: A Z U R E T H : [Official Website] :

Don't miss our radio interview this weekend on the Delicious Agony progressive rock radio station, Sunday 6pm ! I will be interviewed and Scott will be playing our entire CD on the air. Great station, lot's of wonderful music being played there, don't miss it ! -Stephen

I know, I know we've been quiet lately, that's because so many things are happening !! We just got our band listed with Delicious Agony, a very well known Prog-Rock radio station, who's band list includes Rush, ELP, Yes, Genesis, and now... Azureth !! We are right next to Aryeon. Just go to Artist Links, you will see us there. On Sunday, they are also going to do an interview, play our entire CD, and will accept chats ! Members of Azureth will be online chatting as well !! Here is their link: http://www.deliciousagony.com Then go to "Schedule" to see the times for our show, I hope too see you guys there !!

Thursday, June 11, 2004, 11:42pm Yesterday's Futures, Tomorrow's Past Press Release:"
After a year in the making, Azureth is proud to announce immediate availability of their debut CD. Azureth is a progressive rock band made up of musicians from US (Mark Connors & Steve Rivera) and Norway (Kenneth Aspeslaen). If you like bands like ELP, YES, Kansas, Rush, Flower Kings, Steely Dan, you will love Azureth. Azureth's debut CD contains almost 70 minutes of music. Beautifully illustrated lyric sheets and other goodies from Azureth's website are included on the Extended cd version." --Azureth

Thursday, June 3, 2004, 11:02am Azureth's debut CD, Yesterday's Futures, Tomorrow's Past to be released next week! After close to a year in preparation, mixing, and waiting for licensing from the Harry Fox Agency, our CD is finally in the final stages of release. Our songs are currently being mastered this weekend and all artwork and CD distribution methods are now in place. We are gearing to have this CD ready for ordering sometime next week :-)

Yesterday's Futures, Tomorrow's Past is a concept album lamenting the present unrelenting course of Humanity and a reluctant hero who's job is to change the course of history. In the CD's mini Rock Opera "The Grand Design", we share his initial idealism, his inner struggles to look away from his true path, and his eventual acceptance of the destiny he always knew he must face sooner or later.

We also have two additional songs not related to the concept; Afterglow which is our original arrangement of a prog-rock cover (yes, we got permission to use it) of a well known Genesis tune. We start the song with an allusion to Genesis' "Dance On The Volcano", added 12 string guitars and pipe organs to the meat of Afterglow, and a killer guitar solo which ends with a half time rendition of "Volcano" again... The other tune is called Man On The Moon which is based on the popular story "The Little Prince", done with a with very "David Bowie", spacey arrangement and obscure and multilayered lyrics to match !! Although Mark and I play in 6/8, Kenneth is playing drums and bass in 4/4 which makes for a very interesting pattern which cycles in and out of beat !!!
In addition to the music, Mark has created an awesome shopping cart system to allow easy ordering of our CD and that will be up shortly, plus some great things are happening as we approach the release of our CD, some of these being quotes from Rick Wakeman (yes, the one and only keyboard player from Yes) and Andy Tillman from another new and popular prog outfit, The Tangent(which includes member of The Flower Kings). Other nice things we are looking forward is to having our CD also available for sale under a new record company from the well known Norweigan progressive rock artist, Bjorn Lynne !!! Cool things are beginning to emerge, I just hope we can handle the momentum !!

Wednesday, February 25, 2004, 2:44pm

Azureth on World Talk Radio: Stephen, our keyboard player, was featured yesterday on World Talk Radio as a guest host talking about songwriting and techniques he uses to interface with the members of Azureth.. Stephen, quickly becoming recognized as a premier songwriter, has had extensive formal training in many genre's of music including classical. A few of the gems that Stephen shares with us in this show are how to construct interesting melodies, what passing chords are and how they are used and how to incorporate 'tension' and 'release' in your songs. In addition, he gives us some insight into some of the more esoteric terms of music. Not to mention the mechanical process of how he 'gets it done' and what software he uses. Stephen stresses not only knowing your craft, but also immersing yourself in the styles of music you wish to emulate. So sit back and enjoy this most interesting and insightful hour of World Talk Radio/Music Talk show. If you are a musician and/or songwriter, you will not want to miss this chance to learn from the Master!

**Click on the links below to hear show

Show Segment 1

Show Segment 2

Show Segment 3

-Mark Connors

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Azureth gets FM Radio play in Boston WHUS FM has featured Azureth's music for 2 weeks now. The show is on Sundays at 2:pm to 3:pm central time. The dj is Joel. He is also on im chat as 'whusdj' during showtimes. The weblink to listen over the internet is: http://www.whus.org/listen.htm The show is titled 'Pushing the Envelope' Y'all drop by and give Joel a listen, he plays some great stuff. Thanks Joel and WHUS! -Mark Connors

**Click on the links below to hear the actual radio show

Hi-Fi play (Broadband) Lo-Fi play (dial-up) ==

Thursday, February 19, 2004, 2:27pm

Wow, we have tons of new things happening at Azureth central so read on...

