EARTHRISE s/t SEALED rare progrock Album. Autographed w/ COA

$

360

EARTHRISE s/t SEALED rare private press NJ prog-rock Vinyl Album.  Last sealed album available from Bill Drobile (keyboards and composer), with Autographs from all band members and a Certificate of Authenticity. 

Most recent Ebay auction of this rare album in May, 2014:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EARTHRISE-s-t-SEALED-rare-private-press-NJ-prog-psych-ACID-ARCHIVES-/231175610079?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item35d323dedf

Earthrise biography:
The year is 1975, the first golden era of Prog is at it's peak and three American musicians Kenn Pierog (Bass), Bill Drobile (Keys) and Greg DiDonato (Drums) decide to form a band that will be called EARTHRISE,
The band starts to play mostly live, but in 1977 in a small studio they release their first album just called Earthrise, but being that this was the first big project of the studio, they were disappointed with the thin sound of the album, so they only pressed 400 copies, some of which were sold and others were given to friends and after some gigs the band splits in 1979 without recording a new album.

But the surprises begin, Earthrise becomes a collector's issue, reaching prices of $ 800.oo to $ 1,000.00 in auctions, and hidden fans contact the band asking for new albums that didn't exist. So in the year 2000 the band is reformed and they decide to make a new recording of the original music, sadly this was a huge problem, but being that people kept calling and the master tapes were missing,  Now, they have decided to release a new record, but the project is still on stand by.

Many have said that EARTHRISE was mostly an EL&P clone, but this is unfair.  With a massive use of Hammond Organ and keyboards that reminds a bit of EL&P, but in general terms is quite an original and fresh sound despite the years passed.

More info at www.earthriseonline.com

Earthrise (2) ?– Earthrise

Label: Arceden Music

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album

Country: US

Released: 1977

Genre: Rock

Style: Prog Rock

Tracklist

A1                    Eden's Child     6:45

A2                    Arcturus            9:55

B1                    Earthrise           5:50

B2                    New Clear Dawn            10:08

Credits:
All titles composed by Bill Drobile

Bass Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals – Kenn Pierog

Drums – Greg Didonato

Keyboards, Guitar, Lead Vocals – Bill Drobile

Two Reviews:

1) From New Gibraltrar Encyclopedia

http://www.gepr.net/ea.html

(second review from top)

Every album has a story behind it. This little-known progressive epic has one too. I just happen to know the story behind this one, so I'll share it with you before I get around to actually discussing the music.

Around 1975, three guys named Kenn Pierog (Bass), Bill Drobile (Keys) and Greg DiDonato (Drums) got together to form Earthrise. This was an Emerson, Lake and Palmer-style band, with heavy Hammond organ and synths taking the lead roles. In 1977, they recorded an album in a small studio. The studio was using a Tascam 8-track recorder, but the band played mostly live with just a few overdubs on some songs. This was the studio's first "big project", so they hadn't had much experience with recording, and it shows in the "thin" sound of the album, and the questionable drum miking (even for 1977).

The band had a total of 400 albums pressed. They were disappointed with the sound quality of the album, but were happy to have a pressing of their own original music. They ended up selling a few, and giving away many of them to friends and local fans. They continued to play together until 1979, then broke up without releasing another recording.

As time went on, word spread among some in the progressive rock community that this was a pretty good band ... but their only album was very rare. This, of course, put the album in the category of "collectable", and has fetched prices of $800-$1000 in auctions. Much of this went on without the band members being aware of it, until they started to get calls from people who wanted to know if they had any more of the albums floating around.

After a hiatus of over 20 years, the band decided to re-form and begin working on a new album of the same music, recorded with more modern equipment. This turned out to be a bigger project than they had anticipated, and people were still asking for copies of the album. With the master tapes for the original album gone, they had no choice but to remaster the recording from a clean vinyl copy. In July of 2000, they began to offer copies of this remaster on CDR from their web site. (This is the version I heard, since $800 is a bit out of my price range this month.) Sales are doing well enough that they are considering a standard CD run in the near future.

