John singing the acoustic version of Sail Away to Avalon here.

This Saturday 3 June, at 10:00 AM CEST, ticket sales start for two newly added, exclusive, and very limited Ayreon Universe events. Read on for all the details!

OFFICIAL TRY-OUT SHOW on FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1

The official try-out for the Ayreon Universe show will be on the Jupiler stage at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

• Limited to 650 tickets
• Be the first to experience the whole set of the Ayreon Universe live shows!
• Featuring the the full Ayreon Universe live band with Ed Warby (drums); Johan van Stratum (bass); Marcel Coenen (lead guitar); Ferry Duijsens (guitar); Joost van den Broek (keyboards); Ben Mathot (violin); Jeroen Goossens (flutes, woodwinds) and Maaike Peterse (cello).
• Featuring the following original Ayreon Universe vocalists: Irene Jansen, Marcela Bovio, Robert Soeterboek, Jay van Feggelen and Lisette van den Berg
• Featuring guest vocalists: Stan Verbraak, John Jaycee Cuijpers, Jan Willem Ketelaars and Paul Glandorf
• Limited to 2 tickets per purchase

Tryout Show ticket price: 20 Euros each (including service costs).

Try Out Tickets

Try-out Show Tickets

ULTIMATE AYREON UNIVERSE EXPERIENCE on FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 15

The Ultimate Experience is a chance for 100 fans to get an exclusive inside peek into the Ayreon Universe at the official dress rehearsal. Ultimate Experience tickets include:

• Limited to 100 tickets
• Exclusive access to the official dress rehearsal at 013 the afternoon of Friday, September 15
• A hardcopy collector’s ticket
• A collectible tour canvas, autographed by Arjen (limited print)
• An Exclusive Ultimate Ayreon Universe Experience shirt
• First chance to buy merchandise
• Meet & Greet with Arjen (other members of the cast TBC)
• Photo moment with Arjen
• One personal item autographed by Arjen
• Limited to 2 tickets per purchase

Ultimate Experience Tickets price: 250 Euros each (excluding service costs).

Ultimate Experience Tickets

Ultimate Experience Tickets

Please note that the Ultimate Experience tickets give you access to the dress rehearsal only. To make it abundantly clear, the Ultimate Experience ticket does NOT grant entrance to any of the full evening shows. Entrance to any of the three full evening shows requires a separate and valid ticket.

NB! In case you read too fast and missed it: The Ultimate Experience is limited to 100 tickets.

We expect tickets for both of these events to sell out very quickly, so if you want to come and join us in September, make sure that you are ready to buy your tickets this Saturday 3 June at 10:00 AM CEST!

Take care and see you at 013!

Arjen and the Ayreon Universe team

Ayreonauts take notice and mark September 15 and 16 of 2017 in your calendars! These are the days that you can experience AYREON LIVE for the first time ever! Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen has chosen the best songs from the Ayreon albums and Star One to create an exclusive live Ayreon show: AYREON UNIVERSE. The show will be performed at the 013 venue in Tilburg by the very best original Ayreon vocalists and instrumentalists.

You can expect Floor Jansen and Marco Hietala from Nightwish, Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Threshold), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot), Jonas Renkse (Katatonia), Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gentle Storm), and many other original Ayreon singers on stage, as well as an appearance by Arjen Lucassen himself.

Regular ticket sales start on Thursday, November 24th at 10.00 am CET via www.ayreon.com/universe. All subscribers to the Arjen Lucassen newsletter will get the chance to buy tickets 24 hours before the regular ticket sales start!

2017 will be an exciting year for Arjen Lucassen with a new Ayreon album to be released and his first Ayreon live shows ever with Ayreon Universe. In contrast to The Theater Equation, Ayreon Universe is fully organized and arranged by Arjen Lucassen personally, assisted by Joost van den Broek. “After the huge success of the four sold-out Ayreon theater shows in 2015, Joost and I decided to boldly go even bigger,” says Arjen. “This is a full-on ‘best of Ayreon’ rock show in a big venue with as many original Ayreon singers and musicians as possible. We’re calling it Ayreon Universe, and as you might guess, it’s a huge undertaking. We’ve had an entire team working on it for over a year already. Ayreon fans have high expectations, and we want to be sure to give them an once-in-a-lifetime experience that they’ll never forget.”