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Well, looks like we are on a roll today ! Here is a new instrumental we just posted in the "Audio" section, the second part of Azureth's "Dragonriders Of Pern" myth, this one is called : Timeless Moments In Sherwood. The story is about Azureth(the dragon) romping through the Sherwood forest with not a worry in the world, for a moment that seems forever to him.... This is yet another piece inspired by a quote from Einstein:

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity !" --Albert Einstein

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We are really excited to have been offered some airplay on a real live FM station(not internet radio) that plays prog-rock, here is the email Mark got from the DJ: As soon as the show airs(last week we got pre-empted by a football game:( ), we will let you all know

Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 7:33 PM

To: Mark Connors

Subject: RE: [e-Prog] January Playlists: Pushing The Envelope-WHUS/Storrs, Connecticut (USA)

Hi Mark!

Thanks for getting in touch. Just came from the web-site, very nice music. That "Wake The Dragon" tune was excellent, I'm sure the boys in Yes would certainly be flattered. I'd be happy to give you guys some airplay. Let me know where I can download your music and I'll burn it onto CD and bring it along when I do my show on Sunday. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes, Joel / WHUS

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...So here is the little secret we have been working so hard on, it's a 13 minute epic in true Prog-Rock form called "Shadow of A Man"; It's about a man who eventually forgets he was supposed to be a hero... This is a little auto-biographical, I always felt I had a larger mission in life, mainly to heal humanity... During my youth I felt a deep and compelling call to be the next JF Kennedy, ML King, Ghandi, Einstein, but never gathered the courage to accept and fulfill my true fate... Maybe my mission may still be accomplished through music !

A lot of craft went into every part in this one(that's why it took us so long...), for instance, the bass line and drums are closely matched to the song's melody and chord progression, the bass follows the piano parts to lead in new chord progressions. The drum fills follow the changes in bass and piano parts. Songs starts as a happy lullaby as the hero drifts away giving in to everyday doldrums and slowly forgets who he is, but then gets a rude awakening as he again remembers he was once much more than he is today... Of course, "middle age crisis" analogies abound throughout the lyrics, hehehe :-)

We put on our ELP hat on this one, Kenneth does some great Carl Palmer drumming figures, Mark is burning the tracks with hot solos, me playing mostly acoustic piano throughout and using my new "Moog Modular V" for ELPish highlights. This sounds a lot like something from ELP's album "Trilogy". This song will segue into a second part (which will be a new song)... The new song is about the same character who now accepts his true calling and decides to embark on his fateful journey, so naturally the next song will be called "The Sleeper Has Awakened" !!

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Another tidbit worthy of mention is we also joined GarageBand.com and are currently waiting to have our song "Wake The Dragon" reviewed, you can get to our page by following the link at the bottom of this page !

-Stephen Rivera

Thursday, Februrary 5, 2004, 5:55pm

Azureth Web Site gets new look !! Also added are new pages such as a guestbook, accolades(where your feedback and Azureth awards will be), and contact page... Check here in the next few days for updates !

-Stephen Rivera

Monday, December 29, 2003, 08:36 PM

OK, it's been quite a while since my last update, lot's of good things happening with the band, I've just been slow to update this news page. We have ad a lot of interest from various Progressive Rock labels who are eager to see us finish our CD which we are in the process of doing. We now included on this site 4 full length streams of our recent pieces and we are finishing a 14 minute epic which is part 1 of a 3 part suite called "The Grand Design". As soon as that one is completed we are planning some radio interviews and plays since we have had many requests for our material !

NOTE: We now have an "e-Store" page where you can help out the band by purchasing either our t-shirt or great mug, both with our awesome Azureth logo, every penny helps so we can stay alive and continue to create great music for everyone :-) -Stephen Rivera.

Monday, August 18, 2003, 08:36 PM

Progressive Rock is a style of music that requires a little more time than usual to get the compositional elements correct, the epic subject of the lyrics, etc... It is therefore no mystery we are proceeding at this slow pace, everything must be just right to make sure our music has that magic, memorable touch that we all love.

Mark and I have been trading mixes of our first song called "Wake The Dragon". So far we have an initial bed track with keys and guitar although I just got Cary's bass on track for this, giving it a listen tonight. Kenneth is working hard on the drums, looking forward to hearing the final product soon.

Once "Wake" is completed, we plan to post this as a downloadable preview/teaser on this web site so keep checking this page, we will be releasing this very soon !

We also have three other songs in the cue perhaps less demanding than "Wake", and some almost with pop sensibility but still good 'ol Proggy style. The goal is to finish 10-12 songs by the end of this year and launch our eagerly awaited "Debut CD" !! Yipee !!!

-Stephen Rivera