Lucassen, Arjen Anthony (Ayreon, Star One, ...) (August 2004) (3)

Inside The Electric Castle

This interview was originally published in 1998 by Inner View, a section on the Perpetual Motion website, written by Erik van Geel and Larry "LarryD" Daglieri. It is reprinted here with the permission of LarryD.

Larry "LarryD" Daglieri: Arjen, you seem to do conceptual pieces with great ease. How do you first get your ideas for the story lines? Is it a general concept at first or is it a smaller idea that grows?

In the beginning I never have got a clue at all about what the story is going to be like. I just start writing the music. By the time that I think the music starts to sound good I start recording it and I can feel an atmosphere building up, giving me inspiration for the story-line. That is exactly how I wrote the Final Experiment. The music had medieval sounds like the huge trumpets and the harpsichord in it, making me think of a story-line related to the middle ages. Aside from that, there were a lot of computerised sounds in the music, which sound rather futuristic. This was the basis for incorporating the future in the story-line. But I never write the complete story right away. In the case of The Final Experiment, two songs were completely finished already before I knew the ending of the story. All I knew by then was that it was going to be some kind of Nostradamus story, linking messages from the future to the medieval times. But at the time I had not yet come up with the idea of the messages being deliberately sent from the future into the past. The story-line just grew while I was recording the music. It was different though in the case of Actual Fantasy, where I only had a concept, "fantasy." It was different because there was no general story-line. And this time, when I started writing Into The Electric Castle, all I knew was that I wanted to do an opera again. As you know I am a big science-fiction fan, which was the reason that I wanted this story to be situated out in space, a space opera. Like in a soap opera, I wanted the characters in the story to be a limited number of people that you get to know really well. I wanted the listener to be able to identify with each character. Those were my two ideas for this album when I started writing. At first I started to write a sequel, or better a prequel, to the story of The Final Experiment. I had a story in mind that added to the previous story in such a way, that this Final Experiment would have worked after all. Maybe you remember that in the original story it didn't work, because in 2084 mankind destroys itself. But I wanted to make a different storyline based on the principle that every time you do something, events take a different road in time. I wanted to take a different road in this story and make the final experiment a successful one. People would have heeded Ayreon's warning and would be thinking: "We believe Ayreon. It is true. We have to do something about this!" But after a while that storyline became so complicated that I didn't even understand it myself anymore. I just couldn't get a good, simple story line for this album. I worked on that story for months but in the end I threw it all away. That did hurt. But starting over was worthwile, I think. I got the basic idea for Into The Electric Castle from a silly comic book, where a man was in a labyrinth, and in the end it turned out that he was just a guinnee-pig. I really liked this idea. It got me thinking of placing these eight singers, eight characters, in a situation like this. Only later the idea of taking these people from eight different eras of time came up.

LD: How did you come up with the characters? Did all the singers like the character you wanted them to play?

Well, basically I wanted the characters to be stereotypes. Stereotypes like these get your imagination going. People like Indians and Egyptians have always been interesting, intriguing. In an early stage of writing, I phoned some of the singers and asked them what kind of character they would like to play. Like the barbarian, Jay van Feggelen, for example. At first the role I had in mind for him was that of a gangster because he just has that type of voice. But he said something like: "But hey, why a gangster? I am a big Conan fan!" So we decided he'd play a barbarian, because I think the character in the story has to fit the person that is playing, or in this case "singing," the role. Like Fish just should be a highlander. Damian Wilson was hesitant at first about his role as knight that I had in mind for him, but after a while he could really picture himself as a knight and he started liking the idea. The Egyptian loved her role and it seemed really easy for her to imagine herself being amidst Egyptian tombs, pyramids, [and] mummies. But especially the Roman enjoyed his role. He told me he had always been very interested in Roman history. He even corrected me on some lines in the lyrics, that he said were ancient Greek instead of Roman! And when he came over to my studio he was wearing a beard, which he usually doesn't wear, but he felt that that was Roman. He also had his hair cut in that style. So when he was singing he really looked and sounded like a Roman. Very emotional, very real. Edward Reekers, playing the futureman, has always been the type of man that knows everything better. That character trait made me pick his character: someone from the future. A futureman has to know more than all the others. That worked out very well. The Indian loved her role, too. Only the hippie complained about his role [laughter - LD]. In fact, originally I wasn't supposed to play the role of the hippie. But it didn't really work out with the singer I had in mind for the hippie, and after that I just decided I could do it myself. I am satisfied with the way that worked out.

