Iona Album And Tour News
Date: Tuesday, April 20 @ 03:00:00 UTC
Topic: Album Release News


Iona posted: January saw the beginning proper of recording for the album, with Dave working on track arrangements for 2 of Jo's songs and new ideas at his Open Sky Studio.

In February Jo, Martin and Dave settled into Jo's "snooker room" for 4 days to record some piano, guide vocals and some pipes and whistles. Some previously half finished, but promising song ideas really started to take shape as well as some new instrumental ideas - among them a slow air, a set of reels and a pipe/whistle tune that could become the basis of a longer composition.

Later in the month, Dave took the song files over to Frank's studio on his laptop to do further work on 2 other tracks: "Another Realm" is a compact, up tempo song in a similar mould to "Treasure" (on which Frank has added a great drum track and some rockin' violin, and Dave some tasty guitars).



"White Horse," at over 10 minutes long on the other hand, is the band's latest epic track. Originally a shorter song, it is developing into a cornerstone piece of the album, encapsulating as it does the twin themes of bringing Heaven to Earth and the unseen battle that rages in the heavenly realm. Musically, after a number of revisions the band have arrived at a great arrangement that Jo, (who is enormously excited about the track) has described as "more Iona than Iona!" There is still much to do on the track but it already features some very evocative keyboards, an incredible drum track on which Frank has really excelled himself, and a soaring melody that evokes the same feeling of freedom as that on "Flight Of The Wild Goose."

The next studio session in just over a week [which was around mid-March -ed.] will see the whole band getting together for 5 days and playing "live in the studio" versions of the new songs "The Ancient Wells" and "Let Your Glory Fall" as well as rhythm tracks / some vocals and whatever other things there is time to record on the other tracks, along with ace engineer Johan van Loo. The band also aim to do some jamming - all of which will be committed to "disk!" Recording will continue in April.

And, on April 20, Iona updated with the following:

The latest recording session for the new Iona album took place recently at His Masters Noise Studio in The Netherlands, with the whole band getting together for 5 very productive days. The main aims for this session were to get down some of the new tracks with everyone playing all together "live" in the studio, as well as recording some lead vocals on other tracks and anything else there would be time to do. In the event the band were able to put down powerful versions of "The Ancient Wells," (complete with great new "anthemic" end section written in the studio), "Let Your Glory Fall" (both tracks played by the band on the gigs at the end of last year), "Clouds" and another new track completed in the studio called "And The Angels Dance."

Another highlight of the week was the recording of an improvised piece by Dave (on orchestral sounding keys) and our good friend Wytze Valkema (playing shofar or rams horn). This turned out to be very moving and powerful.

The band also had time to record some great lead vocals with Jo and to overdub various other parts, including pipes and tom toms on the epic "White Horse" and various other bass and guitar parts with expert engineer Johan van Loo.

*The next session, scheduled for 19th-24th April in The Netherlands has unfortunately just had to be postponed, due to the current situation with the volcanic ash cloud over Europe. However, Dave is continuing to edit all the material from the last session and Frank is working on a string arrangement for the track "Clouds." There is still more material to write but everyone in the band is very excited at how things are taking shape.

Album Tracks In Depth

This is the first of what we hope will be a series of "in depth" articles looking more closely at what inspired the tracks on the new album. Speaking Of Clouds, and unusual events in nature, here is a bit on the background of how this particular song (written by Joanne) came together in Jo's own words:

"Clouds": "Last year I was reading a book by Rick Joyner called Prophetic Vision for the 21st Century. He was referring to physical phenomena in the natural realm and how there is sometimes a parallel phenomenon in the spiritual realm. One mention was of clouds and the idea that sometimes cloud formations were somehow connected to spiritual battles in the heavenly realm.

Around the same time a friend of mine, who is very prophetically gifted drew my attention to a web site that she had come across called 'The Cloud Appreciation Society' (cloudappreciationsociety.org). She was intrigued by recent references to very unusual cloud formations that were being observed globally that were defying the norm and could not be described by the usual classifications for cloud nomenclature. There were even news items about some of these cloud phenomenon. one TV news programme host even said these cloud patterns looked like something out of Lord of the Rings. My friend had connected some of the very threatening cloud appearances in certain USA cities with major spiritual battles that were known to be being fought in those locations. This whole theme inspired me to spend some time prayerfully pondering these things and I found myself writing the song 'Clouds'."

