PROJECT STORY!
THE OPTIMYSTICAL TOUR...
Some of the songs on ”Distant Encounters” were written a very long time ago. Some of them as long as 17 years ago. For example “In our World” and “Happen” has seen different lyrics and arrangements passing through the sands of time. Together with newly written songs as “Face in the Window”, “Tonite” and “The Storm” the album took form. Twelve strong tracks were to be recorded. With some help from lyricist Björn Ledelius I started to recreate and rearrange all songs, preparing them for recordings. I went through old recordings and decided what to keep and what to rerecord. A huge job, but someone had to do it.
The Malmö Crew I (2004)
Directly after releasing VAGH-album “Into the Future Zone” work began on the third album. The working title was “Startide Rising”. As mentioned earlier I preproduced a demo with twelve songs as a rock solid foundation for the recordings. Anders Rosell and Jan-Åke Jönsson recorded drums and bass on all songs in SINGEL STUDIO in Malmö, Sweden, assisted by engineer Henrik Hansson. Basslines on “In our World”, “Outcast”, “The Unexpected”, “The Storm” and “I go Blind” originate from those recording sessions. Drums on the songs “In our World” and “I go Blind” are still there as well.
But, Lack of money and a nagging feeling, that things could have been done even better led to the fact that recordings were interrupted on further notice...
Back to the preproduction stage
again.
Now, a period of inactivity followed. I had a hard time deciding wether to keep up the work or to terminate the project. But, determind as I am, I kept working in silence with my creations. I rearranged some things again and recorded new guitars for all songs. And I went over the keyboard arrangements again.
I've known Tom Rask for more than a decade and we played together in a garageband called LA Connection back in the mid 90´s. He is no doubt the most talented keyboardplayer I could ever imagine. He is technically brilliant and he´s also got the capability to create suiting sounds and good moods for the songs. I just had to get him to play for the VAGH-project. And I was really pleased when Tom agreed to do that.
Unfortunately Tom now has decided
not to play anymoore, but he´s actually a part of OPTIMYSTICAL anyway. A
small synthfigure is used in the first verse of the song “Outcast”. A static
figure that became abundant from the song “Book of Shadows” on
VAGH-debute “Sands of Time”.
And I have also reused Tom´s
fantastic keyboards in the rerecording of the song “Tricky”.
Also a song from “Sands of Time” that´s now a bonustrack for “Distant Encounters”.
Swesound Studio Crew - Chapter 1. I (2005)
After getting in contact with Johan Sjöberg of bands TOKEN and STONESILK I asked him to help out with some backlines for the project. In three different sessions (2005 – 2008) he and Magnus Frid recorded bass and drums on 7 songs, starting with “Tonite”, “Sunburst in the Midnight” and “Face in the Window”. Johan did also add some keyboards to a few songs.
They did a magnificent job that urged me to continue the recordings. I was right back on track again.
The Endarker Crew I (2006)
But, actually, it wasn´t until late
2006 I was able to make an effort again, trying to complete the album.
Unemployment and the lack of money put a hold on work.
But now I was able to gather a crew
that entered the ENDARKER STUDIO in my hometown Norrköping. Engineer Magnus
DEVO Andersson hosted me, Jonas Blum, Per Broddesson and Christian Muhr for
a recording session ending up in the songs “Outcast” and “Tonite”. We also
recorded a version of “In our World” that only partly
made it into the album.
JB recorded vocals on “Outcast” and
“Tonite” that can be heard on the completed album. Chris is
playing drums on “Outcast” and Per´s excellent guitarwork can be heard on
“Tonite” and “In our World”.
The song “Game On” was recorded but was rejected in an early stage.
Swesound Studio Crew - Chapter 2. I (2006)
Simultaneously I asked Johan and
Magnus to help out with some more songs. They recorded “Happen” and “Lost
Horizon” with the same excellent result and for the first time I felt
that this could really end up in an album. It was about this time I
decided VAGH was going to die and OPTIMYSTICAL was to rise from the shadows.
There were so many new talented musicians in the project that I couldn´t
really keep calling the project VAGH. A new fresh start.
Now things accelerated. Work was in progress on all fronts. I searched for co-workers on the Internet and found an amazing amount of talented people...
Hand in hand recordings now took place all over the south of Sweden. Files were sent over Internet and some more newfound friends added their touch to the project.
The Internet Squad: Fredrik Fencke
After getting tired of my guitarlines I found guitarwiz Fredrik Fencke on the Internet. We decided he should play guitars on almost all songs. Dubbing me of course. He really did a great job, giving the songs new life. I really like people that can take directions, but still come up with new ideas for the songs.
The Internet Squad: Mike Lavér
He´s another aquaintance I made on the Internet. After some small talk we decided to try to work together on the track “Face In The Window”. It turned out extremely well. Mike has got great touch and the solo on this track is amazing.
The Internet Squad: Ronnie Hagstedt.
Yet again another Internet contact. I really love the sound of his voice. I think it perfectly suits the more AOR- orientated parts of the material. I´m also very much into Ronnie´s arrangements of the background vocals. He´s a very intelligent singer.
Artwork
I (2008)
Time to bring an illustrator into the project. Earlier partner Mattias Norén was no longer available, but he pointed me into the direction of talented Carl-André Beckston. Work began on a logo and later on he created the whole artwork for the album and this website. And he´s really done a fantastic job with everything. It was also after discussions with André I found the new title to the album; “Distant Encounters.
Completion Of
The Masterpiece I
(2008 – 2009)...
Summer of 2008 meant
mixing the songs. I turned to RAMPAC for the job. And they did a
fantastic job. I felt everything was perfect. They had really felt my
dedication for the songs.
Next step was to let Erik Broheden at Masters of Audio master the album. He added yet a little bit more edge to the songs, that now was prepared for printing.
A promotional edition was burned and
a Limited Special Edition was also manufactured.
"LSE" is a burned edition with the
originally planned order of songs and can be described as a “Producers
Choice”. Signed by Robin Vagh, and containing a rerecording of TRICKY ( One
of the best VAGH-songs ever ) it´s clearly a collector´s item.
It´s only available for purchase through this website.
After signing with Avenue of Allies
the CD will be released 22nd of may 2009.
It will be available through the
distribution channels of the label.
So let me take you on an Optimystical Tour....
/Robin Vagh
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