Announcing the new studio album:

"Dark Matter" (GEPCD1034) is the new studio album from IQ, and far from resting on their laurels and producing a safe easy listening album, the band have produced a colossal work, bristling with attitude and aggression reminiscent of IQ's early days. As would be expected from the title, this is a dark, brooding album, but one that contains moments of great melodic beauty. It is pure progressive rock in all its glory with soaring guitar melodies backed up with (unusually for IQ) Mellotrons, Moogs and Hammond organ, and offset by Peter Nicholls' ever impenetrable lyrics. The classic IQ line-up of Peter Nicholls, Martin Orford, Mike Holmes, John Jowitt and Paul Cook remains very much intact and they are all in great form on this release. Tracklist: Sacred Ground, Red Dust Shadow, You Never Will, Born Brilliant, Harvest of Souls. The 24 minute epic track "Harvest Of Souls" is sure to be a favourite with the fans, and those who have had a preview of the new album already are convinced that this could be IQ's best one yet. The official release date in record shops will be June 21st, however the CD will be on sale at all the band's shows in Europe in May, and we are taking pre-orders from our mail-order customers now! However please note that we cannot guarantee that mail order CDs will be sent out before the tour - it depends how quickly we can get the stock, but we will do our best! If you haven't received your CD by the time the tour starts on May 14th we will send your copy as soon as we get back as the GEP office will be closed from May 13th - 23rd. Download the order form and pre-order your copy of "Dark Matter" now!

Tour News: Guess what? We've got some gigs to announce at last and here they are: DATE, VENUE, CITY, COUNTRY:

14.05.04: De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Holland

15.05.04: Colos Saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany

17.05.04: Filharmonia Pomorska, Bydgoszcz, Poland

18.05.04: Spirit Of '66, Verviers, Belgium

20.05.04: Mephisto, Barcelona, Spain

21.05.04: Copernico Nova Club, Madrid, Spain

22.05.04: Festival de Sarlat, Sarlat, France

02.10.04: The Met Arts Centre, Bury, Lancashire, UK

30.10.04: Olympiad Leisure Centre (ProgsFest), Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK

06.11.04: Robin 2, Bilston, West Midlands, UK

27.11.04: Oakwood Centre (CRS Awards), Rotherham, S Yorkshire, UK

December TBC: B.C. Mean Fiddler/Astoria, London, UK

Other News: The Archive Collection: The first release in this collector's series (AC001) has been well received and continues to sell well. Please remember, this is a limited edition of 2,000 copies and once it's sold out it won't be re-released. As soon as there's any news about the next release in the series you'll be able to read about it here. To order this disc, please see the Official IQ Internet site for details.

IQ 20 concert DVD / Tales From The Lush Attic re-recording: with all work recently concentrating on the new "Dark Matter" CD no progress has been made with IQ 20 or Tales. However we hope to resume work on these ongoing projects once the new album is released. It is just possible that the DVD might be ready for release later this year, but "Tales" is not likely to surface now until 2005.

Martin Orford: has made a guest appearance on the new Ayreon project, 'The Human Equation' which is due for release on the Inside Out label on 24th May. For more info about the project and other musicians involved visit the Ayreon website. Martin will also be starting work on a new solo album over the summer though there is no definite release date planned yet.

The new Azazello studio album, "Seventh Heaven" (though it's their fourth), will be released in Russia/CIS by Moscow's Starless Records in June 2004. No news regarding the worldwide release of the album yet.

The new Garden Wall albums, "Towards the Silence" and "Aliena(c)tion" (parts 2 & 3 of the trilogy "Forget the Colours"), will be released by Mellow Records in July 2004.

Moscow's Starless Records will reissue the second Flight 09 album, "Forbidden Lullabies" (2003), in June 2004. At present, the band is recording their third album, tentatively titled "Thematic Rain".

