Songs No One Will Hear is Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s first album under his own name since 2012’s Lost In The New Real – and it’s something he feels is long overdue.
It’s only the Ayreon mastermind’s third solo release, but that doesn’t mean he’s been slacking. Last year alone he collaborated with Simone Simons on the Epica singer’s solo debut Vermillion, and worked on the Ayreon live album 01011001 – Live Beneath The Waves, while also putting together Plan Nine’s The Long Lost Songs with vocalist Robert Soterboek.
“It was heavy work, and all with other people,” Lucassen says of the record which arrived on September 12 via InsideOut. “So at some point I said, ‘I’ve got to do something for myself. I need to be an egomaniac and make a solo album where I can just do whatever I want.’”
At that point, he explains, “the musical ideas came flooding in, and they were all really contrasting.” Given his enduring love of concept albums, such diversity presented an opportunity in itself, and informed his choice of narrative for the album.
“I needed a concept that was suited to all those contrasting styles. And then it came to me: what would people do if they only had five months left to live?”
In the story a giant asteroid is heading for Earth, leaving the planet’s human inhabitants in no doubt that their days are numbered. “People would react completely differently,” he says. “Some would be despairing, others would be like, ‘Oh well, it’s over; let’s party!’ So there would be very contrasting moods which totally fit the music.”
He managed to provide both high humour and great sadness in the stories that emerged. “There’s one song called Shagathon, and you can tell what that’s about!
“Then there’s a song called We’ll Never Know, about a couple who are expecting a baby girl. But with five months left, they’re not going to see her birth or meet her or see her grow.”
The latter track has guest vocals from Nightwish’s Floor Jansen, but elsewhere it’s mostly Lucassen at the mic, either side of Australian vocalist Mike Mills narrating parts of the tale. “I want people to be drawn into the story,” the creator explains.