There will be no less than 16 original Ayreon singers: Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Threshold), Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot), Marco Hietala (Nightwish), Jonas Renkse (Katatonia), Mike Mills (Toehider), Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gentle Storm), Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion), Irene Jansen, Robert Soeterboek (Star One), Edward Reekers (Kayak), Jan van Feggelen, Magali Luyten (Nightmare) and Lisette Marije (Scarlet Stories). The hand-picked band of 8 of Arjen’s favorite Ayreon instrumentalists includes Ed Warby (drums), Johan van Stratum (bass), Marcel Coenen (lead guitar), Ferry Duijsens (guitar), Joost van den Broek (keyboards), Ben Mathot (violin), Jeroen Goossens (flutes, woodwinds) and Maaike Peterse (cello).

“Ayreon Universe is bound to become one of the most unique live events ever in the symphonic and progressive rock/metal genre,” says musical director Joost van den Broek. “We’re combining a big selection of top vocalists and instrumentalists who have never been on one stage together before. The music of Ayreon sets the bar really high, pushing everyone involved to their limits. In the upcoming months of preparation towards the shows we will do everything possible to create a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience and performance, living up to all the fans’ expectations.”

The Ayreon Universe live shows will feature songs from all Ayreon albums (incl. from the upcoming release on Mascot Label Group), as well as a selection of fan favorites from Star One.

Ayreonauts, brace yourselves for the ultimate Ayreon concert experience featuring the very best of the Ayreon Universe!

AYREON UNIVERSE
Featuring Floor Jansen, Russell Allen, Damian Wilson, Hansi Kürsch, Tommy Karevik, Marco Hietala, Jonas Renkse, Anneke van Giersbergen and many more familiar faces from Ayreon plus a very special guest appearance by Arjen Lucassen*

Dates: Friday 15 September and Saturday 16 September, 2017
Location: Poppodium 013 – Tilburg, The Netherlands
Doors: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET
Start show: 8:30 pm ( 20:30) CET
VIP tickets: € 85,- (ex. additional fees)

The VIP tickets include an early entrance and a goodie bag with exclusive Ayreon Universe merchandise.
Regular tickets: € 55,- (ex. additional fees)

Find out more about tickets here.

In his latest (2013) release, The Theory of Everything, Arjen unveils a completely revamped conceptual universe for Ayreon. Gone are the complicated story lines featuring sci-fi, aliens and time-travel; in their place is a real-world drama set in the here and now.

Wrapping up the original Ayreon saga with ‘Epilogue: The Memory Remains’, a track on the ‘Timeline’ boxed set, Arjen took a creative hiatus from Ayreon to focus on other projects including Guilt Machine, Star One and his solo record ‘Lost In New Real’. And yet something kept calling him back to Ayreon. Determined to revamp and revitalize the Ayreon universe, Arjen spent 18 months crafting a simpler yet by no means less extravagant new record. Summing up the new concept, Arjen explains, “it takes a look at the fine line between genius and madness, focusing on the conflicting desires of the characters and the consequences of following their passions. It’s not science fiction, but a human story set in a science context.”

• The Theory of Everything features a stellar cast of guests, with members past and present of Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Kamelot, Genesis, Yes, ELP, Asia, Toehider, Grand Magus, and Ancient Bards (see below)
• It is a double album
• It covers a completely new story line for the Ayreon universe
• It comprises four 20-plus minute “epics” divided into 42 separate tracks
• It’s a true Rock Opera with a dramatic, real-world storyline
• It is available in 4 editions, including an exclusive 5-disc limited edition, as well as 2-LP vinyl
• The DVD for the special and limited editions features two and a half hours of behind the scenes content
• Official release date is 28 October, 2013
• The 5-disc Limited Edition is currently sold out in Arjen’s shop, but signed copies of the vinyl and Special Editions are are still available in Arjen’s webshop

Arjen ran a series of “guess the musician” contests via Facebook. You can see all of the videos on his Youtube channel.

