p r e s e n t
November 1999, we have just started the first 10 songs on the new Lycia CD "Empty Space". Mike Van Portfleet has written most of the guitar parts and I have been arranging the bass guitar parts as well. In the next couple of weeks, we will be recording the final tracks. We are expecting to complete the album by January. This album is a look back at the rawness of Lycia's beginings;for example WAKE and the pre IONIA sound. It is a step back from the full production and orchestration that has developed over the past 3 albums. Empty Space is a focus on the song as a whole rather than the abstract and illusionistic expression of sound and mood.Everything is being recorded in full digital media at Lycium Music Studio. My setup on the bass guitar is a Fender Jazz Standard (Mexican) 4 string bass with 109 .49 flatwound strings for a very bright tone outputing into a Tech21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI into an Ampeg B328. The effects in the amp looped is a Bass Chorus Pedal. John Fair's drum parts have worked out very well and drive the music into different area's that are new with the sound of Lycia, yet it still retains the reminants of the WAKE sound. Hopefully we will have some MPEG's available on the Lycium site as soon as we have the first tracks mastered. I am also in the process of accessing all of the hundreds of master tapes to remix everything that has been recorded by Hiroshima Lovers, CatHous and SnowBlind. Also Robert Dearing is in the process of the final mastering of the Opus-X CD that I performed guitar on earlier this year. Hopefully this will be available soon.