LD: Did you have to research any of the characters, like the Egyptian?

Yes, all the characters. I did a lot of research. Since I hate reading I just rented a lot of videofilms, really bad B-films. But that's exactly what I wanted, because I wanted to make this story like a B-movie. I wanted it to have that atmosphere of those bad sci-fi movies from the 50s. Only in these kind of movies you find the words that you want to use, these really "over-the-top" kind of words. You don't find those words in good films. The bad thing was that I had to force myself to work my way through loads of really trashy films. I rented Awakenings with Charlton Heston and a few other films about Egyptians to research the Egyptian character. But I knew about some Egyptian stuff, of course; like Ra, the Sunking. Aside from watching all these movies, I bought a computer dictionary providing an enormous amount of information. That's where I found Egyptian words like "Heliopolis," which is the center of the sunworship, "Ka," the soul, and "Anenti," the afterworld where you go after you die. It all makes sense; it's not just a couple of words.

LD: Can you tell us a bit more about the singers and musicians? Is there anybody that you liked working with most? Anybody easiest to work with?

I couldn't tell who I preferred to work with. I loved the diversity of all the singers. Their way of singing, their style, how they pictured themselves in their role. I liked the different voices, the different ways of working. Take for example the difference between the Egyptian, The Gathering's Anneke van Giersbergen, and the Indian, Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel. Anneke came in at 10am, sang her parts and left again around noon. She is a natural talent. She has a powerful voice with a beautiful vibrato and sings every melody, no matter how difficult, with great ease. I think she will have a great future in the music business. Sharon however, though having a really great voice, too, worked really hard for one entire long day to sing her parts. But that gave a really satisfying feeling at the end of that day. I got in touch with her because I read in a magazine that she liked my music. That was the reason I went out to see a Within Temptation show, where she suggested she'd like to sing on an Ayreon album. But they were both great to work with, both in their own way.

About the other singers ... you all know Fish of course, ex-vocalist of Marillion and now solo artist. No one could have played that role of the highlander better than Fish. This man is incredible. He is more than a singer, he is an actor and a great improvisor. And what a personality this man has. With one eye he watches TV, while his other eye is surfing the Internet, and at the same time he is listening to both a news broadcast and me! And he proved that even after several bottles of wine his voice is still impressive! Damian Wilson used to be the singer for Landmarq and Threshold. He has the clearest voice I have ever heard and there is no way of tiring him! I never had someone like that in my studio, someone with a voice that strong, it is incredible. I have had very strong singers, like Leon Goewie, but after eight hours of shouting he really needed a rest. But Damian didn't. He is an extremely energetic man, hard to keep under control. After singing his parts he insisted on checking out the Dutch nightlife. I will spare you the details on this ... but he sang all his vocals in just one day, even though he had the largest share of the vocals on the album. Considering that he didn't even have time to practice his vocal lines and lyrics before he got here, because he was playing a role in the musical Les Miserables at the time, that is a remarkable job. Edward Reekers' abilities weren't really surprising for me anymore, since he was a singer on the previous two Ayreon albums, too, so I know what he can do. He is a very melodic singer and he is the kind of singer that only needs one take to get his vocals on tape, just the way I wanted them. At present Edward is also doing the voice-overs for commercials and cartoons.

The other singer that was on an Ayreon disc before is Jay van Feggelen, former singer of Dutch hard rock band Bodine. Why this man isn't a celebrity all over the world is a big puzzle to me. He has a very bluesy voice, like Paul Rodgers, and for all those years that I have been a fan of Jay, his voice hasn't lost a bit of power. Finally there is Edwin Balogh, known from his bands Omega and Tamas, but now working on solo projects and busy in the production area. He has an immensely emotional but raw voice, fit for both fixed vocal lines and improvisation. And I already told you how seriously he took his role of [the] Roman. I will definitely work with him again! The narrator, Peter Daltrey, used to be the singer and songwriter of a cult-band called Kaleidoscope back in the 60s. He is doing solo projects right now. I found out about them about ten years ago. I have always been a fan and I even wrote to his record company. He replied to that letter himself and since then we have stayed in touch. I played some guitar parts on his solo albums and now he wrote the voice-over parts for Into The Electric Castle and did a great job telling the story-line.