GUEST MUSICIANS

Vocalists

(in order of appearance)
JB (Grand Magus) as The Teacher
Sara Squadrani (Ancient Bards) as The Girl
Michael Mills (Toehider) as The Father
Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) as The Mother
Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) as The Prodigy
Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot) as The Rival
John Wetton (Asia, King Crimson) as The Psychiatrist

Instrumentalists

Ed Warby (Hail of Bullets, Gorefest) – drums
Rick Wakeman (Yes) – keyboards
Keith Emerson (Emerson Lake and Palmer) – keyboards
Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) – keyboards
Steve Hackett (Genesis) – lead guitar
Troy Donockley (Nightwish) – Whistles, Uilleann pipes
Ben Mathot (Dis) –violin
Maaike Peterse (Kingfisher Sky) – cello
Jeroen Goossens (Flairck) – flute , bass flute, piccolo, bamboo flute and contrabass flute
Siddharta Barnhoorn – orchestrations
Michael Mills (Toehider) – Irish Bouzouki
Wilmer Waarbroek – backing vocals
Arjen Anthony Lucassen – electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, mandolin, analog synthesizers,
Hammond, Solina Strings

Track Listing

CD1
PHASE I: SINGULARITY (23:29)
1 Prologue: The Blackboard
2 The Theory of Everything part 1
3 Patterns
4 The Prodigy’s World
5 The Teacher’s Discovery
6 Love and Envy
7 Progressive Waves
8 The Gift
9 The Eleventh Dimension
10 Inertia
11 The Theory of Everything part 2

PHASE II: SYMMETRY (21:31)
12 The Consultation
13 Diagnosis
14 The Argument 1
15The Rival’s Dilemma
16 Surface Tension
17A Reason To Live
18 Potential
19 Quantum Chaos
20 Dark Medicine
21 Alive!
22 The Prediction

CD2
PHASE III: ENTANGLEMENT (22:34)
1 Fluctuations
2 Transformation
3 Collision
4 Side Effects
5 Frequency Modulation
6 Magnetism
7 Quid Pro Quo
8 String Theory
9 Fortune?

PHASE IV: UNIFICATION (22:20)
10 Mirror Of Dreams
11 The Lighthouse
12 The Argument 2
13 The Parting
14 The Visitation
15 The Breakthrough
16 The Note
17 The Uncertainty Principle
18 Dark Energy
19 The Theory of Everything part 3
20 The Blackboard (reprise)

DVD content

(special and limited editions only)

1. Feature: The Making of The Theory of Everything (47:49)
2. Full length interviews with Arjen, Cristina Scabbia, Tommy Karevik, JB, Sara Squadrani, Marco Hietala, Mike Mills, and Ed Warby (Total time 1:31:19)
3. Time lapse clips of recording sessions (total time 12:56)

The artwork for the album cover (top of page) was painted by Belgian artist Jef Bertels, who has painted all of the Ayreon covers since Into the Electric Castle. Additional artwork for the album booklet is by Christophe Dessaigne, who also designed the Star One “Victims of the Modern Age” and Guilt Machine “On this Perfect Day.”

The Story
Prologue
In the year 2084 scientists have found a way to send messages back into time using time telepathy. With the earth nearly destroyed by many different causes, they have one hope for the experiment: warn the past of the future to avert the fate of earth.
Act I
The receiver of the telepathic messages is Ayreon, a blind minstrel living in 6th century Britain. He’s lived his life in darkness from the day he was born, but one fateful day everything changes — Ayreon can see images. The minstrel believes these visions are sent to him by the Lords of Time. Unaware of how much time there is left before earth is destroyed Ayreon sets out to tell the tale of earth’s demise singing songs of wars, natural disaster, and computer technology. The terrifying tales frighten the villagers who run him out of town.
Act II
Alone, and cast out of his village, Ayreon goes to King Arthur’s castle, and, being a famed minstrel, he is allowed to sing of his visions in the King’s very own court.

