PROJEKT GEMINEYE (Canada)
"In the Year 3073 - Book I"
(Reficul Records)
Release date: October 25th 2019
Genre: Progressive rock, melodic heavy rock
Links:
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BandCamp
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Not more than just a few weeks have passed since PROJEKT GEMINEYE were featured on these humble blog pages, when the single "Magic World" was released. The song was the first of two teasers from the album we are having a look at today, and marked a slight change in this Canadian solo project's sound.
Mark Anthony K., who is the primus motor and sole member of PROJEKT GEMINEYE, has been an active musician for many years and was also part of bands like Reckon With One and The Exalted Piledriver before founding his solo effort.
Just over two and a half years have passed since Mark Anthony K. released his solo debut "An Ordinary Day" in March 2017. The album helped him gain a faithful group of supporters that are thriving within the Projekt Gemineye Facebook group where the maestro himself keeps his fans updated on anything relevant to his project. "A Brand New Day" came out towards the end of 2017, an album that along with the debut could be considered a soundtrack to a series of personal events.
Just a few months after the follow-up was released, Mark Anthony K., or Mark Kopernicky as is his real name, announced that he had already started working on his third album.
Said Kopernicky: "It is not a concept album, but a collection of songs, and the lyrics are based around two kind of topics. One is the approach of science in the world today, and the other about people who are looked at as dreamers, and what approaches they have in bettering the world."
"Man of Science, Man of Dreams" came out in November 2018 and featured five compositions that all had all the basic ingredients that early on were determined as the very essence of PROJEKT GEMINEYE's music. Heavy riffs, melodic and harmonic lead guitars and a lot of 70's synth patches that create a fuller and atmospheric expression. As from the beginning the songwriting was still in constant development, the tracks were longer and experimental, but on "Man of Science, Man of Dreams" PROJEKT GEMINEYE had an overall darker, warmer sound than before.
A christmas single was released just a month after, and as a special surprise to his followers Kopernicky announced a four track EP with leftover tracks from the "Man of Science, Man of Dreams" sessions. As was the christmas single "The Lost Science Files" was only released in digital format, but there are some great tracks on there that I am very sure any PROJEKT GEMINEYE supporter would appreciate on a physical format as well.
Not even a year after "Man of Science, Man of Dreams" came out, Kopernicky is back with his fourth album effort, "In the Year 3073 - Book I". Even though every album up until now has either had a storyline or been directed towards certain topics, but this is the first to actually be of a conceptual nature.
This tells the story of a group of scientists and military people who are being forced to leave Earth due to the disastrous concequences of mankind's behavior. The year is 2073, and the end of the world as we know it is imminent. A thousand years later a group of their descendants decide to head back to Earth to document its fate, and this is where the story takes a rather dramatic turn.
The album's first track is the ten minute "Let Your Spirit Fly". The first few seconds send this writer's thoughts towards Vangelis and Alan Parson's Project before the introduction of acoustic guitar chords and the essential harmonic lead guitars that became a PROJEKT GEMINEYE trademark already on "An Ordinary Day". Eventually the album's production becomes more apparent, and especially the drums sound tighter, clearer and crispier than ever before.
Kopernicky has brought with him a couple guest musicians on "In the Year 3073 - Book I", the first appearing already in the first chorus. Joe Bailey is a UK based solo musician with a number of releases on his list of merits, and operates within the fields of alternative/neo-progressive rock. He should therefore fit very well with the style that PROJEKT GEMINEYE represents. He adds a voice that sounds right at home in a project that has never had any outside input to it, and out of the two guest appearances on the album Bailey's appearance becomes the most prominent one.
As mentioned earlier "Magic World" was the first single from the album, and was reviewed somewhere else on this blog. You can read more about it
here.
"Heavy Hearts" could be the heaviest PROJEKT GEMINEYE song to date. The guitar tone is thick and aggressive, and the riffs provide a solid and steady foundation for the lead guitars and keyboards to swell upon.
"Children of Hope" is the ballad alternative among the six tracks on the album, and features the use of piano, another contribution of Bailey's vocals, and also David Donley's guest appearance on bass guitar. Donley has worked with musicians affiliated with David Bowie among others, and is a well-renowned musician in the UK.
"The Keepers of the Past" was the second song to be presented prior to the album's release. A seven minute track with a bass and drum intro that develops into a song with clear references to late 80's early 90's Rush. Catchy verses and choruses, and a middle section that suddenly turns the track into an odd-time signature frenzy. Another solid track that is the third and last on the album to feature the vocal talents of Joe Bailey.
As on the first two albums, "In the Year 3073 - Book I" also concludes with an instrumental track. "No Turning Back" is an uptempo feast of harmonic guitars and guitar solos, and provides a very strong closure to an album that allows the listener to experience new details with every spin.
★★★★★★★★★★
Tracklist:
1. Let Your Spirit Fly
2. Magic World
3. Heavy Hearts
4. Children of Hope
5. The Keepers of the Past
6. No Turning Back
LINE UP:
Mark Anthony K. - all instruments, vocals, production
Guest appearances:
Joe Bailey - lead vocals ("Let Your Spirit Fly', "Children Of Hope" and "The Keepers of the Past")
David Donley - Bass ("Children Of Hope")
