Relocator debut feat. Derek Sherinian AVAILABLE NOW! CD pre-order, mp3 downloads

[faemir]

Out of interest, who did the artwork, and did you have direct input into the it or was more a "oh hey make us album arts." "here" "kthxbai"

[Kyo]

Out of interest, who did the artwork, and did you have direct input into the it or was more a "oh hey make us album arts." "here" "kthxbai"

Most of the artwork was done by www.colourbites.de -
check out the "Referenzen" link to see what else he's done.

We got several very different designs and cover ideas to choose
from and suggested one more based on one of the pictures we
used for the individual songs (those came from several artists/
photographers and were chosen by us). Then we had an online
poll to help us decide between the last three remaining covers.

[Kyo]

Btw, our CD is now also available from Guitar Nine records:
https://www.guitar9.com/relocator.html

I think right now this is the cheapest way to get it if you live in the USA

Heh, I just found something awesome - check this out:
https://www.guitar9.com/topsellers20100313overall.html

How cool is that?!   


No wonder it's sold out at the moment. It should be back in stock very soon, though!

[faemir]

#1 ISNT GOOD ENOUGH

[Kyo]

Hey everyone,

the current incarnation of Relocator began as a studio project, but that didn't stop
us from wanting to play live - especially once the album was finally in the can. So we
decided to stage a little release party with some live music. It proved impossible to
find a keyboard player in time for the gig, so we decided to re-arrange the music a
bit and strip down the keyboard parts to just the essential stuff which would then be
played by our violinist Bartek (who didn't have much to play on this material otherwise).
I ended up playing some keys on one track (The Alchemist) where Bartek was busy.

Note that we had never played together before that day and we had just about an
hour right before the actual gig to rehearse as a full band. In a way it was pretty scary,
considering we were going to play half the album (Tracks 1, 3, 7 and the big one, 8).

Anyway, here's a complete video of our song called 'Relocator', the last track of the night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55CfuyXMSIE

[Kyo]

I got some cool news - the subject could now be extended to "available in Japan, too!"

Check this out:
https://marquee.co.jp/world_disque/d.w.frameset.html

Since most people here can't read that page (or even display it properly), here's the story: Marquee Inc. is a big Japanese label
and their import store World Disque has picked up our album. And they're even calling it a "masterpiece" in their description!

This is really quite something for us and of course we're extremely proud!

[Kyo]

I just did this nice interview with Drop-d magazine from Ireland, check it out!
https://www.drop-d.ie/archives/9845

And for those who speak French, here's another recent one with Stefan on Progressive Area:
https://www.progressive-area.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1556&Itemid=43

Thanks to Jonathan Keane and Declan!

[Jamesman42]

As soon as I can, I would love to get a copy of this. I love love love instrumental prog and fusion.

[Kyo]

Hey Jamesman,

As soon as I can, I would love to get a copy of this. I love love love instrumental prog and fusion.

Not sure this is obvious if you didn't read the entire thread,
but the CD is available now, from quite a few retailers even. 

As I wrote earlier in this thread:
"PS: It would be cool if someone could change the thread topic to something like
Relocator debut feat. Derek Sherinian - Update: CD now available!" 

[Jamesman42]

I know, I meant when I get paid next.

[Kyo]

I know, I meant when I get paid next.

Alright, just making sure... With these old threads and outdated headers you never know...

[Jamesman42]

  Really pumped to hear it though!

[Kyo]

Really pumped to hear it though!

Awesome! 

We should have some cool news pretty soon. 

[Kyo]

Hey everyone,

Guitar Nine Records have posted this pretty cool interview with Stefan, check it out:
https://guitar9.com/interview154.html

Keep in mind that they removed all smileys from Stefan's answers, so some of these answers might come across a bit arrogant when they were really meant to be funny.

[Kyo]

Now that they finally have a decent number of discs in stock I'd like to point out that...
https://www.guitar9.com/relocator.html
... as a promotional move to go along with the interview linked above, Guitar Nine Records are currently offering our CD for the low price of just $13 (including shipping within the US!). This is a limited time offer, so if you're on the fence about this album or know someone who is, now would be a good time to pull the trigger.

[Kyo]

I'm not quite sure yet how to incorporate it into my signature (size limits and all), but we finally have an easy-to-remember URL for our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/relocatorproject

[Jamesman42]

Liked.

I have a question from looking at the page: do you have a keyboardist that plays Derek's parts live?

[Kyo]

Yes, we've found a very talented guy who will play Derek's parts at live gigs.    Now all we need are some gigs...

[drummerThatShreds87]

i just checked this out. pretty cool, but was on a laptop so couldn't hear the bass stuff. what gear is the bassist using?

[Kyo]

On the album I used a Yamaha RBX6JM (fretted 6-string) and a Yamaha TRB1005F (fretless 5-string) and really nothing else other than a USB recording interface. It does sound and cut through quite nicely, eh? 

