EMI To Release Gentle Giant Albums On Vinyl

(IN A GLASS HOUSE, THE POWER & THE GLORY, FREE HAND out on vinyl
May 18, More DVDs and gift packs to follow in 2010)

On May 18, 2010 Gentle Giant will be re-releasing three albums on vinyl: In A Glass House (originally released 1973), Free Hand (1975) and The Power & The Glory (1974) via their own Alucard label through EMI Music's Label Services unit and Caroline Distribution.

Later this year, there will be a new CD, Gentle Giant at King Alfred’s College, Winchester from an early Gentle Giant show; it includes songs never released on any commercial release. There will be a DVD, GG at the GG, which is a 1978 performance of Gentle Giant on the BBC. Box sets and live recordings are also being planned.

All seven of the albums are remastered from the original ¼ inch tapes through Hi-Resolution (24bit 96k) transfer that the band recorded at UK’s Abbey Road Studios in the 1970s. Band member Ray Shulman was in charge of the mixes. Fred Kevorkian moe., Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, Ryan Adams) handled the albums’ mastering.

This progressive rock band, which was active from 1970 through 1980, was made up of multi-instrumentalists, and lived to expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular. The group’s dozen albums combine a range of musical styles—jazz, pop, classical, British soul, rock, blues, medieval, pop, blues, Gentle Giant’s legacy has become influential to a range of artists from the arena rock, jam band, virtuoso players, chamber pop, jazz, and—of course—progressive rock genres.

Kerry Minnear, plus Gentle Giant bandmates Ray Shulman, Gary Green, John Weathers, and Derek Shulman are available for interviews. Other promotion includes radio, print, Internet, and mobile phone outreach.

http://www.blazemonger.com/GG/Gentle_Giant_Home_Page
(There are many Gentle Giant facebook and myspace pages.)

GENTLE GIANT vinyl
Track listings

IN A GLASS HOUSE - 1973
1.The Runaway
2. An Inmates Lullaby
3. Way Of Life
4. Experience
5. A Reunion
6. In A Glass House

THE POWER AND THE GLORY - 1974
1. Proclamation
2. So Sincere
3. Aspirations
4. Playing the Game
5. Cogs in Cogs
6. No God's A Man
7. Valedictory


FREE HAND - 1975
1. Just The Same
2. On Reflection
3. Free Hand
4. Time To Kill
5. His Last Voyage
6. Talybont
7. Mobile

Fred Kevorkian, master of the Gentle Giant re-masters!

Fred Kevorkian at the mixing board

The final part of the job in completing the sound of Gentle Giant albums (IN A GLASS HOUSE, THE POWER AND THE GLORY, FREE HAND, INTERVIEW, PLAYING THE FOOL: THE OFFICIAL LIVE, THE MISSING PIECE, and GIANT FOR A DAY) for CD and vinyl is the mastering process.

Gentle Giant had Fred Kevorkian of New York City's Kevorkian Mastering, Inc. handle the duties. Recently Fred's mastered albums from moe., Phish, Ryan Adams, Charlie Musselwhite, Dave Matthews, Railroad Earth, Willie Nelson, and Willie Nile.

The job includes listening to the artists, finding out what kind of audio shine they want in the albums, plus making sure each song's level and brightness are consistent.

Fred came of age in the '70s in France, and his favorite bands were rockers--AC/DC, Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones. He liked more simple music, so he didn't listen to Gentle Giant growing up, though he knew of them.

In tackling the Gentle Giant re-releases, he was pretty impressed with the musicians of the band, "They knew how to handle their arrangements. It would seem the music would drift in parts, and then return, and go in a way that was meant to be."

He notes that "50% of the job in mastering recordings is the relationship you have with the musicians. You have to understand the artist's point of view for their songs and sensibility." After Ray Shulman remixed the albums from the band's original 1/4 tapes from the original Abbey Road sessions, they expressed what they were looking for in the masters. The band members even expressed things they didn't like about those albums through the years!

http://www.kevorkianmastering.com/