Jealous of his ability to foresee the future, Merlin, the court’s wizard, isn’t pleased with Ayreon’s message, convincing the court the minstrel must be a fake.
Act IV
Merlin believes it is necessary to silence Ayreon forever and curses him. With the curse completed Merlin realizes his error, but it is too late. The wizard then predicts that the message will arrive in the mind of another minstrel at the end of the 20th century…

Release Info

1995 Transmission
2005 InsideOut Music
2005 JVC (Japan)

Vocalists

Arjen Lucassen
Barry Hay
Edward Reekers
Ian Parry
Jan-Chris de Koeijer
Jay van Feggelen
Lenny Wolf
Leon Goewie
Robert Soeterboek
Ruud Houweling
Debby Schreuder
Mirjam van Doorn
Lucy Hillen
Astrid v/d Veen (bonus)
Esther Ladiges (bonus)
Irene Jansen(bonus)
John Cuijpers (bonus)
Marcela Bovio (bonus)
Peter Daltrey (bonus)
Rodney Blaze (bonus)
Valentine (bonus)

Instrumentalists

Arjen Lucassen
Cleem Determeijer
Ernst van Ee
Jan Bijlsma
Jolanda Verduijn
Peter Vink
Rene Merkelbach
Davy Mickers (bonus)
Lori Linstruth (bonus)
Jeroen Goossens (bonus)
Valentine (bonus)

Track List – The Final Experiment Special Edition reissue

1. Prologue
   1. The Time Telepathy Experiment
   2. Overture
   3. Ayreon’s Quest
2. The awareness
   1. The Premonition
   2. Dreamtime
   3. The Awakening
3. Eyes of Time
   1. Eyes of time
   2. Brainwaves
4. The Banishment
   1. A New Dawn
   2. The Gathering
   3. The Accusation
   4. The Banishment
   5. Oblivion
5. Ye Courtyard Minstrel Boy
6. Sail Away to Avalon
7. Natures Dance
8. Computer Reign (Game Over)
9. Waracle
10. Listen to the Waves
11. Magic Ride
12. Merlin’s Will
13. The Charm of the Seer
14. Swan Song
15. Ayreon’s Fate
    1. Ayreon’s Fate
    2. Merlin’s Prophecy
    3. Epilogue

Bonus Disc (2005 Special Edition)

1. Dreamtime
2. Eyes of Time
3. The Accusation
4. Ye Courtyard Minstrel Boy
5. Sail Away to Avalon
6. Nature’s Dance
7. Waracle
8. Merlin’s Will
9. the Charm of the Seer

Universal Migrator Part II: Flight of the Migrator is Arjen’s fifth Ayreon release.

At the time of the original release of the albums comprising the Universal Migrator (2000), Arjen had enough songs for a double CD. But at the time he was under the impression that his fan base was divided into two different camps — prog and metal — and that there was little genre crossover between the two.  So he decided to release two separate CDs, one with the proggy tracks (The Dream Sequencer) and another with the heavier, “metal” tracks (Flight of the Migrator). His idea was that fans could then choose the CD that best fit their musical preferences.

The two albums were released simultaneously, and Arjen’s surprise both CDs received favorable reactions, with most fans purchasing both! Later in 2004, when Arjen moved from Transmission to InsideOut Music, Flight of the Migrator was re-released together with the Dream Sequencer as a 2-CD special edition called The Universal Migrator: Parts I & II. As only 4 years had passed since the original release of the separate albums, Arjen did not add any bonus features because he felt that this would be unfair to the fans who had already purchased the albums.
The story
The Universal Migrator Part II picks up where Part I The Dream Sequencer leaves off, continuing the story of the last man alive on Mars as he decides to venture further back in time. He wants to go all the way back to the time just before the universe was created, a time when there was nothing but chaos. The Colonist witnesses the big bang and the creation of the first soul: The Universal Migrator. This soul divides itself into various new souls that each go in search of planets to inhabit. This is how they bring life to various planets and start different civilizations.

In the Dream Sequencer program the Colonist follows the soul that is headed for Earth. On his long journey through space, he passes astronomical phenomena such as quasars, pulsars, supernovas, black holes, and wormholes. He finally enters the solar system, but the Dream Sequencer program begins to overload. The Colonist should never have ventured that far back in time. The Dream Sequencer tried desperately to wake the Colonist from his deep state of hypnoses, but it is too late; the Colonist dies in the machine. Then the Migrator speaks to him without words: “Eternity lies before you. You are the new Migrator!”