More USA dates are to be added shortly for June and more European dates for the Autumn - watch the website for the latest news!

UK dates:

Sunday 25th April - 9pm
Dave Bainbridge playing keyboards with Fairclough and Youell Band
The New Continental, South Meadow Lane, Preston, Lancashire PR1, UK
01772 499 425
www.newcontinental.net/category/event-category/music/jazz-club
Phenomenal English jazz drummer Peter Fairclough teams up with powerful vocalist Hayley Youell, Iona?s extraordinary guitarist and keyboardist Dave Bainbridge, and melodic fretless bass powerhouse and guitarist Fred Thelonius Baker to create tightly crafted yet whimsical fusion of jazz and progressive Joni-Mitchell-esque pop. The band is tight and the songs breathe with musical space even as they get your pulse pounding with infusions of mind blowing jazz improvisation.
www.myspace.com/faircloughyouell

Sunday 9th May
Joanne Hogg and Dave Bainbridge at the O2 Church,
Rapperswil, Switzerland
(morning worship / afternoon workshop / evening interview / concert)
O2 Office, Gl?rnischstrasse 7, 8640 Rapperswil, Switzerland
Tel 055 220 26 26
www.o2-online.ch

Friday May 21st, 7.30 pm
All Saints Church, All Saints Road, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 8AX
Info / tickets Tel: 01638-665588
Email: robin.slowe (at) ntlworld.com
www.allsaintsnewmarket.org

Saturday 22nd May, 7.30pm
Terry O'Toole Theatre, NK Centre, Moor Lane,
North Hykeham, Lincs, LN6 9AX. UK
Tel: 01522 883311
Email: alison.duncombe (at) leisureconnection.co.uk
www.terryotooletheatre.org.uk

Sunday 23rd May
Poynton Christian Fellowship, The Hockley Centre, 307 Park Lane, Poynton, Stockport, Cheshire, SK12
1SE Tel: 01625 859170
Email: admin (at) pcfpoynton.org.uk
www.pcfpoynton.org.uk

USA/Canada

Saturday 19th June, 4.15-6pm
NearFest, Bethlehem, PA, USA
www.nearfest.com

Sunday, June 20, 7:00pm
The Rialto Theater, 228 E. Fourth Street. Loveland, CO 80537 (support Dave Beegle)
Box Office (970)-962-2120 Tues.-Fri. 12:30pm-5:30pm MST and Sat. 10:00am-1:00pm MST.
www.ci.loveland.co.us/Rialto/Rialto.htm
Tickets can be purchased anytime, day or night through the website.

Thursday, June 24th, 7pm
Maranatha Church,
100 College Street West
Belleville, ON, K8P 2G5
CANADA

613-962-2062 Ext. 204 (church)
613-827-3827 Cell (John Roeper - Worship Pastor)
jroeper (at) maranatha-church.com
Tickets - $15.00 Advance $20.00 Door from
www.itickets.com/events/243242.html

Sunday, June 27th 6:00pm, Doors open at 5:30pm
West Ridge Community Church, 3300 Encounter Lane, Elgin, IL 60124
www.westridgechurch.net
6:00pm, Doors open at 5:30pm
Email: music4world (at) netzero.net
cell: 847-971-4517/ office: 847-428-5936
Buy tickets on line 24/7 @ www.kbproductions.org
or call (847-428-5936) with a credit card number to purchase tickets over the phone
$16.00 Advance $20.00 Door
Warm-up band: A Gain of Ten

Monday, June 28 7.30pm,
Zeke's (on the campus of Iowa State University)
3329 Lincoln Way, Ames, IA 50014, USA
www.zekesames.com
Promoter: Scott Hanson
Email: scott@zekesames.com
515-231-6924 cell
Tickets:$20.00 Advance $25.00 Door

Wednesday 30th June -3rd July 11.30pm-1am
Gallery Stage, Cornerstone Festival, Bushnell, Illinois
www.cornerstonefestival.com

[Source: Iona newsletter]







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