Year : 2012 (Expanded Special Edition 2017)
Style : Melodic Hard Rock , AOR
Country : Italy
Audio : 320 kbps + scans
Size : 149 mb
Bio :
LIONVILLE is a brand new high profile project dedicated to pure AOR with a touch of Westcoast and Melodic Rock. The well crafted tunes and the detailed arrangements are drawing inspiration from acts like Toto, Richard Marx, Giant, Bad English, Survivor and Boulevard.The project was initiated by Stefano Lionetti, a song writer, singer and guitarist based in Genova, Italy and his brother Alessandro. After years of playing the local club circuit of Genova and the beautiful Ligurian coast, Stefano started LIONVILLE with the encouragement and help of Pierpaolo “Zorro” Monti (Shining Line) and Alessandro Del Vecchio (Edge Of Forever, Eden's Curse, Glenn Hughes), who produced the record and also plays keyboards and sings backing vocals. The two well connected musicians impressed Gregor Klee, Avenue Of Allies’ label manager, with a handful of Lionetti’s demos and starting from Stefano’s idea to enlist Lars Säfsund (Work Of Art, Enbound) as the lead vocalist, LIONVILLE quickly began to take shape and became a matter close to the heart of everyone involved.The recordings started in the fall of 2010 and were completed in the early spring of 2011 with a cast of top flight musicians and song writers participating in the sessions. Lars Säfsund (Work Of Art, Enbound) is handling the lead vocals, musicians include Bruce Gaitsch (Richard Marx, Chicago, Peter Cetera), Tommy Denander (Radioactive, Houston, Spin Gallery), Eric Mårtensson (W.E.T., Eclipse), Sven Larsson (Street Talk), Arabella Vitanc (Alyson Avenue), Pierpaolo “Zorro” Monti & Amos Monti of the Shining Line team, Mario Percudani (Hungryheart, Shining Line) as well as the in demand Italian players Anna Portalupi (Bobby Kimball, Steve Lukather, Skill In Veins) and Andrea Maddalone (Jon Anderson (Yes), Mick Fleetwood, Zucchero). Stefano Lionetti also takes over the lead vocals on three songs, including two duets with Lars, while he also introduces himself throughout the album as a gifted musician on lead and rhythm guitar.The core of the songs on the album were written by Stefano Lionetti, his song writing partners include Pierpaolo “Zorro” Monti, Robert Säll (Work Of Art), Lars Säfsund, Alessandro Del Vecchio and Tommy Denander. An exclusive track for the album comes from Bruce Gaitsch, who co-wrote the power ballad “World Without Your Love” with Richard Marx and Amy Sky (Robin Beck, Marc Jordan). The second outside contribution is the stormy “Thunder In Your Heart”, a track originally performed by John Farnham for the soundtrack of the 80s bike movie “RAD” and previously not available on Compact Disc or in digital format.The original compositions range from rockin’ AOR tunes like the opener “Here By My Side”, “Power Of My Dreams”, “Dreamhunter” and the forceful “The Chosen Ones”, a duet between Lars and Swedish female compatriot Arabella Vitanc, the new lady fronting Scandinavian Melodic Rockers Alyson Avenue, whose brand new third album “Changes” will hit the streets on the same date as the LIONVILLE debut. Lovers of the classic Westcoast AOR sound will certainly fall in love with “Centre Of My Universe” and “Over And Over Again” and dream away with the emotional acoustic based album closer “Say Goodbye”.LIONVILLE is the winning combination of very strong song wrting, stellar musical performances crowned by impressive lead vocals and an album mix giving space to all the significant little details, recorded by the gifted cast of experienced studio cats and upcoming talents.The LIONVILLE team has high hopes that a lot of people will embrace their vision of a reinvigorated musical genre and everyone is looking forward to continue the LIONVILLE story with another humble contribution to the musical passion we all share, AOR. (Words: Gregor Klee).
