THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM

Introducing my new album, The Antikythera Mechanism!

To be released on Memorial Day Weekend! Our CD release show will be at Clockwork Alchemy in San Jose, CA. 

This all started about 6 months ago when I read an article about the sophisticated science and technology of Ancient Greece. Reportedly, they had death rays, steam technology, and were making clockwork devices that rival the elegance of modern Swiss watch makers. Our whole world is thick with the influence of Greek art, music, knowledge and philosophy. For instance, the oldest known complete musical composition is from Greece (it's dated to somewhere between 200BC to 100AD).

The title of the album comes from an ancient artifact found in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900-1901. The corroded bronze object had obvious gear work and, after years of care and investigation was found to be a device used to predict the movements of the heavenly bodies - eclipses, the phase of the moon, the wanderings of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury through the heavens. Scholars and scientists today are still puzzling over the complexities that the mechanism has to offer. The sophistication required to make this was lost and didn't reappear again until nearly 1500 years later. Seriously, go google it and have your mind be blown.

So, anyway, as I was pondering this incredible find I began to hear music in my head. From there it was just a matter of time before I knew that I had an album's worth of material. I pitched the idea to my friend and collaborator Alyssa Rosenbloom and she agreed that this would be a thing! Several weeks and chat conversations later we had enough lyrics for the whole album! It seems like not a day would go by but that there would be a new lyric in my email box. We hashed out songs about Medusa, Cassandra, Eos, the goddess of the dawn, Aphrodite, and a whole bunch of others.

Of course, seeing as we're both totally steampunks we knew that we had to add some science fiction to the project. So we've taken a few 'liberties' with the stories. If you've heard our previous album, Narrative, you'll get what I mean.

I'm deep in the recording process even now and plan to have everything done by the end of March. Mixing, mastering, and manufacturing is all scheduled for April. I plan to have the album release in late May with a special show at Clockwork Alchemy in San Jose, CA. We'll be performing on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend.

And the cool thing is that I somehow managed to convince Phil Foglio that drawing my album cover was a thing he wanted to do! I don't know about you but … holy hell! Phil Foglio! I've only been a fan of his work since the early issues of Dragon Magazine back in the 80's. <insert van squee here>

Ahem …

So, yeah.

Like our previous release, Narratives, we're doing a fund raiser to help cover the costs for The Antikythera Mechanism. I can do a lot of the work myself but I can't play all the instruments, nor have I learned that special magic sauce known as mastering. We're going to press an initial run of 1000 CDs with all the beautiful art and layout you'd expect.

Over the next several weeks, I'll be posting song samples, bits of art, and some discussion about the songs. We will also be offering some spiffy swag for your help with our fundraiser. We’ll get the fund raiser page up in the next day or so. I just couldn’t wait any longer to share all this!

Thank you!

Nathaniel