[drummerThatShreds87]

pretty good ya. john myung signature, is that? my friend has one, but it's the other greenish one he used for SFAM i believe. how does it play?

[Kyo]

Yeah, it's the first generation Myung signature model. Red or green/blue, same model either way (he was using the red one originally). I really like how it plays, but the string spacing is very narrow. This is great for fast runs but a bit tricky for slapping (which is a bitch on a six-string anyway).

[drummerThatShreds87]

cool. well u guys have a nice DT influence, can't wait for the next album. is this album out in like best buy and stuff by chance? might pick it up

[Kyo]

No, sadly we don't have that kind of distribution. You can get the album from more popular online stores like Amazon or CD Universe, but the most affordable US sources for the CD are CD Baby and Guitar Nine Records.

[Kyo]

Hey everyone,

Bill Knispel of Bill's Prog Blog (a truly excellent site!) has just published his extensive interview with me, check it out!

https://billsprogblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-than-10-questions-withmichael.html

[Kyo]

Just wanted to mention that there's a full-page article on Relocator in the brand-new issue of Classic Rock Presents Prog - woohoo!

And I've been told the extensive DT interviews are also worth a read.

[Kyo]

Hey everyone,

a brand-new interview with our guitarist Stefan Artwin was just posted over at ProgArchives, check it out!
https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=73940

We should also have some news regarding a pretty cool live gig soon!

[Kyo]

Hey everyone,

you can help us make the "Best of 2010" charts by voting for Relocator in the DPRP poll! It's open until February 1. Appropriate categories include favourite newcomer, favourite album, favourite song, favourite newcomer, favourite album artwork, best performance on various instruments and, oh, did we mention favourite newcomer yet? Well, whatever you feel is warranted!

https://www.dprp.net/dprpoll/2010/index.php

Would be fun if Derek Sherinian placed high in "best keyboard performance" for the guest appearance on our disc, eh?

[Kyo]

Hey everyone,

we have just launched our new website with some nice new content:
https://www.relocator-project.com/wp/

The Music page now features high-quality streams of our entire album (much better quality than on MySpace!), so if you haven't really heard our music yet, this is the best way to discover it.

And for those of you who are already familiar with the album, we have added four demos of the songs as they were originally presented to the band by Stefan in 2004! Everything in those was performed and programmed by Stefan himself and it's quite interesting to hear how the tracks have developed since then. These can also be downloaded, btw!


Here's a direct link to the Music page:
https://www.relocator-project.com/wp/?page_id=10


All the best,
Michael

[Kyo]

Bump from the grave as I was reminiscing about this album today.

Ten years ago, my first serious recording was released - the self-titled Relocator debut. The demos for all album tracks were written by guitarist Stefan Artwin and the original band had been playing several of them as early as 2004. While I did get to add some bits of mine here and there, perhaps my biggest contribution was as an arranger, helping shape the pieces into their final form, reviving previously deleted parts from old demos, linking sections thematically, improving transitions and adding proper endings where a demo would just kinda stop (I greatly value good song endings). I got Dutch drummer Frank Tinge on board, an acquaintance from a couple of prog forums, and suggested adding Bartek Strycharski on electric violin for a more original sound. We didn't have a keybordist, which was a problem with material that was so keyboard-driven. Thankfully, Derek Sherinian agreed to handle keys on the album. Everyone did a great job with their parts and so the album was finished in late 2009. A problem with misprinted CD artwork resulted in a delay, so that's why it says (c) 2009 on an album released in early 2010 - we just forgot to update the artwork in the process.

Somehow we even managed to turn this studio project into an occasional live thing from 2011 to 2014, though the lack of regular rehearsals was a bit of a problem. We played our last gig at the Generation Prog Festival 2014, celebrating the band's 10th anniversary with some "classics" and a new song plus special guests Bhaskar (mridangam), Paul Adrian Villarreal (guest vocals on Song for America and The Accolade) and Ross Jennings (guest vocals on Learning to Live). After this, Stefan's lack of motivation to write new stuff and his struggles with the demands of live gigs, which had long been a problem, basically sucked the air out of the project and the whole thing fizzled out.

Making the Relocator album was an exciting recording project and I'm still quite proud of the result, so check it out if you haven't yet:
https://relocator.bandcamp.com/

If you're interested in what I've been up to since, right after the 2014 festival I joined another instrumental prog/fusion band, Time Shift Accident. Our debut album Chronosthesia came out in 2019:
https://generationprog.bandcamp.com/album/chronosthesia

[Nel]

I actually found the album by chance about five or six years back in my local record store, remembered you talking about it either here or on Portnoy's forum, and snatched it up. I didn't know about the date. I've had it listed as 2009 for the entire time I've had it; guess I'll edit that now. 

[Kyo]

Cool to hear that! Hope you got something out of the music. 

I wish we had found a place for the new song we played live in 2013 and 2014. At least there's a decent live performance of it out there (the footage isn't great though):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MXNxTs1hH0