SCHMIDTCHEN, DETLEV - VANTHASIA (2013 ALBUM/11 TRACKS/DIGI-PAK)

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A CDS UK exclusive, this is the 5th solo album from the ex-ELOY keyboarder and it’s a collection of instrumentals optimised for headphone listening!

First, here’s a brief piece of Detlev Schmidtchen history…
Detlev Schmidtchen began his music activities in 1970 in different bands from Hannover in Germany.
In 1971 he founded the band GETRIEBE and they became very popular around the Hannover area.
They won the first place in a local band contest where one Frank Bornemann and his group ELOY were headlining! After hearing GETRIEBE perform Bornemann became interested in Detlev because he wanted to permanently reform his band. Detlev then joined ELOY, at first playing guitar, but later he changed to keyboards, and featured on three studio releases and one ‘live’ album.
In 1980 Detlev and Jürgen Rosenthal (ex SCORPIONS / ELOY) left the band and founded the “EGO ON THE ROCKS” project, which had a short but very successful time on the German Progressive Rock scene. After the “EGO” period Detlev worked in different projects, sometimes with Manfred Wieczorke (ex ELOY, FIREHORSE & JANE). After a five-year sabbatical he worked from 1991- 1998 together with Wieczorke in different projects like: The TRICK, ANIMATER and CHOCO. As CHOCO the duo recorded together in the Nautilus studios between 1998 & 2004 and many of these recordings can now be heard on the 2014 CD: ‘Bubbles In Your Brain’, which also features the spoken words of Scotsman Neil John Douglas.
In 2005 Detlev started to record tracks for his own solo album. In September 2007 it was finally released on a very small German indie label called JKS-World. ‘The Last Planet Chapter 1- Impressions’ was followed on the same label by two further “Chapters” of the same project, then the label disappeared and with it the treasures of Detlev’s solo trilogy.
In 2011 a new Detlev Schmidtchen album: ‘Blaze The Trail’ was issued on Made In Germany records - a more widely distributed German indie label, and in 2013 he went on to record another instrumental album for new label: Torus Records entitled ‘Vanthasia’. With Torus now firmly behind him in 2014, all three parts of Detlev Schmidtchen’s ‘Last Planet’ trilogy were re-issued in one amazing Remastered Triple CD Package!
2015 produced: ‘Another World’, a new studio album that mixed powerful Prog songs with instrumentals.

Presented in an illustrated 6-Panel Digi-Pak, ‘Vanthasia’ features 11 tracks that, while they are more or less instrumental, there are some voice and choral parts on some pieces, all of which are keyboard and sample generated. Detlev is a keyboard player that seems to transcend the worlds of “Synth Music and “Progressive Rock” very easily, with firmly structured rhythms and strong melodic keyboard/synthesizer work always uppermost in the mix. On ‘Vanthasia’ Detlev has kept the arrangements relatively simple but effective, with a strong sense of melody and dynamics throughout. As always, musically the spirit of ELOY is never far off, but there is also a lot that will make you think of the way ALAN PARSONS arranges his instrumental material, and when there are guitar sounds around, we are getting closer to modern-day PINK FLOYD territory!

Also available from stock by DETLEV SCHMIDTCHEN…
ANOTHER WORLD (2015 Album / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1799925
BLAZE THE TRAIL (2012 Album / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1530765
LAST PLANET TRILOGY (2014 Triple CD Set / Digi-Pak) 3CD – Stock # 1742298
BUBBLES IN YOPUR BRAIN (2014 Album with MANFRED WIECZORKE / Digi-Pak) CD – Stock # 1742297

DETLEV SCHMIDTCHEN: VANTHASIA Track List:

01. Forbidden Dreams (5:26)
02. Son Servera (1:07)
03. Remember (4:59)
04. Brainstorm (3:10)
05. Summernight (4:40)
06. Heaven On Earth (5:07)
07. Greenland (3:11)
08. The Touch (4:09)
09. Beautiful Day (6:11)
10. Pulse (6:11)
11. Vanthasia (9:30)

TPT – 50:56