Sorry for the absence, chums, but all has not been well in the world of the Theosophical Society. Almost a year ago, I announced that we would be taking things slow and would be branching out to a bunch of different projects. Most of those never materialized and we faded from view.

In that time, my wife of many years divorced me (OOC: my girlfriend of four years left me several months ago, prompting my extended hiatus). I was terribly suicidal, as there was a lot of drama, and the rest of the guys respected me and just sort of laid low. Collaborations were quietly canceled, album plans dried up, and we stopped touring. There was a scary period where we were in serious talks about never performing again, and we were technically on indefinite hiatus for a couple weeks where no one really spoke to one another.

Well, while I was recuperating outside the realm of music, I started work on two novels, one of which I am about a third done with. This won't surprise some of you, knowing that I have a penchant for writing concept albums more often than not. I spent a lot of time reading and watching films. I had very up days and very down days and almost lapsed into heavy alcoholism. But, after a time, the muse returned. I sure as hell wasn't ready to perform, but I needed to write. And so I began work on some instrumental demos. I didn't show them to the band; I didn't want Daniel or Jon or Mark or any of the guys to get their hopes up about me returning. It was private music from a private place. But it hastened my recovery.

I would now like to announce to you the same thing that I announced to the guys earlier today; I am ready to return to music.

I am currently looking back at some unreleased material from Pharaohs. They have about two albums of unreleased material, one hour-long dance piece and another album of renditions of Beethoven's violin sonatas arranged for guitar, bass, and drums, that will be getting releases soon.

I recently presented some demos to the guys for ideas I had for another Theosophical Society record. I want the first thing from the collective to be a new TTS album; to show the world that, in our hearts, we aren't Enoch or Sudan or Pharaohs or Tremors or anything else but the Theosophical Society. That the other groups, while dear to us, are not what this phase is about. The past few months taught us, if anything, that we love playing together as a group more than anything. The demos have a world music flare and are much more layered than some of our recent stuff. Imagine like very early Theosophical Society, but with a greater rhythmic focus.

Lastly, I have those demos I told you about that I wrote. It is my intention, when the time comes, to shape them into a solo album. It will be the first time you will hear an entire album where everything is played by me, from the keys to the drums to the guitar to the vocals. The demos are strange; some are slower thrash metal songs with poppy prog choruses, some are two-chord doom metal, some are jangly pop, some are solo voice covers of some of my favorite songs, and some are ambient pieces. Most of these are rather short, just fragments, that I intend on stitching together into a unified piece.

After these things are put back in order, expect us to slowly start turning on the machine again, from Enoch and Sudan records to new stuff from Pharaohs and Tremors to more collaborations and, hopefully, a new album from Machines and a new Grand Society tour. But we don't guarantee anything but the Theosophical record.

God bless.

- Langdon

Glad to see you guys are back. Now we just need to get another jazz band supergroup together to record the Jazz All-Stars follow-up. Tim and I have the songs pretty much finished.

-Mike

Jason: Music needs you guys. This has made my day.

OOC: Really though, RP will improve sevenfold now you're back.

OOC: Have you actually seen this dude's RPs?

Why not? One good RPer being back will definitely help the entire RP section.

I'd like to announce that, over a very extensive two days of comparing our notes (demos, lyrics, song sketches, bits from unreleased songs, etc.), we have come up with a strong outline for the new album. Keep in mind that this is not to say that we have finished writing the album, but that we have structured everything and now have a strong framework with which to work on specific sections of songs and a strong idea as to where we want them to head. As of now, there is no title or track order, but I can share the information:

Marooned Dream: At the Water's Edge [instrumental] / The Human Cavity / Brittlestar / Ripples and Waves [instrumental] (23:01)

The outline as it stood was comprised of two poems that I wrote with brief musical accompaniment being placed in the center bracketed by a section from an unreleased song. The poems didn't have any strong music direction, as the recordings I have were mostly just my strumming a guitar and reading them, but the outline had it hitting, as you noted, about 23 minutes. The guys found some demos that they had worked out and Daniel spent about four or five hours stitching things together to make the finished song. I then rerecorded my vocals and we did some harmony recording that just flew by. Several bits of the song were improvised as we were recording, but that gave it a sort of warm, organic feel that really added weight to the tune. This is precisely why I am big on extensive musical note taking in terms of recording melodies, harmonies, demos, lyrical snippets, etc. It makes assembling songs very easy when you get back into a workers frame of mine.