Elegant Simplicity news:

New album "Anhedonia" update:

Thanks to everyone who has bought the new album (and got the free badge!). I hope you are all enjoying it. So far, it is doing very well and it should do even better once I send copies out for review and radio play etc. There have been lots of new members joining the list this past month, so for their benefit, if you buy a copy of 'Anhedonia' from our website, you get a free 25mm button badge!

"Architect of Light":

This album should be available again fairly soon, once I have time to get it ready :) The original pressing plant has gone out of business, so there are a few technical things to sort out regarding the bar code and what have you. Nothing major, but time consuming nonetheless.

A Tribute to Moody Blues:

We were asked the other day to contribute a song to a tribute album to be released on the Italian Mellow Records label. We are going to do a song called 'Driftwood' which is off the 'Octave' album, my personal favourite of theirs. It's been a very long time since I have played anyone else's material, so it should be fun to do. Needless to say, it will not sound anything like the Moody Blues, as performing a note-for-note carbon copy would be a waste of time and extremely dull when you could simply listen to the original. I prefer the Manfred Mann approach to covers - take the song and make it sound like one of your own!

Other Work In Progress:

Can't remember if this has been mentioned previously or not, but at the same time as we were recording the "Anhedonia" album, another album was also being conceived and recorded! "Too Many Goodbyes" is the name of the thing and once the re-issue of 'Architect' is sorted out and the Moody Blues song completed, getting that album released is next on the agenda. It's all recorded now apart from the vocals, though I may re-do a few organ and guitar parts.

Archive Progress:

Work on the digitising of the entire ES archive (approx 400+ recordings) has stalled at 302! Once I can get some more free time, I will continue with the work. I guess it's one of those jobs you start, thinking 'what a great idea' but once its under. However, the work is absolutely necessary as some of the recordings are unusable and some simply fail to play. Luckily, only the really terrible early stuff is beyond recovery. I kind of don't mind losing it, as I still have the music written down.

Mellow Records - News, new & forthcoming releases:

The following items will be out in May:

Taproban (Italy) - 2004 - "Outside Nowhere"

Mary Newsletter (Italy) - 2004 - "L'Attenzione Debole"

News:

"A Tribute to Moody Blues" is growing very well with 30 bands from all over the world involved in the project. Expect a masterpiece.

The first solo album of Agostino Macor, the keyboardist for the Italian bands Finisterre and La Maschera di Cera, will be released later this year.

Also, we will reissue the first album (1994) by the US band Melting Euphoria.

We have signed the Italian band Obscura, whose singer was previously a member of Moongarden, and the US band Quiet Celebration - for the release of their new album.

Luna Negra Records - New & forthcoming release:

Amarok (Spain) - 2004 - "Quentadharaon"

Andres Olaeugi (Mexico) - 2004 - "Como Niáos"

We've also got into touch with the Spanish band Bijou regarding the (possible) release of their album "El Profeta".

Musea Records - New releases:

Minimum Vital (France) - 2004 - "Atlas"

Chris Erickson (France) - 2004 - "Sleeping with U"

Francois Breant (France) - 1980/2004 - "Voyeur Extra-Lucide"

Discus (Indonesia) - 2004 - "Tot Licht"

Wappa Gappa (Japan) - 2004 - "Gappa"

Kalo (Japan) - 2004 - "Spiral Dream"

News:

Unicorn Records is proud to present "Da 63 Projekt", the first CD from French progressive rock group Alkemy, which was released on April 1 2004.

Alkemy leader and guitarist, Arelien Budynek met with Michel St-Pere of Unicorn Records at Montreal's Hard Rock Cafe last November. They agreed to release "Da 63 Projekt" in the beginning of 2004 after a new mix and mastering was done.

Formed during the summer of 2000 and based in Bordeaux, France, Alkemy plays a unique blend of rock and fusion. Their songs mix the energy and the rhythms of Rock music with the improvisation and the precision of jazz. Their influences range from Dream Theater and Queensryche to Chick Corea Elektric Band and Pat Metheny Group.