Now about the musicians. I had a real flute player this time, named Thijs van Leer. He is the flute player in a band called Focus. Though it was really hard to get in touch with him (I had to phone his wife, his manager and his band first!), he was interested in participating because he had heard the first Ayreon album before and liked it a lot, and asking him was really worthwhile. He lived up to the expectations, he is really very good. He is a great improviser, too. Clive Nolan from Arena, Pendragon and Shadowland, did an amazing job on the keyboards. When I asked him to play on this album he didn't hesitate for a second to say "yes." But only if I would ask him again for the next album if I would like it! Well ... I like it! But there were three more keyboard players on the album: First off, there is Rene Merkelbach, with whom I have worked many times before on several projects. He is great keyboard solo player and very reliable, both as musician and as a person to deal with. The only thing that gets to my nerves is that his guitar imitations on keyboard are just too close to the real thing! Then there is Ton Scherpenzeel, who used to be songwriter and keyboard player for Dutch progressive rock band Kayak. Though he was surprised that I asked him to play a synth solo, because he doesn't consider this his best quality, he did an amazing job. Finally, I asked Vengeance's Roland Bakker to play the Hammond on this album. I have worked with him since the last Vengeance album Back From Flight 19. Even though he had some problems adapting to my style of music in the beginning he just kept working for it and in the end did a wonderful job. So I guess it is only goodbye for now!

Aside from all these keyboard players, I wanted Robby Valentine to play a bit of piano on the album. This guy was so incredibly good that after I heard that part I asked him to do more and to play some synth solos, too. And even though it was more than 10 years ago since he did synth solos, the result was perfect. This man is an underestimated, but true genius. The last musician on the album is Ed Warby on drums. Ed plays drums for Dutch metal band Gorefest and actually Oscar Holleman [former Vengeance guitar player and now studio technician - LD] told me that he would be the drummer that I needed for this album. How right he was! Impressive! Well, just listen to the album and judge for yourself!

I think all what I said here tells you that I have been more than satisfied with the achievements of everyone involved in the creation of this album. Of course there were a few parts that I didn't like. In those cases I either asked the musician to come back and do it again or if it didn't work I asked another one to take that part. And I had to change some lyrics during the process. But I only left on tape what I really like.

LD: Did you give all the musicians a little bit of creative leeway?

All of them. I didn't do that in the past because back then I always knew exactly what I wanted. But it is somehow stupid to ask really great musicians to play on your album and then tell him how to play something. I asked these people because I am a fan of their music. That's why I wanted them to do what they are strong at, in their own way, this time. Because if I can tell people how to do something, I can probably do it myself. So I think it is very important to leave them very free and let them do their own thing, for the quality of the whole.

LD: In your last Perpetual Motion Inner View, after Actual Fantasy , there was talk that this album was going to be a cross between The Final Experiment and Actual Fantasy and you actually seem to catch that. Was that your expectation all along to get a good blend of those two releases?

Basically yes. But, as I also said in the Inner View, maybe The Final Experiment was a bit too bombastic and maybe I used a bit too much "fake" sounds, and maybe Actual Fantasy was a touch too cold, using the computers and only three singers who weren't allowed to improvise. This time I wanted everything to be real, as if you were listening to a band. I wanted real drums, without any samples or computers, real violins, real celli, real flutes. On the other two albums the sounds were mostly coming from a module, but this time I wanted everything to be much warmer. That worked out very well, I think. But then again I don't know what the people want. Maybe they liked that very bombastic side of the Final Experiment. I do think the music that I make is old-fashioned, it isn't very modern but it sounds like present-time music. I think it's a shame that in the past so many great music has been made, but if I play that to a twenty year old, he just hears this outdated sound from those days. He'd say it sounds old-fashioned. So what I try to do is bring that music to this time and make it more accessible for more people, bridging the gap between generations. What would really bridge that gap is a hit single. Take a look at all the rock operas that really worked, like Jesus Christ Superstar and Tommy, they all had a hit single on it. That's what made them big. But I don't want to cross that bridge, things would go wrong then. I want a real audience, that is really close. Not the big audience that buys a single and then forgets about you a week after.

LD: How did you produce this disc? There were a lot of tapes involved, right?

