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James Byrd is one of the most distinguished guitarists in the symphonic metal genre. He left the band Fifth Angel in 1987 to embark on a solo career. Songwriting had already begun for the next album by Fifth Angel when Byrd decided to quit the band.

Arthur Brown is one of the most influential vocalists in the history of rock music. He has a very distinguished style and he is unique in his performances. With his voice he's able to whisper, shout, scream, sing like a classically trained tenor or to sing softly in a jazzy style. Ever since the late sixties with his huge hit Fire (1968), Brown has been singing, dancing and recording and still performs to date.

Absinthe Junk is a quartet hailing from Nashville (Tennessee) and Dayton (Ohio, USA). The band plays an alternative kind of metal meets (progressive) rock and is fronted by singer Blair Smart, a lady who also plays the violin, viola, cello, keyboards and guitar. Other band members are Patrick Himes (keyboards, lead guitar, background vocals) and currently Matt Arseneau (bass) and Ben Bruno (drums). On this record, for the most part, we hear other musicians playing drums and bass.

In iO Pages besprak collega-recensent Paul Rijkens het album Machines And Dreams van de Poolse musicus Kayanis. Evenals ik kwam hij tot de conclusie dat de Pool wel erg geïnspireerd moet zijn door musici als Mike Oldfield, Gandalf, Jean Michel Jarre en Vangelis. Toch heeft deze in zijn thuisland populaire toetsenist-bassist beslist ook een eigen inbreng, waarvan hij op zijn derde studioalbum Synesthesis blijk geeft.

Quorum is an interesting Russian band. The band was formed in 2003 and the current line-up consists of Dmitri Shtatnov (keyboards, vocals, bass, main composer), Pavel Barabnov (guitars), Sergey Nicoronov (drums, Elena Kanevskaya (backing vocals) and Dmitri Drogounov (flutes, voices).

Memories Of Machines is a collaboration between Nosound mastermind Giancarlo Erra and No-Man vocalist Tim Bowness. The first time they started the idea of doing something together dates from 2005 and in late 2010 the ideas were finally brought to life.

In Polen is Kayanis een zeer bekende muzikant. Hij is ruim drie jaar bezig geweest met dit bijzondere project, waarin hij klassieke muziek combineert met elementen uit symfo, prog, rock, pop en elektronische muziek (EM). Where Abondened Pelicans Die is de opvolger van Synthesis (2001), dat Kayanis overigens ook opnam met een orkest en een keur aan muzikanten. De rode draad in dit ruim vijf kwartier durende muziekspektakel wordt gevormd door enkele wonderschone thema's.

Gerald Krampl, the former keyboardist and composer of Kyrie Eleison and Indigo from Vienna (Austria), has been educated in classical piano and music theory. Active as a band member in the seventies and eighties, Krampl continued his activities until 1993. Then he took a break from music to focus on Reiki; he earned himself a master degree. In 1999 he started Agnus Dei, a new musical project with his wife, but unfortunately she passed away and so several albums have been released after her death in 2002.

David Bedford was born in 1937 and passed away in October 2011. He's well-known for his work with Kevin Ayers, Roy Harper and The Edgar Broughton Band, but also for his orchestral works on Mike Olfield's Tubular Bells (1973), Camel's ​The Snow Goose (1975) and collaborations with for example Propaganda and Enya.

Bruce Arnold is an American based guitarist and composer. He's also a guitar teacher and a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. He has been teaching on several music academies and universities through the years. He wrote over sixty instruction books and loves using the twelve tone scale as well as the hexatonic scale. He played with a number of jazz greats like Joe Pass, Stuart Hamm and Stanley Clarke.