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One of the most prolific and innovative composers of our time, world renowned Guitarist and Composer George Bellas presents his latest instrumental album "Planetary Alignment". This album is so uniquely crafted that most listeners will find many composition elements they have never heard before. The style of the album is extremely modern and very progressive, it does not contain any neoclassical songs that George Bellas is also reputable for, but the album stays completely within the progressive realm.
As usually the case on George Bellas releases, George composed everything one note at a time and performed all of the instruments, plus had Drummer extraordinaire Marco Minneman perform the drum parts. Marco's drum performance's are nothing short of awe inspiring. The time signatures and rhythms contained on the album are extremely complex which Marco brought to life with his organic and immaculate drumming style. Leading guitar virtuoso George Bellas is back with his most modernly progressive solo album to date - expect the unexpected.
The concept and inspiration behind Planetary Alignment was the science of astrophysics. Each song was based on a particular subject ranging from the smallest matter known to man, to the largest and distant most objects in the universe. The goal was to compose ultra-modern music using scales, chords and rhythms not heard too often in music. The main interval the songs are all based on is the Tritone, with the root tone as middle C. It is quite a mystery where inspiration comes from when one is creating music, and it seems to only all come together when one is well practiced, emotions are stirring and the planets are aligned.
COMPOSITION ELEMENTS
CHORDS - Bitonal, Tritonal, Quartal, Quintal, Secondal, Pyramid Chord, Scriabin's Mystic Chord, Vienesse Trichords, Mother Chord, Grandmother Chord, Split Note Chords, Chord of the Minor23rd and more.
RHYTHM - Odd Meters, Polyrhythms, Polymeters, Pyramid Rhythms, Fibonacci Number Series Meters, Contracting and Expanding Meters and more.
SCALES - Numerous (no name) scales from Nicolas Slominski's Thesaurus, Scale of A. Therepin, Verdi's Enigmatic, Wholetone, HalfWhole, Pentatonics, Melodic Minor Modes, Harmonic Major and many more.
Planetary Alignment was initiated using only rhythmic motives, and then later on scale choices were determined while composing the melodic and harmonic content. Most of the musical elements appearing on this album have never been used on previous George Bellas albums and offer a very fresh, ultra-modern sound.
Most all of the compositions revolve around a Middle C root while employing various tritone based elements. The production on the album was kept dry and natural sounding, with effects used quite sparingly.
Expect the unexpected and enjoy listening to what may be the most progressive release by George Bellas.
Color By Numbers
This song was the start of creating numerous rhythmic motives and then adding notes (color) to the motives. This method was then used for the entire album.
This song contains many improvised guitar solos and has some nice dynamic contrast between the various sections.
GUITARS USED: Stratocaster
Encoded In Light
This song's concept was inspired by the idea of photons and what type of information can presently, and may in the future, be sent through this fastest known particle to man. We are currently using light to transmit sights and sounds, but perhaps in the future an entire DNA strand.
GUITARS USED: Stratocaster
Subatomic Particles
This song's concept was inspired by the smallest bits of matter known to mankind. Everything we know of in the universe contains these essential, tiny building blocks of matter. What is keeping it all together, and why isn't it all flying apart like the large objects in the universe?
GUITARS USED: Stratocaster, Baritone Guitar
New Worlds Discovered
This song's concept was inspired by the thought of discovering new worlds inhabited by intellegent beings. The fact that there are billions of other galaxies which harbor their own countless planets makes it seem that if we are the only ones in the universe that there is a lot of wasted space out there. Thanks to Carl Sagan.
GUITARS USED: Flying V
Parallel Universe
This song's concept was inspired by the idea that our known universe is one of many that are differentiated by unique actions we all choose to make. These implications are supported by factual astronomical observations.
Is there another you?
GUITARS USED: 7-String & Stratocaster
Overlapping Dimensions
This song's concept was inspired by the fact that Scientists are finding evidence of extraterrestrial presence in higher dimensions all around us even overlapping our immediate environment overlapping the Physical Universe. The idea is that our real being exists in a higher dimension and interacts with the visible one we know of.
GUITARS USED: Flying V
Escape Velocity
This song's concept was inspired by the amount of energy that is required to escape an object's gravitational force. The amount of velocity required to leave Earth is much less than one would need to escape the force of much larger objects, and ultimately no velocity that can escape a black hole.
GUITARS USED: Les Paul
Gravitons
This song's inspiration is drawn from the particles that carry the gravitational force. Gravitons are supposedly massless particles, which would travel only at the speed of light. When these particles were intercepted, and re-exchanged, gravity would be the intended result. A Graviton is a Boson particle and is theorized to interact with Quarks and Leptons.
GUITARS USED: Flying V
Planetary Alignment
If several planets are orbiting the sun at known speeds and current positions, how many years will it be before those planets are perfectly aligned and what effects will it have? Will the magnetic and gravitational forces be so strong as to create floods, earthquakes and other catastrophes? The next planetary alignment is expected to occur in the year 2438.
GUITARS USED: Flying V
Supersymmetry
This song's concept was inspired by the mathematical symmetry relating to bosons and femions. AKA an attempt of a Unified Field Theory using acceleration in place of gravity.
Force = Mass multiplied by Acceleration (F=MA).
GUITARS USED: Stratocaster
» George Bellas is one of the world’s most respected and leading guitar virtuosos.
» Bellas has a highly dedicated fan base worldwide who appreciates his own unique approach to the guitar and lap up each release.
» George is a member of Palace Terrace who saw their debut “Flying Through Infinity” released in Nov 2007 on Lion Music.
» George has been a member of Mogg/Way, Ring Of Fire and recorded with John West (ex Royal Hunt, Artension) and Vitalij Kuprij amongst others.
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