Release info

2000 Transmission
2004 Re-released by InsideOut Music as CD2 of the 2-CD package “The Universal Migrator parts 1 and 2”
2004 Hellion (Brazil), Nems (Argentina)

Artwork
Jef Bertels (cover)
Jacques Marcoux (booklet)

Part 2: Flight of the Migrator

Vocalists

Andi Deris
Bruce Dickinson
Damian Wilson
Fabio Lione
Ian Parry
Lana Lane
Ralf Scheepers
Robert Soeterboek
Russell Allen
Timo Kotipelto

Instrumentalists

Arjen Lucassen
Clive Nolan
Ed Warby
Gary Wehrkamp
Keiko Kumagai
Michael Romeo
Oscar Holleman
Rene Merkelbach

Track List

1. Chaos
2. Dawn of A Million Souls
3. Journey on the Waves of Time
4. To the Quasar
   1. The Taurus Pulsar
   2. Quasar 3C273
5. Into the Black Hole
   1. The Eye of the Universe
   2. Halo of Darkness
   3. The Final Door
6. Through the Wormhole
7. Out of the White Hole
   1. M31
   2. Planet Y
   3. The Search Continues
8. To the Solar System
   1. Planet of Blue
   2. System Alert
9. The New Migrator
   1. Metamorphosis
   2. Sleeper Awake

At the time of the original release of the albums comprising the Universal Migrator (2000), Arjen had enough songs for a double CD. But at the time he was under the impression that his fan base was divided into two different camps — prog and metal — and that there was little genre crossover between the two. So he decided to release two separate CDs, one with the proggy tracks (Dream Sequencer) and another with the heavier, “metal” tracks (Flight of the Migrator). His idea was that fans could then choose the CD that best fit their musical preferences.

The two albums were released simultaneously, and Arjen’s surprise both CDs received favorable reactions, with most fans purchasing both! Later in 2004, when Arjen moved from Transmission to InsideOut Music, The Dream Sequencer was re-released together with Flight of the Migrator as a 2-CD special edition called The Universal Migrator: Parts I & II. As only 4 years had passed since the original release of the separate albums, Arjen did not add any bonus features because he felt that this would be unfair to the fans who had already purchased the albums.
The Dream Sequencer
On Universal Migrator part I: The Dream Sequencer Arjen picks up the story of The Final Experiment and the year 2084. Over a hundred years have passed since the last world war destroyed all life on earth. This war was exactly what the main character Ayreon had already predicted in the 6th century (see the first Ayreon CD The Final Experiment).

As this final war was taking place, a number of Mars colonists witnessed the destruction on Earth from afar. For several years they managed to keep themselves alive with the supplies they had brought with them from Earth. But eventually the supplies ran out and the colonists were doomed to die. The main character in the story is the last surviving human being, a child of the first Mars colonists. He has never been on Earth.

During the initial period of Mars colonization, finding entertainment was somewhat of a problem. So clever technicians designed the Dream Sequencer, a machine that allowed the Colonists to travel back to their own youth by means of hypnoses, but also to their lives before; their pre-incarnations so to speak.

It is in this machine that the last Colonist relives his youth on Mars, and scenes from previous lives: his death as a woman on Earth during the war of 2084, the first moon landing of 1969, and his life as the standard bearer in the famous 17th century painting of Rembrandt: The Nightwatch. He stood on the shores of England as Queen Elisabeth I, watching the English fleet sail out to stop the Spanish Armada, and as a Mayan girl he witnessed sacred ceremonies in Tikal. As the story unfolds, we discover that the Colonist once was the minstrel Ayreon and that, in another even earlier incarnation, he was present during the construction of Stonehenge. His soul’s first incarnation was the first human being on Earth.

