Valensia - The Blue Album

Cat No: ESM099 Barcode: 5 031281 00099 6 Release date: 23rd February 2004

 

MAYTE / HELLO PIANIST / INSHALLAH / THE ECHO / THE 1ST BORN / GOODNIGHT ORION / ALYSSA / THE FLYING DUTCHFAN / LIFE IS A KILLER / THE AMATEUR / PERPLEXED / A NIGHT IN SPAIN / BONEN HOOD / BURYING HEATHER / VALENSIAN JAZZ

 

Once some strange rumours occurred in Japan... Valensia would be a computer-generated pop star! Just like Kyoko, the animated Japanese singer. Well, may be it wasn't that strange after all. Before his hitsong 'Gaia', no one had ever heard of Valensia. Suddenly, he was just there, out of nothing. People saw his pictures. And they saw his video clips, which were almost completely computer-generated. But no sight of the man himself. No live glimpse of the man from the pictures and the video's. In Japan, Valensia had not shown his face yet.

Of course Valensia is not a bunch of binary data. Aldous Byron Valensia Clarkson (his full name) really exists. He was born on April 13th, 1971, in The Hague (The Netherlands). Long before he appeared in computer-generated video clips, he performed on the beaches of Spain. At that time he was just 7 years old. His voice and his guitar were his instruments; the sand was his stage while the sunbathers were his audience.

Obviously he didn't bore his audience to death, because already in 1979 he was offered a record deal in Spain. However, his parents rejected the deal, as Valensia was not allowed to record his own songs. They also considered him too young for the tough music business. It must have been a disappointment for the young Valensia, who at that time already had his own repertoire.

But then, at the age of 20, Mercury Holland signed up Valensia. In the fall of 1993, his first single 'Gaia' was released. Within 9 hours after the release, Valensia came to fame as Holland's leading FM-stations played the song all throughout the day. 'Gaia' shot to the top of the charts, only held off the #1 spot by Meatloaf's megahit 'I Would Do Anything for Love (But I won’t do that). Valensia's debut-album arrived in January 1994 and was awarded with both a Silver Harp and an Edison (Holland's most prestigious music award). With the Gaia-video - the most expensive videoclip ever made for a Dutch artist - Valensia became a pioneer in computer-animated clips in Holland. Internationally, attention was gained when the video was broadcasted on MTV Europe. Worldwide, 'Gaia' sold over one million copies.

Valensia's second album, 'K.O.S.M.O.S', was once again recorded and mixed at the famous Dutch Wisseloord studios. Few people know this was the first Dutch surround-sound-CD. In Japan, where the album was released before anywhere else, 'K.O.S.M.O.S' sold over 40.000 copies the day the album was released.

Valensia’s most recent work is the “Blue” album, and here is the European release of this album made widely available by Escape Music. The Blue Album is something which will seduce you into listening to it over and over again. The lyrics are just amazing, and the complexity of the music is just simply fantastic. The opening song “Mayte” is proof enough indeed that Freddy Mercury is one of Valensia’s idols. The music is just so intense, so original and very different. There is so much going on that you will not be able to take it all in until you have listened to it again and again….and again.

 

Escape Music are so proud to be a part of this music, it is a breathtaking slice of one man’s effort to create a musical style that is different, any one out there who loves Queen and of course that other famous Dutch artist Robbie Valentine, then this is a real treat for you. There is no doubt that this is a beautiful piece of music.