Album:
Capitalizing the recent, new LIONVILLE album, their previous record label are re-releasing the band's two first CD's in an Expanded Edition. This 2017 "Lionville II Special Edition" includes 2 must have collectors bonus tracks.After their excellent debut, the mighty Italian AOR act returned with "Lionville II", another slice of high class AOR / Melodic Rock with a touch of Westcoast, featuring most of the top flight musicians performing on the debut also onboard, and their performances are top notch.Lars Säfsund (Work Of Art) shows again that he is one of the most versatile and talented lead and backing vocalists of our time, also Stefano Lionetti delivers a very solid performance at the mic in addition to his melodic guitar playing and an occasional contribution on the keyboards.Let just take one example of the album quality: “Higher”, one of the album’s many highlights, presents one of the year's best vocal arrangements and performances on a Rock song, seeing the two young European singers unite with one of the AOR and Westcoast genre’s American legends, the two-time Grammy award winning Bill Champlin (formerly of Chicago) with his signature vocals.The trio trades off the lead vocals and Bill’s wife Tamara Champlin joins them on backing vocals.The excellent band playing on all tracks was also the Lionville live band for the celebrated Firefest performance in October 2012. The line-up includes the Italian musicians Mario Percudani (Hungryheart, Issa, Shining Line, Mitch Malloy), Anna Portalupi (Hardline, Mitch Malloy, Issa, Steve Lukather), Alessandro Mori (Mitch Malloy, Moonstone Project) as well as producer and keyboarder Alessandro Del Vecchio (Edge Of Forever, Hardline, Issa, Mitch Malloy).On the album they are joined by guitarist Bruce Gaitsch (Richard Marx, Chicago) on seven songs, as well as guest guitar players Robert Säll (Work Of Art, W.E.T.), Sven Larsson (Street Talk) and Peter Friestedt (Williams Friestedt, L.A. Project).The invitees are completed by drummer Herman Furin (Work Of Art) on percussions and Italian saxophone luminary Joe La Viola.Stefano‘s songwriting partners are again Pierpaolo “Zorro” Monti (Shining Line, Charming Grace), Robert Säll, Lars Säfsund and Alessandro Del Vecchio and a new co-operation was started with Miqael Persson (Eclipse, Toby Hitchcock, Giant).The only song originating from outside writers is a cover version of Boy Meets Girl’s catchy '80s Pop-Rock gem “Waiting For A Star To Fall”, written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. Lionville's version is really fun and catchy.This Special Edition includes a quite different version of 'Another Day (AOR Remix)' brighter than the original, and a more pumping mix of 'Higher (AOR Remix)'LIONVILLE “II” turns out to be a more mature and homogeneous sounding affair than the band’s debut, paying even more attention to the musical arrangements and production details resulting in a very well balanced mix.This is a must for Melodic Rock / AOR fans. Period.
Line-Up:
Stefano Lionetti: guitars, keyboards, vocals
Lars Säfsund: Lead & backing vocals
Alessandro Del Vecchio: Keyboards, backing vocals
Bruce Gaitsch: Electric and acoustic guitars
Mario Percudani: Electric guitars
Anna Portalupi: Bass
Alessandro Mori: Drums & percussion
Very Special Guests:
Bill Champlin: Lead & backing vocals on “Higher”
Tamara Champlin: Backing vocals on “Higher”
Robert Säll: Guitars & keyboards on “All This Time”
Sven Larsson: Guitars on “One In A Million”
Peter Friestedt: Guitars on “Another Day”
Joe La Viola: Saxophone on “Waiting For A Star To Fall”
Herman Furin: Percussions on “Open Your Heart”
Tracklist:
01. All We Need
02. The Only Way Is Up
03. Another Day
04. Higher
05. No Turning Back
06. All This Time
07. Next To Me
08. Waiting For A Star To Fall
09. Don't Walk Away
10. One In A Million
11. Shining Over Me
12. Open Your Heart
13. Another Day (AOR Remix) (Bonus Track)
14. Higher (AOR Remix) (Bonus Track)
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