Oh yes, loads of tapes. Some songs had nine tapes, times eight tracks, so that is 72 tracks. The good thing is that I have all the time in the world to do this and that's a great plus. To sit down each day and freak. That's what I like to do best. I don't have to go to work, I don't have to rehearse with a band, I don't have to do gigs or go on tour with a band. I've got all the time, every day, day in day out, to work on the music and that is the only reason why I can do this. Otherwise a project like this wouldn't be possible. It would be too costly to do it. It wouldn't be possible to do this in an expensive studio within a limited period of time. I like working with Oscar the way we do. I don't know if he's the best because I don't dare to go to another studio. If you work on something for more than one and a half year, you want to be sure that it will turn out the way you want it. So everytime I think: next time I'm going someplace else, but I never really take the chance to do it. No, I always go back to Oscar. Then I know it's going to work out.

LD: Are there any days that you feel like screaming in production?

Postive or negative?

LD: Let's go with the negative first....

Of course. I mean, when I'm recording I hate everything and I am being extremely critical. I always hate the guitar sound. Whatever I do, changing the mikes or changing the strings or whatever, I always hate the guitar sound.

LD: And the positive?

Working with the effects is just great. I'm a great fan of synthesizer sounds, especially the mini-Moog, its sound is so incredible. It is plugged into a recorder and that's it. But with a guitar there are so many ways to change its sound, the way you play, the pics you use, the strings, the pick-ups, the cables to your amplifier, the amplifier, the box, the microphones, etcetera. Keyboards are so much easier.

Production-wise this time I am very satisfied about the drums. They sound very neutral but this guy is so incredibly good. So anything you would do to change this sound using samples would be a shame, because now you actually hear a drummer at work, you hear drummers sweat. That's what I wanted, real sounds. We just used ambiance mikes to get that John Bonham kind of feeling, that whole drum set, without having to use a reverb from a little module. So all we did was add a little bit of reverb on the ambiance mikes. That definitely worked out great. Besides, if the sound of the drums isn't that big it leaves a lot of space for other instruments. You can suddenly hear a flute come out or a guitar or a bass, that you wouldn't have heard if the drum sound had really been big.

LD: Would you say this is your masterpiece so far?

Definitely. But I think that is the feeling you have to have after finishing a disc. I also said that after Actual Fantasy. The moment I was working on Actual Fantasy I really thought it was better than The Final Experiment, but now looking back I think they are equal. At least for my feeling. I understand that The Final Experiment is more popular. It's bigger, it has a concept and bigger names. But there was a huge difference. In the case of The Final Experiment I was very insecure. Because all the record companies turned me down, but also because of my time with Oscar in the studio ..."This is shit! This song is shit! Oh no, we can't put this on the album!" And then someone would come along and say: "Ah! This is incredible! What do you mean, this sounds like shit?" So, we were so insecure, even with Actual Fantasy. Worried about what the people would say about it, or the critics. But this time I am very sure. That could be wrong. I can only be disappointed now. With The Final Experiment, when I noticed it would become album of the year, and it sold really well and people loved it, I was really surprised. This time I would be surprised if they don't like it. That's not a good thing but that's the way it is. I am very sure of this album.

LD: Did you expect this disc would be this packed with talent when you started this?

No, no. I didn't dare to hope. That I could get these musicians, that they were so great and that they loved what they had to do. So I really feel that I picked the right parts for the right musicians. I'm getting really good at that. I think.

LD: What did your record label say when you said you wanted to make another rock opera?

Of course they liked it because The Final Experiment sold better than Actual Fantasy. But they hated me when I said I wanted it to be a double album because of the extra costs they would have. I mean, it will only be a few extra dollars in the shops but for us it is a lot more expensive. Twice as long recording, mixing and mastering, a special package for the CD, a thicker booklet, printing two CDs, paying copyright for two CDs, etcetera. So everything is more expensive. But I definitely don't want it to be expensive in the shops. So we try to make the album just a little bit more expensive than a regular disc, but you never know what the shops are going to do. They might want to sell it for a higher price than we had in mind. That's the only thing we can't control. We don't know what is going to happen.

LD: You think if you had more of a supplier in the US, you think it would sell better there?

