ALEAtronic's debut album "First Take" now available on worldwide release

For the first time on world-wide release, "First Take", ALEAtronic's debut album presents a musical collage ranging from classical/experimental through to jazz and popular mainstream genres. From the inspiring Innocent World or the jazzy Snake to the tongue-in-cheek Imagination ALEAtronic will take you on a journey from classical chamber music to drum'n'bass and rock.

"We are delighted to have been working with vocalists Yvonne Shelton, Mancunian session/gospel singer, and Eric Troyer, late of ELO Part II, now a member of The Orchestra on this album," says Bea Schirmer, founder member and major creative force behind ALEAtronic."Both vocalists have brough incredible musicality to the songs, and we are privileged to have been working with them."

ALEAtronic, a group of musicians from a classical background, are specialising in uniting elements from traditional, current and world music. The result is an ever expanding repertoire of challenging musical material that ALEAtronic perform on stage as well as taking it back into the community.To share their experience with the community and be a tool for the realisation of musical ideas arising from day to day issues is just as much ALEAtronic's objective as recording and performing live on stage.

"We enjoy working with young people and community groups immensely. This background and our daily working together on stage in a classical setup first gave us the idea of combining elements from both classical and popular music as well as using today's electronic possibilities in our recordings and live performance."

"We decided to go for a world-wide, internet only release through distributors like CD Baby and CD-ME, as well as our own website," Bea explains. "All 'First Take' tracks are also available for individual download through the usual outlets like iTunes, MusicNet and Napster to name but a few, and we've just made the album available in 'W**d' format, too."

"The current system operating in the "music business" is not working as well as it could as far as promoting new, unusual artists is concerned. As established professional musicians ALEAtronic feel for young bands who struggle to find recognition in the current situation. We can only encourage artists' efforts in promotiong their music online, as this is often the only chance they have of reaching people that other-wise would never hear of them."

Conceived over a period of two years "First Take" features material originally written and performed by ALEAtronic around the North of England and specifically in Manchester, UK.

Personnel:

Ken Brown - trumpet
Rob Criswell - viola
Dave Hext - marimba, percussion, vocals
Bea Schirmer - bass, electronics
Ric Parmigiani - vibes, percussion

ALEAtronic's guests:

Yvonne Shelton - vocals

Having been "in love with music all her life", Manchester-based Yvonne sings, directs choirs and groups, and also runs arts and music projects.

She has appeared extensively for BBC TV and Radio as well as recording and touring with artists such as Chaka Khan, James Taylor, The Beautiful South, Simply Red, Gabrielle, George Michael, Lemn Sissay, Foreigner, Puff Daddy and the Spice Girls. Yvonne also had a stint as a singer in the musical "I have a dream".

Yvonne first worked with aleatronic on some of the Hallé Orchestra's education and community outreach projects.

Eric Troyer - vocals, piano

Eric Troyer grew up in Elkhart, Indiana in a musical family with a conservative religious background. After college in Indiana and California, Eric settled in New York City where he began singing vocal sessions with world class artists like John Lennon, Billy Joel, Bonnie Tyler, Aerosmith, Kiss, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Sisters of Mercy, Meatloaf and Celine Dion.

Eric is well established as a jingle writer and as a composer for television, film and incidental music. He is also a singer/songwriter for ELO Part II and more recently, The Orchestra. Eric today lives in New Jersey running his own production company, Wonderwerks.