Release info

2000 Transmission
2004 Re-released by InsideOut Music as “The Universal Migrator parts 1 and 2”
2004 Hellion (Brazil), Nems (Argentina)

Artwork
Jef Bertels (cover)
Jacques Marcoux (booklet)

Part 1: The Dream Sequencer

Vocalists

Arjen Lucassen
Damian Wilson
Edward Reekers
Floor Jansen
Jacqueline Govaert
Johan Edlund
Lana Lane
Mark McCrite
Mouse
Neal Morse

Instrumentalists

Arjen Lucassen
Clive Nolan
Rob Snijders

Track List

1. The Dream Sequencer
2. My House on Mars
3. 2084
4. One Small Step
5. The Shooting Company of Captain Frans B. Cocq
6. Dragon on the Sea
7. Temple of the Cat
8. Carried by the Wind
9. And the Druids Turned to Stone
10. The First Man on Earth
11. The Dream Sequencer (Reprise)

Released in 2003 by InsideOut Music. The Limited Edition contains 2 audio CDs plus a DVD with video of the Star One concert filmed on 5 October 2002 at Lucky & Co (Rijssen, NL). The concert is a mixture of songs from the first Star One album, Space Metal and songs from the Ayreon discography.

Star One tour line-up
Russell Allen (Symphony X) – vocals
Damian Wilson – Vocals
Floor Jansen (After Forever) – Vocals
Irene Jansen (Ayreon/Karma)- Vocals
Robert Soeterboek (Cotton Soeterboek Band) – Vocals
Arjen Lucassen – Guitar
Joost van den Broek (After Forever) – Keyboard
Peter Vink – Bass
Ed Warby (Gorefest) – drums
Edward Reekers (Kayak/Ayreon) – Vocals
Ewa Albering – Flute
CD 1
1. Intro/Lift Off
2. Set Your Controls
3. High Moon
4. Dreamtime
5. Eyes of Time
6. Songs of the Ocean
7. Dawn of a Million Souls
8. The Dream Sequencer
9. Into the Black Hole
10. Actual Fantasy
11. Valley of the Queens

CD 2
1. Isis and Osiris
2. Amazing Flight in Space
3. Intergalactic Space Crusaders
4. Castle Hall
5. The Eye of Ra
6. Starchild
7. The Two Gates

Bonus DVD (Special Edition only)
1. Intro/Lift Off
2. Set Your Controls
3. High Moon
4. Dreamtime
5. Eyes of Time
6. Songs of the Ocean
7. Dawn of a Million Souls
8. The Dream Sequencer
9. Keyboard Solo
10. Into the Black Hole
11. Actual Fantasy
12. Valley of the Queens
13. Isis and Osiris
14. Amazing Flight in Space
15. Bass Solo
16. Intergalactic Space Crusaders
17. Castle Hall
18. The Eye of Ra
19. Starchild
20. The Two Gates

Special Features
– Photo gallery
– Behind the Scenes
– Space Truckin’ (Rijssen)
– Intergalactic Laxative (Tilburg)
– Dreamtime – Edward Reekers (Tilburg)

Space Metal is the debut album from Arjen’s “Star One” project. It was released by Inside Out in 2002. It is available in two editions: a limited edition with with 2 CDs and an elaborate digibook package, and a standard jewel-case edition with just the first CD. All of the songs are based on different science fiction movies or TV series that Arjen has enjoyed throughout the years. Other highlights are the appearance of Dave Brock of Hawkwind (on the track ‘Hawkwind Medley’ — Limited Edition only).

Vocalists
Russell Allen
Damian Wilson
Floor Jansen
Dan Swanö
Dave Brock
Robert Soeterboek (ltd)

Instrumentalists
Arjen Lucassen
Jens Johanssen
Gary Wehrkamp
Ed Warby

Artwork
Vincent DiFate (front cover)
Mattias Norén (booklet)

Track list

Disc 1
1. Lift Off
2. Set Your Controls
3. High Moon
4. Songs of the Ocean
5. Master of Darkness
6. The Eye of Ra
7. Sandrider
8. Perfect Survivor
9. Intergalactic Space Crusaders
10.Starchild

Bonus Disc (Limited Edition Only)
1. Hawkwind Medley
2. Spaced Out
3. Inseparable Enemies
4. Space Oddity (Bowie)
5. Starchild (Dolby Pro-logic)
6. Spaced Out (Alternative Version)
7. Hidden track: Intergalactic Laxative (Donovan)

With his Ayreon project, legendary multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and vocalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen single-handedly revived the rock opera genre in the 1990s. Since then, Ayreon has achieved worldwide critical acclaim and success with albums charting in various countries. The seventh Ayreon output, 01011001, finds Lucassen both exploring new musical frontiers and revisiting his roots.

