Echoes of Edensong: From the Studio and Stage



In the fall of 2002, Edensong was founded by James Byron Schoen (guitar, vocals) and Matt Cozin (drums), at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. After jamming together, they joined forces with guitarist Ben Wigler, and old friend of James - with whom he had played in a band called Echoes of Eden. The three worked on new material, as well as old Echoes of Eden material, but after a short while Ben left the band. James and Matt moved on and decided to develop 3 hour what they called 'surrealistic pseudo-rock-opera', involving a lot of the music they wrote earlier. They joined forces with some other musicians, Ian Carbone (bass), Aurora Maoz (flute), and Asa Sourdiffe (violin, keyboard). The initial performance in April 2003 motivated the band to go ona live tour, but the rehearsal schedule and antics involved in this Beyond Eden project was too much for Aurora and Asa, who were replace by Rachel Kiel (flute) and Mike Drucker (violin). After touring, this line up started working on the material that would eventually become the debut album The Fruit Fallen. During the work, Arthur Sugen joined on piano and organ, and Ian Carbone was replaced by T.D. Towers on bass. In 2005 and 2006 the band played an extensive list of live shows for a growing amount of followers, but in the spring 2006 the tensions of touring led to a complete band break up. James Byron Schoen found himself alone, and focused again on getting the album done. All material recorded when the band was still together needed to be mixed, and remixed (with an occasional overdub). In October 2007 The Fruit Fallen was mastered by Bob Katz then released in the summer of 2008. The album provides an outtake of material developed throughout the various band line ups, and recorded before the band disbanded. After the release, James started working on getting together a new band to tour with and promote the material. The music of Edensong is an interesting mixture of heavy and symphonic prog, progressive folk and even some RIO/Avant influences here and there. As one collaborator of ProgArchives put it after being introduced to the band: Jethro Tull meets Dream Theater meets Yes. It's amazing-sounding stuff. == bio based on information provided by James Byron Schoen, and an initial review by ProgArchives Collaborator p0mt3 == Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.