Move the Earth (31:24)

The guys decided to take all of my rhythmic ideas for the album and stitch them into a single song. This is closer in feel to, say, fusion-period Davis or the afrobeat of Fela Kuti than prog rock. As a result, the track has a sort of danceable groove to it, while maintaining a kind of hot, sticky, fever-dream kind of feel. The only lyrics are "Move the Earth", shouted by everyone in the band. This is one of my favorite pieces we've ever made.

Crossing the Ocean: All of the Above / New World / Against the Devil's Hands / Charlotte / Bridges / Strange Soul / Whirling and Whirling and Whirling (43:45)

This song was actually an older song that we had in skeletal form that was very easy to assemble, again, thanks to extensive note-taking. As you may have noticed, these tracks are rather long. We found early in our career that we are pretty good at writing epics, but that they can be a bit tiring to have one right after the other. So, we'd write them and keep them in the vaults and maybe release one or three per album. The shorter songs are the ones that tend to get written entirely in the studio. However, since this is the first Theosophical Society album proper since about Shades, we figured we'd pull out all the stops and release essentially a big box of epics. The newer parts came from demos that Jon and Daniel had been screwing around with. Musically, the song is a giant tribute to the prog rock group Transatlantic, with the various sections named in reference to various songs they've written. It was written very much in their kind of style, since they specialize in the same kind of prog that we have been yearning to return to in TTS; huge, classic era, bombastic prog rock. This is actually the first of four such tributes we have outlined but, as you may note, the first one we finished, primarily due to the fact that most of the work had been done prior to our hiatus.

Sophia: Passivity [instrumental] / IAM / Love / Wisdom / Birth / My Sophia (21:52)

This is one thing that I felt didn't really fit with the rest of my solo stuff. I had a great deal of the song written and all of it outlined before I approached the guys for each of them to add their touches. I always referred to my ex as my sophia, in reference to "sophia" being Greek for "wisdom." That isn't her name, but it was my pet name. We eventually named our first-born, our daughter, Sophia and this is a song sort of jointly to both of them. I am still in contact with my ex-wife and we still love each other a great deal. We just couldn't be married anymore. And my daughter is a grown woman now. This is probably my most personal song. Originally, I didn't want to include it on anything, but my ex and my daughter encouraged me to share it. The style is very much piano-oriented at the moment with guitars sort of soaring over top. It's like a massive ballad.

The Tree: Hang A Fruit / The Calculus [instrumental] / The Fire / A Dance of Rememberance, A Dance of Mourning (18:39)

"The Tree"'s outline is primarily composed of various bits that the other guys had that worked well together. All of their little bits had a couple lyrical ideas jotted down with them that all had to do with trees, so it became a good working title for the piece. This is one of the most Beatles-esque tracks we have ever written and will be a great joy to record.

A Circus of Gods and Monsters (9:14)

This is a song that Mark, Baph, and Derek have been working on for a long time in various approaches for a while now, but we're pushing it in a more classic prog style, which seems to be working. All versions of it hover between about 7:30 and 10:00 in length, but a brief studio run-through Derek did as a scratch track hit what you see and it seems to work really well. The time may vary a bit by the time it gets released, but not by much. Also, this will be the shortest track on the box. It can't ever be said that we don't return in a big way.

Roots: Beatles / Yes / King Crimson / Genesis / Rush / Gentle Giant / Jethro Tull / Camel / Pink Floyd / Van der Graaf Generator (28:04)

This is the second of the prog rock tribute songs we created. Obviously, instead of being devoted to a single band, it is devoted to those early prog rock bands that got us into this wacky, wonderful type of music in the first place. We tend to name our demos and riffs with descriptive names instead of more poetic titles, like "Rush Guitar Thing" or "Pink Floyd Space Keys" or things like that. We figured that, since we've been around a while, it would be fun to just take all the various prog-inspired things we had and stitch them into a single big song as just a loving ode to all the classic prog bands we could feasibly fit. This was especially cool for us since it seems that there are a decent number of prog bands out right now, but most tend to be influenced by newer prog rock bands. So, this can act as a sort of 30-minute primer in classic prog for them, as well as just being fun as hell for us. As you can see, we cover the ground of the Beatles, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Rush, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Camel, Pink Floyd, and Van der Graaf Generator. A very fun one, indeed. It should be noted that we didn't pinch their riffs or anything, but just played in their style.

