Here is some great news for Ayreonauts everywhere! For the past month and a half Arjen has been hard at work in his studio, piecing together the puzzle of all the recording tapes of Actual Fantasy, Ayreon's second album.

The reason for all this work? Among other things, Arjen wanted to experiment with releasing his music as a 5.1 surround remix, and Actual Fantasy- a little bit of a 'forgotten' album in the Ayreon collection- is sonically and electronically the most extreme release. Furthermore it is hailed by many fellow-musicians as their favorite Ayreon release.

And in order for Arjen to make this 5.1 surround remix- he needed to piece together all recordings and to separate the parts that had been 'glued together' in the studio at the time of the recording... This meant re-recording some parts as well.

Well, once he knew he had to go through all that trouble... why not immediately re-record that what was an 'ear-sore' for Arjen all along? The drums! The drums on Actual Fantasy are generated by a drum computer, which bothers Arjen to this day! And... well... why stop there and really make it truly challenging and exciting project?

For this purpose Ayreon drummer extra-ordinaire Ed Warby will enter the studio next week to record drums for the Actual Fantasy re-issue. After this, Star One bassist Peter Vink will replay all bass guitar, and Arjen will re-record nearly all guitar and keyboard parts, and then rework the vocal performances- essentially making this album a new Ayreon release of sorts.

The new and improved Actual Fantasy (including the 5.1 remix) won't hit stores until early 2005. After this release, The Final Experiment re-issue with some special added elements, will be released soon after that!

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