I used to play in a band back in the 90s. It was after that band imploded and my first child was born that I first started writing the songs that would become Envoy. Although in the following decades the idea spent more time on a shelf than anywhere else, it was never forgotten. The embryonic rock opera was slowly added to and embellished. Then a couple of years ago, my first child was now grown up and writing and recording music of his own, and suddenly circumstances aligned, and I found myself with the motivation, the tools, and the time to finally bring Envoy to life.
The first installment of this absurdly grandiose and overblown epic is a 6-track, 20 minute EP called Envoy Act 1 Scene 1: The Spirit of the Age, out now on Bandcamp and all major streaming platforms.
This first EP establishes the post-apocalyptic “After the Fall” frame-story and covers the birth of the story’s protagonist, Jason, and the discovery by the human race of an alien civilisation. The remainder of Act 1 will be released over the coming months in three further EPs and covers Jason’s childhood and adolescence, and tells of how he comes to be selected as the Envoy – and how as a young man he sets out on a mission of peace and fellowship, frozen and alone, on a thousand year space-voyage to the alien world and back.
Act 2 and 3 are being currently being written. Act 2 will cover Jason’s adventures on the alien world, and Act 3 will cover his return to Earth, to a find a fallen, technologically primitive society that worships him as a god.
Recorded, mixed and mastered in Ardour. Apart from a handful of virtual instruments (most notably the drums) and parts from guest-artists who recorded on their own setups and tech stacks, all software used is open source.
There’s also a stupid promotional video on YouTube (edited with Kdenlive of course):