The story
Through technological advancement, ‘Forever’, a race of aquatic beings living on Planet Y, has found the secret of longevity. They have advanced to the point that they have become completely dependent on machines and are losing their emotions. A passing comet on a collision course with Planet Earth provides the opportunity to revitalize their race; ‘Forever’ harness the comet to carry their DNA to a new home on Earth. When the comet and Earth collide, the cataclysmic impact exterminates the dinosaurs (the Fifth Extinction), but from the ashes of destruction, humans arise. At first, the experiment with seeded DNA seems successful: through the humans ‘Forever’ vicariously relive the emotions they experienced before the age of machines. In order to help mankind overcome their physical ailments and mental limitations, ‘Forever’ speeds up human evolution. But the result is tragic: people develop a similar technological dependency with their emotions waning just like ‘Forever’ and moral development not keeping pace with their capacity to invent. ‘Forever’ must find a way to save mankind from its imminent self-destruction… or should they?

Vocalists

Forever

Hansi Kürsch
(Blind Guardian)

Daniel Gildenlöw
(Pain of Salvation)

Tom S. Englund
(Evergrey)

Jonas Renkse
(Katatonia)

Jorn Lande
(Masterplan)

Anneke van Giersbergen
(ex-The Gathering)

Steve Lee
(Gotthard)

Bob Catley
(Magnum)

Floor Jansen
(After Forever, Nightwish)

Magali Luyten
Virus IV

Man

Simone Simons
(Epica) – Simone on “Web of Lies”

Phideaux Xavier – PX on “Web of Lies”

Wudstik – a 21st century scientist on “E=mc²“

Marjan Welman
(Elister, Autumn) – a 21st century scientist on “E=mc²“

Liselotte Hegt
Dial – Mr L’s nurse on “The Truth is in Here”

Arjen Lucassen – Mr L on “The Truth is in Here,” backing vocals on “Connect the Dots”

Ty Tabor
(King’s X) – a 21st century corporate wage slave on “Connect the Dots”

Instrumentalists

Arjen Lucassen
Guitar, keyboards, synths, bass guitar, programming

Ed Warby
(Gorefest, Hail of Bullets)
Drums

Lori Linstruth
Guitar solo on “Newborn Race”

Michael Romeo
(Symphony X) – guitar solo on “E=mc²“

 Derek Sherinian
(ex-Dream Theater) – synthesizer solo on “The Fifth Extinction”

Tomas Bodin
(The Flower Kings) – synthesizer solo on “Waking Dreams”

 Joost van den Broek 
(After Forever) – Keyboard solo and piano on “The Sixth Extinction”

 Jeroen Goossens
(Flairck) – flute; soprano and tenor recorder on “The Truth is in Here”; bass flute on “Unnatural Selection”; tin whistle on “River of Time”

 Ben Mathot
(Dis) – Violins

David Faber
Cellos

Production

Jef Bertels – cover painting
Yvette Boertje – image for “The Truth is in Here”
Felipe Machado Franco – artwork and layout
Arjen Anthony Lucassen – recording, production, mixing, and mastering, and whip-cracking
Simon van Vegten – 3D-rendered artwork

Album info

Label: InsideOut Music (Europe – North America)

Regular Edition (28-page booklet, 2CD)
Special Edition (28-page booklet, 2CD + DVD*)
Limited Deluxe Edition (36-page booklet, 2CD + DVD*)
Japanese Edition (28 page booklet, 2CD)**

* Bonus DVD contains:
Behind the Scenes – Making of 01011001
Beneath the Waves – CGI Movie (5.1/2.0)
Guide Demos (audio) – feat. Arjen on vocals
Ed Warby’s Session – Recording drums
Bloopers (audio)

**Japanese release contains 2 bonus Guide Vocal tracks (vocals by Arjen) plus one exclusive Guide Vocal track unavailable anywhere else.

Catalogue numbers – InsideOut/SPV release
Regular Edition (SPV 79682)
Special Ed PAL (SPV 79680)
Special Ed NTSC (SPV 7968A)
Limited Ed. PAL (SPV 79688)
Limited Ed. NTSC (SPV 7968L)

Also released by:
Hellion (Brazil)
Icarus (Argentina)
Irond (Russia)
Marquee (Japan)