Well, I have heard there hardly is an audience for music like this out there. But on the other hand, when I look at the number of Americans visiting the Ayreon pages, I sometimes doubt that. My record company tells me that the American fans are just more enthusiastic, though they are smaller in numbers. Of course, I would like to sell more in America. Why not? And of course I would like to see the scene for progressive rock grow, because it proved to be timeless. All the progressive bands in the past have proved that. I mean, I used to love punk like the Sex Pistols when it came out, but music like that is temporary, while all progressive music just remains good. It is timeless and that is what I want my music to be, that's my big dream. And I think I am achieving that because The Final Experiment simply keeps on selling. Comparing it to Vengeance ... we played 80s heavy metal and that was it. That is over now. Back in the 80s we sold a lot of albums, but after two years the albums the sales would drop. But The Final Experiment keeps selling. Of course there's a lot of word of mouth commercial for my music right now and I think that's most important for me. That people say "Hey, listen to this!" and then ten people pass this to twenty other people, and then these twenty to a hundred other people ... I think that's the way my albums have to sell. It won't be seen on television, it won't be heard on the radio. But it will be promoted on the Internet, which I think is a good thing, and by word of mouth.

LD: When you first thought of The Final Experiment and started putting it all together, did you ever think it would grow this big?

No. Of course I hoped, because it was a very depressing period for me. I lost my girlfriend, I lost my record deal with Vengeance and I made a solo album Pools Of Sorrow, Waves Of Joy that flopped hopelessly. That's what the album was ... pools of sorrow. And only now and then there was a wave of joy. That was the time I decided to do something that I really like myself without considering other people's opinions, even though it probably wouldn't sell. So I was really surprised when The Final Experiment got so big, but of course I hoped it.

LD: You are humble compared to a lot of other musicians, but there's a lot of people out there who think you're a genius in music. Do you hate that?

I have nothing to do with genius. I am definitely not a genius. When I work with someone like Robby Valentine ... this guy is a genius. I come in and play something on my guitar that I had to rehearse for two weeks, and he sits down at the piano and says "oh you mean this" ... and turns it into a complete symphony! That's incredible. Or he plays a solo, in just one take, and it is exactly what I had in my head. While I have to work for a week to get a solo on tape. So people like him are genius. Like Fish. A lot of what Fish did was improvising, like the "can you see the stars?" part. I just told him "you're a highlander and you're somewhere in the darkness in space and you don't know where you are" and he just came up with all of this in one take. That is genius. Or Damian singing all day and his voice not croaking at the end. I could go on about all of them. I am a music lover and that's the most important thing. Because I know that some people are genius but they don't love music. So nothing happens. But I have always loved music so much, from the first time I heard The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and the days I always ran to record stores listening to new releases and traded records with my friends. That's my strength and my love for creating things: working on the songs, the sounds, the lyrics. I think those are my strong features.

When my day of working in the studio is over, I go upstairs and lie between the speakers and listen to albums and I know I am not a genius. And that's not being humble, that's being rational. Because it doesn't come easy, like for someone like Yngwie Malmsteen. I am sure he grabbed the guitar and within a few weeks or months he could play like hell already. But I always had to work for it.

LD: The Into The Electric Castle booklet is beautiful. Did you search for this artist? Did you have an idea of what you wanted?

Yes, I searched for him because I knew exactly what I wanted. What I wanted was a Roger Dean clone, the guy who did all the Yes albums. I tried a few great artists, who all tried to do that fantasy thing that I had in mind, but it didn't work. Like this one guy who originally was a cartoonist, but who wanted to go into realistic, fantasy and sci-fi art. It was not what I wanted, because you could still see the cartoon characters in his work. So I had four or five guys who made an Electric Castle for me without success. Then my brother phoned me telling me he had been at an exhibition, and he thought he had found the artist I wanted, a Belgian fantasy art painter [Jef Bertels]. The painter sent me a brochure and I saw one of his drawings. I got enthusiastic about it and made an appointment with him. When I got there, he had all these paintings out and I was already impressed. But when he started showing me his books, of all the work he did, I saw that his work is even better when you photograph it. I was so impressed by this artist that I said: "Oh man, this is incredible! Why aren't you world famous?" I was there with John van de Oetelaar, who did the layout for the album, who started whispering "Oh shit! Don't do this!" because he saw the price going up! I couldn't help it. It was exactly what I wanted.

