Description

Step Into The Future

The ever prolific GEORGE BELLAS is back, less than a year on from his previous solo album ‘Planetary Alignment’ with his boldest and most progressive body of work to date in “STEP INTO THE FUTURE”.

The name George Bellas is synonymous with stretching musical boundaries and human imagination with his musical compositions. This new album is ultra-modern in style and really reaches out to a futuristic sound in its compositional sense and outlook. The album ranges from the explosive to the ethereal with emotionally stirring segments. Adding to its uniqueness “STEP INTO THE FUTURE” consists of just one song that is 76 minutes in length.

An epic 76 minute song. Futuristic, Dynamic, Explosive & Ethereal

"One song – one track, no division, meant to be heard in it’s entirety – ambitious you say; well for axeman George Bellas it comes as no surprise that he can undertake this type of musical endeavor and execute it well. The stuff that he does with the six strings is nearly impossible..."

"...it exposes not only Bellas’ abilities as one of the most innovative axemen, but also one who can clearly communicate with his instrument in way that so few shredders know how to..."

OVERVIEW

"STEP INTO THE FUTURE" consists of just one 76 minute song. The album was composed as one long continuous piece and is by no means several songs merged together after the fact. The album was composed in a 6 week period beginning on December 7th, 2007 and was completed in the middle of January 2008. After the entire album was written George spent the next few months recording the guitar, bass, keyboards and scratch drum tracks. After all that was recorded drummer extraordinaire Marco Minnemann was called upon to record the drum parts. George sent Marco the demo recording and all of the drum scores. When Marco first received the album demo his reaction was, "I received the CD, but is this right? There is only one song on it!"

"Whatever you have thought or remembered of guitar giant George Bellas, you can leave it all behind with his new work 'Step Into The Future.

"'Step Into The Future,' a single piece clocking in at over 70 minutes, is a first-class work of progressive, sometimes avant garde, guitar driven rock. Don't let the length threaten you. You can easily trace the movements if you allow your ear to listen carefully."

ALBUM DETAILS

"Step Into The Future" is ultra-modern and progressive in style and very elegantly displays a vast dynamic range of sound. It is an extreme showcase of George's penchant for highly unique, creative writing. There are melodies on the album that are pin-drop soft, subdued and spine-shivering, and then there are moments of bombastic explosiveness that reveal an entirely different madman type personae. Once again George reaches for the unexplored and uses compositional techniques not used on his previous releases and continues to forge new ground. And while there are guitar parts that were near impossible to play, the album is not a means to showcase lead guitar playing, but rather a vehicle for an extreme sonic journey through composition.

Polymeters, Interval Sets, Twelve-Tone Serialism, Quartal Harmony, Quintal Harmony, Polychords and Bellas's drenched in feeling guitar playing all greatly contribute in setting him apart from the horde and very much put him in a league of his own.

"...this incredibly epic festival of shred licks and stylistic eclecticism is just what the virtuoso music listening doctor ordered."

WRITING PROCESS

During the six weeks that the album was composed George maintained what is best described as a creative writing frenzy. Every day that passed within that six week period no less than several pages of music were written. He would wake up many times from sleeping with modernistic new ideas that he wanted to incorporate. And as per George's usual work flow, everything was composed using standard music notation before ever playing a note on an instrument. Fresh new scales and unique chords were written using countless permutations of interval sets, which formed the basis of the melodic and harmonic content. All the eccentric rhythms on the album, of which include poly-meters, poly-rhythms and odd meters, were also written specifically just for the album. There are quite a few sections were the drums are in one time signature, the bass in another, and other instruments within their own meter, which created a real mind melting experience. At the onset it was not George's intention to write a 76 minute song, but as the writing process continued and the song grew, George later realized that what he had growing was the most behemoth piece of music that he had ever written.

"George Bellas is one of those amazing instrumentalists that have been reminding the world that America can still produce musicians with the ability to play more than 3 or 4 lousy chords."

"The most interesting part of it all is how Bellas opts to organize all of his wide ranging influences into one cohesive, albeit enormous, composition.... They show off Bellas’ chops quite nicely, but they also do well to remember the value of a good, easy to follow melody to keep the music from losing the listener."

APPROACH

The approach for "Step Into The Future" was to reach beyond current boundaries and try new unexplored ideas rather than rehashing cliche formulas. There was an emphasis on neoteric compositional techniques, lyrical melodies and utilizing a wide dynamic range mixed with an abundance of guitar saturated with intense feeling. This approach was very much a success. The end product displays a culmination of a vast amount of compositional techniques that are fresh, imaginatively assembled and chock-full of emotion.

Press Release

Released Worldwide
Lion Music Records

Thanks

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Thanks to Marco Minnemann, and Lars Eric Mattson at Lion Music. I'd also like to expressive my unending gratitude to my family, friends, and fans around the world for all their relentless enthusiastic support.