Of Crimson Kings, Topographic Oceans, and Snow Geese (13:40)

This is the third of four tribute songs, this one specifically focusing on the first three prog rock albums that I owned, those being In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson, Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes, and Songs inspired by the Snow Goose by Camel. With this one, we aren't playing in their styles directly or anything, but instead just crafting a song about that magical first encounter with prog rock through those three albums. The sketches for this one have it being a bit punchier than the other songs and a little jazzier, but Jon is really pushing to add a symphonic middle bit. The time you see is including that bit, which is gaining more votes by the hour.

Progress: Neal Morse / Flower Kings / Dream Theater / Opeth / Pain of Salvation / Phideaux / Sieges Even / Porcupine Tree (24:04)

And the fourth of the tribute songs. This one is in the same vein as the second, only with us touching on the styles of more recent prog bands that we find inspiring. You will note that there are some more metal-oriented bands that we play the style of for this song, but I assure you, the sketches are of their more rock stuff than their metal side. The bands, as you probably have noted, are Neal Morse, the Flower Kings, Dream Theater, Opeth, Pain of Salvation, Phideaux, Sieges Even, and Porcupine Tree. We're aware that it may be a bit cheesy to arrange songs like this and make the tribute so blatant, but they were so refreshing and fun to hear that we feel compelled to sit down and make these songs work.

And You're Standing Here Beside Me (19:09)

The final thing is another mathy, rhythmic prog number based off of one of the demos I intend for my personal album. The riff I used actually got tossed out quickly, but the other guys liked it enough to pull up other riffs they had of similar styles. The way the riffs sound on top of each other, at least in the rough state this is in, is almost like a lighter Meshuggah meets Talking Heads. This one also has a very thick groove, but to our ears, we don't see a way that anyone could really dance to it!

Again, I must remind everyone that these songs range from demos and riffs clipped together on a computer to only somewhat more complete versions. We haven't finished writing the songs in total and haven't begun really recording. We released a three-track online-only item comprised of the demos for three of the songs to give everyone a feel and to prove that we are working, but these will take a bit. Not too terribly long because, again, we have extensive notes on these songs and work fairly efficiently. This upcoming album is terribly exciting to us.

See you all on the other side!

- Langdon

(OOC: Thanks for the compliments about my RPing. It does mean a lot to me. I just try to avoid RPing personal drama or things like that; keep it focused on songs, albums, tours. You know, music things. And I'm glad that is appreciated. It means a lot, it really does.)

We'd just like to do a brief update, then back to work.

The album is entirely written at this point and we are most of the way through recording. We have maybe three songs left to do major work on and just some overdubs on the rest. It should be out within one or two weeks. We plan on it being a digital-only release with double-sided CDs released to indie record shops on the cheap to keep prices down. We don't need the money. We just want this to get out there. And Shiny Metal Ass Records, who are just the best people for tolerating our unexpected hiatus and our habit of really heavy production cost material, are willing to help us with that. We'll be footing a decent portion of the bill for this endeavor just as a thank you to them for their support, but they will receive the money. The albums proceeds will also go in part to one of a number of different charities dependent on the region it is purchased from; the final list hasn't been decided, but there is a working list that is almost down to size. After this, expect the issuing of the last recorded Enoch, Sudan, and Pharaohs albums before the hiatus. These will be followed by a couple vault releases of demos which should tide you over while we construct material for the next full-length Enoch, Sudan, and, of course, Theosophical Society albums. It will also buy us enough time to work on some collaborations, some production on other people's albums, hopefully a reunion of Machines if we can swing it, and the formulation of my solo album. I already have the dream backing band for it. We'll see how it pans out.

Cheers!

- Langdon

Another brief update:

We're almost done with the music. Only one song is remaining in terms of major overdubs; about two remain with some small touches and adjustments to do, but those can be knocked out in about a solid day or two. Expect this album soon.

On top of that, my solo album is coming along marvelously in terms of the structuring; no solid writing has been done for the main body outside of the post-divorce songs I wrote, but I have an interesting set of ideas for how to present them. And let's just say my dream backing band for this project came to fruition, which will be affecting the sonics of it. It will be a culmination of a bunch of ideas that have been in the pipeline for a while and, hopefully, will be followed by a tour that has been cooking for even longer. No more from me on that.

That's all!

- Langdon