I read some interviews this painter did and he says he has a gate somewhere to another dimension, where he supposedly sees the things that he paints. He goes through the gate, looks into the other dimension and just puts it on paper. He doesn't invent it, it is already there. He made a black and white pencil sketch of the cover and I told him to go on with it. I also wanted him to do the booklet, but not like the cover. He worked on the cover painting for two months. That would be far too expensive. So he just painted all the booklet pictures on one big piece of paper. I told him what I wanted in there, like the colours, the Decision Tree, the Tunnel of Light behind it. Afterwards John did a great job on incorporating the artwork in the booklet: scanning all the pictures, changing some colours using a computer where necessary, adding the lyrics, etcetera. I think a booklet is very important. It has always been important to me. If an album had a great sleeve I would listen to it. I'm not objective when it comes to that. I had to get used to a few things in the booklet and I don't like all the pages, but if you have only great pages in there you don't see the beauty of them anymore. It's like if you don't like all singers.

LD: After this album, what's next for Ayreon? Can we expect more?

Definitely. Because I'm someone who, as soon as a project is finished, starts with the next one. I don't want to go repeating it or rehearsing it, or playing it live. Of course I do interviews, because it is still fresh now. I leave it behind me but I don't want to fall into that black hole. Because that's what happens. The recordings are finished, the album is finished and then you have to sit around waiting for the album to be released. That's horrible. Usually I do some kind of weird thing then, like the Strange Hobby disc, just to escape from that black hole. But this time I don't know. I feel like I can put everything into the Ayreon projects so it is hard to do something on the side, because I do want to keep it all for Ayreon. I could do the Strange Hobby thing without keeping it for Ayreon, because it was something very different. But on the other hand, if I would suddenly make something horrible like a reggae album I don't think fans would be too happy about it. I mean, they wouldn't buy it but they would have a bad feeling. I could imagine if Richie Blackmore would make a reggae album, I would hate him for that ... and all his other albums, too!

LD: Is there a good chance that your next CD will be another rock opera?

All Ayreon songs always start very easy and then they build up to a really heavy part. What I want to do now is to separate these two elements. One album with soft and beautiful melodies and another album really going for it, heavy. Maybe two sides of a story. That's the idea I have now. Maybe fans love the combination of the two ingredients, but releasing two albums like this might show me what the fans prefer. I might also ask the fans opinions about this on the Internet if they would like that, in an online chat perhaps. I wouldn't know what my audience is like. When I have a look at the Ayreon link page, I see bands like Angra and Symphony X. I think there is also another side, with people liking bands like Camel. So I wouldn't know. I would like to make a complete soft album but I am afraid I can't do it. I always have this urge to let the heavy guitars kick in. I guess it is emotion driving my music. It has to be very emotional, over the top, impressive. But I still want to make one easier album, like Pink Floyd. What the next album is going to be also depends on what Into The Electric Castle will do. Maybe it won't sell. It sounds weird but either way I am not worried about it. If it doesn't sell I can do "something completely different" (like John Cleese), and I love that, and if it does sell well, I will have to make something in the same vein. That might be good for my ego but it also gives you pressure. It sounds very bold when a musician says "I do what I want. I don't give a fuck what people say." but it isn't true, whoever says that. If this album sells 200,000 copies then of course I'd like to do something like this again. You try to please all the fans that bought this album. Of course you do that. Can you imagine what would have happened if the Anthony album would have been a hit? How horrible that would have been? I would have been stuck with it! But at the time I wanted it to be very big. But that would have been my death. But my biggest fear for now is that I won't be able to outdo Into The Electric Castle.

Of course, the next Ayreon project was The Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer and The Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight Of The Migrator and then in a different direction with the Ambeon project and Fate Of A Dreamer, only to explore the heavier, yet melodic side, with Star One and Space Metal.

Discography:
Ayreon - The Final Experiment (1995)
Ayreon - Actual Fantasy (1996)
Ayreon - Into The Electric Castle (1998)
Ayreon - The Univeral Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer (2000)
Ayreon - The Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight Of The Migrator (2000)
Ayreon - Ayreonnauts Only
Ambeon - Fate Of A Dreamer (2001)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Space Metal (2002)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Live On Earth (2003)
Ayreon - The Human Equation (2004)
Ayreon - Actual Fantasy Revisited (2004)
Ayreon - The Final Experiment - Special Edition (2005)
Stream Of Passion - Embrace The Storm (2005)
Ayreon - 01011001 (2008)
Arjen Lucassen's Guilt Machine - Arjen Lucassen's Guilt Machine (2009)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Victims Of The Modern Age (2010)
Ayreon - The Theory Of Everything (2013)
The Gentle storm - The Diary (2015)