Monarch Trail: Required more collaborative arrangements…..
Monarch Trail - Wither Down
When keyboard player/vocalist Ken Baird had written some music which seemed to require more collaborative arrangements than usual, he asked drummer Chris Lamont and bassist Dino Verginella if they’d be willing to be a part of Monarch Trail. John Mamone, Robert Adlers, Kelly Kereliuk and Steve Cochrane expand the guitar side of the band. Two albums now completed, the third Wither Down was released early in October. A number of the band members, including Ken Baird, perform or are members of Art Griffin’s Sound Chaser.
Monarch Trail started as a trio as mentioned above. The first stage was to set up several rehearsals for the trio to work on arranging the new pieces. Important changes were made to the charts; an extra set of bars here, a new melody line there, a different tempo over there and so on. Even more importantly, these rehearsals also turned out to be a ton of fun with no lack of shenanigans!
They made the decision to start recording the music right away and add other musicians when needed. As it turned out, there was to be a fair bit of guitar on the record, so guitarist friends were brought in providing “the right part for the right track”. True to the spirit of the project, John Mamone, Kelly Kereliuk and Steve Cochrane all had major creative input on their solos and sections.
The recording was done by Ken Baird, but in the final months of the record, Cochrane also lent his studio and his recording and mastering abilities. Drawings by Annette Roche had initially helped inspire the lyrics, so these drawings ultimately became part of the album artwork.
And so here we have it, the first album from Monarch Trail: Skye! Since then Monarch Trail have been a band an impressing band and a band to count on delivering very well crafted symphonic prog.
Tracklist:
1. Wither Down (10:53)
2. Echo (5:59)
3. Canyon Song (6:32)
4. Waves Of Sound (11:00)
5. Megalopolitana (15:18)
6. All Kinds Of Futures (6:47)
Total Time 56:29
Line-up:
Chris Lamont: Drums
Dino Verginella: Bass
Kelly Kereliuk: Guitar
Ken Baird: Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
With
David Carswell
Steve Cochrane
David Kruger
Robert Adlers
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