Will Timo Tolkki ever get rid of the Stratovarius inheritance? After Tuomo Lassila, the next ex-Strato member to join Timo Tolkki's Avalon's line-up for the second album is Antti Ikonen. The band's site states: "The original keyboard player of Stratovarius Antti Ikonen has joined the line up of Avalon. He played all keyboards on the classic Stratovarius albums such as Fright Night, Twilight Time, Dreamspace and Fourth Dimension."

About this, Timo Tolkki had this to say: "It is incredibly refreshing to create and play new music with old friends and the spirit and the atmosphere have been absolutely great and positive!"

You can watch his video greeting down here.

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In other news, it has also been announced the date that will see the beginning of the studio recordings for Avalon II (working title). Again from the official site: "The recordings of the new Avalon album will start on the 25th of November on East Sounds Studios in Helsinki, Finland with drum recordings and Timo, Tuomo and Antti reuniting in studio together for the first since 1995. The new album will feature 11 tracks with a released slated during 2014 on Frontiers Records."

Source:	avalonopera.com
Band profile:	Timo Tolkki's Avalon