Arjen Lucassen’s Guilt Machine album On This Perfect Day will receive a limited-edition vinyl release in September.
The 2009 title saw the Ayreon mastermind reacting to epic 2007 work 01011001 by focusing on a project with just a handful of collaborators.
On This Perfect Day was mainly built around singer Jasper Steverlinck, guitarist Lori Linstruth and ex-Porcupine Tree drummer Chris Maitland, along with the bandleader’s multi-instrumental contributions.
Lucassen says: “Zero-One was a logistic and financial nightmare. That’s why I wanted to keep On This Perfect Day on a manageable scale.
“Working with a small group of people also provided a welcome new challenge. People sometimes tell me how hard they think it must be to write parts for the huge cast of vocalists on an Ayreon release. Actually it’s easy – I can choose vocalists who are specialised for each particular emotion that I want to express.
“But for Guilt Machine I had to find one singer who could cover the entire range of feelings and emotions, and who was versatile enough to keep things interesting until the last song.”
On This Perfect Day arrives on vinyl on September 18 via Mascot Label Group and it’s available for pre-order now. Lucassen’s most recent project was this year’s The Gentle Storm album The Diary, created in collaboration with Anneke van Giersbergen.
