The Empyrean
Last modified: 21:47:05 CET on 24 Nov, 2011 |
Opinions And Reactions
This album is not rock, there's so much piano, strings and even a gospel choir! What is that about?
Errr, artistic impression? Being a versatile musician?! I don't think this should even be explained. If you're willing to give this album (or any other album, for that matter) a chance, do not think about genres; that's narrow-minded.
Then, what kind of music does John listen to?
Here's what he said in the MusicRadar podcast:
I'm real open-minded about music, you know, like...I-I like all types of music and, and, like I said, I just don't divide it up in my head that way. I like all kinds of things that would, you, know, like, there's very few of my friend who would like...I don't think there's any of my friends who would like everything that I like. Like, I've really (Haha), I've just always been like that, I love a huge variety of things, you know?
Where can I find reviews of The Empyrean?
There will be a page listing all of them soon. Oh, and you can write your own, too.
Is this album going to chart?
Well, Shadows Collide With People was actually #191 on the Billboard 200 and #11 on Heatseekers. And it charted in many countries, so it wouldn't be surprising if The Empyrean charted.
Visuals
Who did the cover art for this album?
A talented 24-year-old photographer called Sarah Sitkin. You can see some of her work in her FlickR photostream and read an interview with her here.
The cover image is tiny and I do not see anything!
Click here for a high resolution image.
Are the angel and the nude dead man on the album's cover John and Josh?
Yes.
Where can I find photos related to this album?
Here, here and here.
Will there be any music videos for this album?
No idea. You would have to ask the record company.
Et Cetera
If this is Empyrean, what is Imperium?
The album name was actually missheard by at least three people who sent in the news. As bizzare as this may sound! And it's quite funny, too.
How about Solo X?
That was a name given to the album by the listeners, as they had to call it by some name, right? It stands for solo-album-number-ten.
I heard a story about this album being someone's last wish, how much of that is true?
All of it is true. A 20-year-old college student from USA got to hear the album before he, unfortunately, passed away from leukemia.
Can I read the whole timeline of the album story somewhere?
Yes, there's a history page.
This is complicated, where can I see all the past and present news items associated to this album?
All the news in the archive that are to The Empyrean can be found by using the site's search function or by listing all the news items with its tag.
This page, formerly known as The Empyrean Rumour Mill and 10th Album Rumour Mill is a compilation of all the rumours that were circulating before The Empyrean had a set release date. It's meant to serve as an archive, as a story of an album from the listeners' point of view. Also, it's another proof that everything you read on the internet is confusing.
2005
The last out of six albums in six months, Curtains, is released in January/February. As it was the case with all the previous albums released on vinyl, the inscriptions on it were thought to be previewing lyrics off a possible next album. Those inscriptions were A million ways things could be and The whole circle stands stamp where you stand. However, in March that year, John's official website was updated stating that he'll be commited to the band for a longer period of time as they had just started recording the new album.
2006
The first time the album got a mention was early in 2006. This is an excerpt from a fan's review of the 11th February acoustic benefit RHCP played. The fan (whose name would come in handy, as I forgot to save it) spoke to John and this was what he wrote about it.
When I asked if he had any other plans for solo albums, he said that Josh Klinghoffer has about 14 songs (I'm not sure precisely whether they wrote these together or what the deal is with them), but that basically, he does plan to do another solo album, but he wants to spend more time on it, not rush it out like the Record Collection albums. He wants to get some other musicians in on it, and he said that he's planning to use more classical guitar on it. He wants to mix it more than he did on the bare bones Record Collection albums.
On a couple of occasions throughout the year, people were getting more or less the same responses. Everything was focused on the Red Hots and Stadium Arcadium.
2007
According to the now-famous Tape Op interview [text-only version here] which took place in February 2007 and was published in the September/October issue of the same magazine, the album was first recorded in the breaks of the later legs of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium world tour. After the RHCP tour was over, John withdrew from public eye, more or less. Around November 2007, Ryan Hewitt used to have John's album on his list of projects in progress on Myspace, but later on he deleted it from the list. During that period of time, he has not given a clear response regarding this to anyone.
From this point on, in lack of a proper name, people were refering to the album as "Solo X", as in "Tenth solo album"; though this is debatable, as it could as well be ninth or eighth; given that From The Sounds Inside was never commercially released, that A Sphere In A Heart Of Silence is a collaboration and that DC EP is, well, an EP.
2008
Mastering process of the album started started in mid-May 2008. San Diego college student named Armando Ruiz, a leukemia patient, had the pleasure of hearing the album and actually speaking to John on 12th May. His impressions are listed under "facts". Sadly, Armando passed away on 25th May. Due to respecting his last wish, the webmaster of Invisible Movement did not want to reveal the album title, as Armando said that he did not ask John if it would be OK to reveal it.
After this was announced, there were many negative vibes around the whole story, even coming close to the point where people were coming up with incredibly sick stories. However, Josh Klinghoffer confirmed this story to a third party who them informed Invisible Movement.
During the summertime, Vanessa Freebairn-Smith, cello player who toured with Gnarls Barkley and who is a member of Sonus Quartet, was in contact with fellow fans and she said that John's album was getting recorded what seemed like forever ago.
It was still not clear if the album was mastered for the second time or the first time. John's current label, Record Collection Music were not giving any answers. Their page on John had not been updated in a long time and his official site was down for months and months. Their response to a letter written on behalf of the Invisible Movement community in February 2008, contained the following excerpt:
as soon as we have updates on new releases, tours, etc, they will be posted to john's website and his myspace page.
The logical assumption for this silence was that none of these people were given a green light to give information out at the given point; which was understandable.
On 27th September 2008, the board member with alias hyakprods met John at the Fourth Anual Hullabaloo hosted by the Silverlake conservatory. He briefly spoke to John, who said that Imperium indeed was the album's title, that the release date should be 20th January 2009 and that tour is currently not an option. A couple of days later, another person, David, came along with the indentical story.
I considered this to be a green light to break the silence and, according to all three of them, the album title was The Imperium. The news, originally announced at this URI spreaded accross the internet pretty fast. Some non-English speaking blogs and music news sites even translated the tour-related information wrong and wrote that there won't be song clips prior to the album release, which nobody ever said...?!
However, the same doubt was dragging over all along, based on what Armando Ruiz wrote:
The name of it is "Imperium" which means the highest point in heaven.
According to literature, mainly Dante's Divine Comedy, the highest point in heaven is The Empyrean. Some people were expressing their doubts and wondering if the name was missheard by all the people who heard it as The Empyrean was obviously making more sense.
On 14th October 2008, a possible insider confirmed that the name of the album was indeed The Empyrean. For more information and possible connections with other songs, check this link. The owner of this site admits she got a bit too carried way, but hey, exploring things is cool.
On 11th November 2008, John launched a blog and Record Collection Music staff confirmed the album's release date and more. A new store was launched shortly afterwards. Some of the blog posts are explaining the album a bit more.
On 25th November 2008, song Unreachable was posted up on John's Myspace page, alongside some new photographs. At the same time, handwritten lyrics of one of the bonus songs off the album revealed one of the lines from the beginning of the story: A million ways things could be. And this is where the story ends and everything becomes official.
Many thanks to hyakprods, David King Jr, JKDN staff, Daniel P, Record Collection Music, Ryan Hewitt, some people who'd prefer to stay anonymous and the late Armando Ruiz. Many thanks to every single person who reads this, too. Even the search engine bots.
