Dutch singer-songwriter Anneke van Giersbergen, best known as the former lead vocalist for The Gathering, will be releasing an 11-track live album featuring orchestral versions of various tracks performed throughout her career. The project, entitled Symphonized, will see the artist team up with the Residentie Orkest, or the Residential Orchestra from the Hague in in the Netherlands to perform these songs.
Songs performed by VUUR, The Gentle Storm , The Gathering and van Giersbergen’s solo work will all be featured on the upcoming live album. These performances were recorded last May at 013 in Tilburg and at Paar in Hague, both venues in her native Netherlands.
“When artistic director Sven Arne Tepl invited me to create new renditions of songs I have previously recorded, I was immediately enthusiastic,” van Giersbergen stated in a press release.”I thought it was the perfect prelude to my 25-year anniversary next year, as I made my stage debut with The Gathering in 1994.”
Marijn van Prooijen and Gijs Kramers wrote the arrangements for the songs for the orchestral performance. “Instead of a band with additional symphonic accompaniment we chose to solely use the instruments of the orchestra and I’m very proud of the result,” the singer elaborated.
Van Giersbergen served as The Gathering’s lead singer song writer from 1994 to 2007, when she decided to embark on a solo career. During this time she collaborated with Napalm Death, and was a frequent collaborator of Devin Townsend and Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen.
She collaborated on five different Townsend projects since 2009, the most recent being Transcendence which was released in 2016. With Lucassen, the singer was featured prominently as part of his Ayreon projects, where she served as the main vocalist and leading role in his science fiction themed”rock opera,” albums.
In 2014 the duo teamed up together once again as The Gentle Storm, and released a project entitled The Diary, the following year. The double-album was almost two-hours in length and covered a love story set in the 17th century, following a similar conceptual style as Lucassens work with Ayreon.
In late 2016 the singer announced new project entitled VUUR, which is a progressive-metal outfit that set out to be “melodic and warm, but heavy.” This group featured Ed Warby (Hail of Bullets) on drums, Jord Otto (My Propane) and Ferry Duijsens on guitars, Johan van Stratum (Stream of Passion) on bass and Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion)on backing vocals.
VUUR’s debut album In This Moment We Are Free was released in 2017 which was promoted by its debut single “Days Go By – London,” earlier that summer. A music video was eventually released for the track “My Champion – Berlin,”off the album that September.
“[The album’s themes]revolve around cities and freedom. Exposure to big cities can be overwhelming and you can feel engulfed by everything around you,” van Giersbergen explained regarding the project. “At the same time it’s easy to be a stranger in a big city and for me that brings out a feeling of freedom as well.”
Check the tracklist below:
1. Feel Alive
2. Amity (originally released by The Gathering)
3. Your Glorious Light Will Shine – Helsinki (originally released by VUUR)
4. Two Souls (originally released by Lorrainville)
5. When I Am laid In Earth (aria by Henry Purcell)
6. Travel (originally released by The Gathering)
7. Zo Lief (unreleased song in Dutch)
8. You Will Never Change
9. Freedom – Rio (originally released by VUUR)
10. Forgotten (originally released by The Gathering)
11. Shores Of India (originally released by The Gentle Storm)
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