Echo Us: To answer or to connect….

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Echo Us will release it’s 6th full-length album entitled The Windsong Spires, and here is the very fascinating making of that album,

Echo Us is a musical concept project active since the turn of the century. Begun by American composer and multi-instrumentalist Ethan J. Matthews, Echo Us literally means to answer, or to connect. The current format of the project began in 2001. Echo Us would become a vehicle for Matthew’s forays into the world of metaphysics, as much as it was a continuation of his musical and creative world that had begun a decade earlier.

First created in the year 2000 as a live synthpop and industrial group in Boston, MA, Echo Us rose out of the ashes of Ethan’s former group Greyhaven, who had climbed to much critical success in the progressive rock scene of the late 1990’s.

The last album fro Echo Us was entitled To Wake A Dream In Moving Water and Prog Magazine described the album in this way, «a significant achievement, combining influences from Fripp and Eno, Floyd, Oldfield and Ianaudi to make a distinctive whole».

The Windsong Spires: Ethan Matthew’s Echo Us returns, expanding on its ambient past.

The Windsong Spires brings Echo Us’ musical journey back to earth’s atmosphere: weaving ethereal, classical voice with its trademark ambient sound waves. The titles of the two and three part suites form a continuous musical story, and act as an interpretive metaphor for the listener.

Composer and project producer Ethan Matthews began working on the album shortly after the release of the Celtic-themed To Wake a Dream in Moving Water in late 2017. The Windsong Spires is Echo Us’ 6th full-length release.

In concert with the Celtic waves of To Wake A Dream In Moving Water, hammered dulcimer and bodhran make ample appearance but are augmented by the drumming of Andrew Greene. Andrew Green recorded drums for 2009’s The Tide Decides and has performed and recorded with numerous Pacific Northwest groups. Windsong Spires features the voice of Charlotte Engler, who has sung with Portland, Oregon bands like Daydream Machine and The Whole Wide World, and frequently performs with choral ensembles Cantores in Ecclesia and Cappella Romana. Charlotte Engler takes lead vocal duties alongside Ethan Matthew on the progressive-pop anthem If You Can Imagine and others.

Matthew’s mainstay in his early years, Greyhaven, is still known today as one of the pioneering, independent bands of the 1990s progressive metal/rock scene, having combined new age ambient music with progressive metal.

Since 2005 Echo Us has released multiple critically acclaimed albums in the fields of progressive rock, ambient, and world music, collaborated with Grammy-nominated vocalist Henta and others, and received NPR airplay (Echoes Radio, top 25 Oct.-Dec. 2017). In 2012 Echo Us won an Independent Music Award (Best Eclectic) for their album, Tomorrow Will Tell The Story.

The Windsong Spires will be released Tuesday, June 22, 2021 as a physical CD in the United States and Europe, as well as on digital download and streaming services.

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