As for Earthrise: Day Two, the new recording, this project is on hold for the time being, but the band members are still working on rebuilding their studio to complete this project. Maybe in 2001? That would be a good year to release a new version of this album ...

Now, for a review of the music. The bottom line is: this is a pretty good album. The sound, as I mentioned, is a bit on the thin side, primarily because the drums sound flat, and the keyboards are very stark and cold in their recording (I imagine they were jacked right into the mixer). These problems are probably due to insufficient experience on the part of the studio tech, especially setting up the drum mics. The tech obviously realized something sounded wrong and attempted to compensate by adding reverb. Unfortunately, this didn't fix anything ... it just added reverb. This is a common mistake made by neophyte recordists.

Technical problems aside, just concentrating on the music itself, this is really good stuff! Earthrise contains 4 long pieces; "Eden's Child" and "Arcturus" include vocals while "Earthrise" and "New Clear Dawn" are instrumental. "New Clear Dawn" has a "bonus track" added, not on the original pressing. Retitled "Prelude: Before the Dawn", it immediately preceeds the old cut and flows into it. [Aside: "New Clear Dawn" is a lyric from ELP's Brain Salad Surgery (1973), "Guardians of a new clear dawn, Let the maps of war be drawn". "New Clear" is pronounced "Nuclear". I don't know if the tribute is intentional or unintentional ... the music is not particularly reminiscent of "Karn Evil 9".]

The keyboards are slightly reminiscent of Keith Emerson (I guess any Hammond organ playing complex rock is to some extent), but overall this band probably sounds more like Schicke, Führs and Fröhling's Symphonic Pictures, though without the guitar and Mellotron of that album, or maybe earlier Le Orme, though without that "Italian" sound. Lots of changes and hard-driving prog keyboard work on both Hammond and synth playing against the backdrop of high-powered drums and bass make this CD an enjoyable listen. I'll bet these guys were a blast to hear play live.

Nowadays, you can only hear them live at "WOODbineSTOCK", an annual picnic at the Pierog's house (on Woodbine Avenue, of course). They also have other local bands playing there for this all-day shindig. But unless you live in the Pierog's neighborhood, you're not likely to see Earthrise play live (photos available on the Earthrise web site). Too bad ... maybe they'll make a recording "Live at WOODbineSTOCK" one day so the rest of us can hear it too. In the meantime, I hope they get their studio rebuilt so we can hear more output from this talented trio. -- Fred Trafton

2) Review from Discogs.com
http://www.discogs.com/Earthrise-Earthrise/release/4688008

progfan97402 June 26, 2013

This New Jersey prog rock band of the '70s deserved much better than a small batch of private pressings, this really should have ended up on Passport Records, just like Fireballet (another New Jersey band) did. Also Earthrise never made it as a CD reissue, this was the type of album begging to be reissued on Syn-Phonic. There was apparently talks that this was to be reissued on Syn-Phonic but it never came through. So that means you'll have to seek out the LP, which is not easy, nor do copies show up frequently. But I have the luck to hear it, and it's actually rather decent prog. They're a trio, so ELP is a frequent comparison, but Bill Drobile's keyboard playing tends to be more restrained, and frequently a nice spacy feel to go with his Moog playing. Vocals sound like your typical "American prog" vocals of the time. I've also seen comparisons to SFF, probably because of the keyboard department, but unlike SFF, no Mellotron (Earthrise would have sounded great with a Mellotron). Also it's nice to see an American prog band that didn't flirt with AOR the way Kansas and Styx does. So you don't have the commercial tendencies and FM-rock ready sound with Earthrise. The sound quality isn't the best, but I have the impression that these guys didn't have a big budget so they didn't have access to the best equipment. If this ended up as a proper CD reissue, I'm sure many more people will discover this band. I dig that '70s vibe of this album, and, while I don't think it'll totally knock your socks off, there are no bad songs, the only weak spot being the needless drum solo on "New Clear Dawn". Worth having for the die-hard prog collector.