In regards to the title, bassist and founding member Andy Thommen explains, "The first album 'Hologram' was released in November 1991. 'Alone' was released in November 2001. There are 3654 days (10 years) between those releases."
Clepsydra is a Swiss neo-progressive band that was formed in 1990 by Aluisio Maggini (vocals), Lele Hofmann (guitars), Philip Hubert (keyboards), Andy Thommen (bass) and Pietro Duca (drums).
In 1991 Clepsydra released their first album 'Hologram', which was followed by the EP 'Fly Man' in 1993. Clepsydra then signed to InsideOut, who released their second album 'More Grains of Sand' in 1994. This CD included the song "Moonshine on Heights", which by many is regarded as neo-prog classic. 1994 also saw them performing two songs on national Swiss TV, a rare occurrence for a progressive rock band at that time.
Says Andy, "We had no idea that there was a progressive rock scene. In fact we never heard the expression progressive rock until about three months after the release of Hologram in 1991."
In 1998 Clepsydra released their third album 'Fears', the first album with Marco Cerulli on guitar. In the wake of the album release Clepsydra had a 10 day long European tour and was booked for a concert in Canada on the strength of this production. In 2001 the band released 'Alone' with Nicola De Vita on bass. This album came with 3 different album covers: "The Chicken", "The Octopus" and "The Fish".
Following these four albums Clepsydra entered a state of hiatus. At this point they had established themselves as a popular entity among fans of neo-progressive rock, and they were often compared to the likes of Jadis, IQ and Fish-era Marillion. In 2013 Clepsydra announced they were reuniting, with Andy Thommen back on bass guitar and a reunion tour scheduled for 2014.
Says Andy about the reunion, "On Sunday June 23 we met and decided to go for the reunion. The day after we did one single post on facebook announcing the reunion, within 24 hours we had the first 3 concert offers!"
Clepsydra show dates:
Saturday April 5, 2014, Progdreams III, Zoetemeer, The Netherlands
Friday May 2, 2014, ROSfest, Gettysburg, PA, US
Friday June 20, 2014, PPR, Das Rind, Rüsselsheim, Germany
Saturday July 26, 2014, Ecosmusicais, Paradise Garage, Lisbon, Portugal Saturday November 1, 2014, Prog En Beauce Edition II, Villemeux sur Eure, France Concerts in Poland and Switzerland will be announced soon.
A small detail of note in the band history is that renowned surrealist artist H. R. Giger, known for his concept art for the Hollywood blockbuster movie Alien and a number of album cover art productions for artists such as Deborah Harry, ELP and Celtic Frost, provided a holographed object for Clepsydra's debut album 'Hologram'.
In closing, Andy imparts, "We are so excited that after more than 12 years of inactivity we still get daily fan mail!"
Clepsydra's '3654' box set (GLR118BOXCD) will be released in January 2014, for pre-order information visit the band's website.
For more information:
Web site: www.clepsydra.ch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/clepsydra.ch
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Progressive Rock & Progressive Metal - E-Zine
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