Steve Rothery sees a ghost with the help of PMC twotwo.5s
Marillion’s guitarist and founder Steve Rothery chose to use PMC twotwo active compact monitors during the recording of his new solo album, “The Ghosts of Pripyat” to enable the true intricate detail of his performance to be captured with absolute accuracy.
Conceived during an appearance at the Plovdiv International guitar festival held annually in the Bulgarian town, 'The Ghosts of Pripyat' is Rothery’s first solo album since 2009. Recording took place during the first half of 2014 at Marillion’s Racket Club studio in Buckinghamshire and Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios.
With guest appearances from Steve Hackett (Genesis/GTR) and Steve Wilson (Porcupine Tree), the album is an instrumental tour de force featuring five extremely talented international musicians who have come together to form The Steve Rothery Band. In addition to Rothery, the band includes English guitarist Dave Foster from Mr So & So; drummer Leon Parr, formally of Mr So & So and the resident teacher at Manchester Drum Centre; Singapore born Yatim Halimi on bass; and Riccardo Romano, keyboard player with Italian band Ranestrane.
Talking about the birth of the album, Steve says, “Having committed to the Plovdiv festival it left me with the small problem of what to play for an hour. “Blues in A” just wasn’t going to cut it. I had a few strong ideas and got together with my good friend Dave Foster, which brought forth a lot of amazing music. After a couple of days’ rehearsal with the fantastic rhythm section of Leon Parr and Yatim Halimi I realised this was going to be something really special. Now, having completed the album, I am looking forward to sharing it with people when it is released in late September and to taking it on the road across Europe during October and November.”
Having previously equipped his home studio and Marillion’s Racket Club with PMC IB1S monitors Steve approached PMC for a set of the company’s twotwo monitors. “I have been using the IB1S monitors for a few years now during my recording work with Marillion and so I knew I needed to work with speakers that offer the same precision and detail during the recording of the new album.” He commented. “As the IB1Ss are a little on the large size to be transporting around I settled on the incredible new twotwo series and am very glad I did – the insight they gave me into the recordings was invaluable. I am looking forward to working with these amazing speakers again during future projects.”
Keith Tonge, PMC marketing manager, adds, “We were lucky enough to have Steve and his friends provide the live music during our 20th anniversary celebrations at London’s O2. When we heard he was putting together a new album to showcase his incredible virtuosity on the guitar we were only too pleased to help with the supply of our popular twotwo monitors. We are always extremely pleased when musicians of Steve’s calibre opt to use our speakers as it reinforces our position as the manufacturer of choice for the leading music makers.”
The album 'The Ghosts of Pripyat' is due for release on 22 September 2014 on CD, as a digital download and with a high resolution 24bit/96kHz version included on the special edition DVD release, which also includes behind the scenes footage of the making of the album.