TRAVELLERS - LINER NOTES AND CREDITS, written by FS
First and foremost: Thanks to everyone who was involved in one way or another in the creation of this album.

KRÄHENKÖNIGIN
In 1997, things did not go according to my plan. I had dropped out of my first band and soon was on the verge of leaving my second. The material I wrote never fit into whatever visions my fellow musicians had, so I started to pursue my own ideas by writing pieces for solo classical guitar. I neither thought of performing these tunes in public nor of recording or releasing them; they were written for my personal pleasure and, maybe, to prove to myself that I was able to arrange my ideas and turn them into completed entities. One year later, I had quit my second band and felt rather comfortable working on my own, taking lessons on both classical guitar and piano and spending most of my leisure time studying the works of classical composers. But somehow I could get my hands on an analogue four track tape recorder, and, in order to get to know the machine, I spent my entire autumn holidays recording what I had written. However, without access to any other studio equipment, I could not complete the recordings. It was only several years later that I could transfer the material onto computer, edit it and enhance it sonically. Which meant that I put plenty of reverb on it. Through friends, the result found its way into quite a few hands. Kunsthall Produktionen offered me to release 'Krähenkönigin' on 10” vinyl and I accepted.

Music written by Fredy Schnyder in 1997/98.

Recorded in autumn 1998 in Burgdorf/CH.
Originally mixed in 2001.
Released in 2004 by Kunsthall Produktionen.
Remixed in 2009.

Fredy Schnyder – Classical guitar

SILVER
The ability to record my music on the four track machine inspired me to write songs for more than one instrument. While still completing 'Krähenkönigin', I began to work on ideas that I planned to arrange for a group. In December 1998, I prepared a demo for 'Witness'. This even included drums, which I recorded with the help of Christoph Steiner, who pushed the buttons while I played. In the course of the following months, it became clear that I wanted to do a professionally recorded EP. Patrick Schaad joined me and we arranged vocals. It took us what felt like a lifetime. When we felt we were ready, Christoph Steiner agreed to play drums, and Martin Ruch, an aspiring sound engineer, took on recording duties. We entered a rehearsal room packed with quite professional studio equipment and made all mistakes that musicians can possibly (or impossibly) think of making. Fact is, we were not at all prepared to record the songs in as little time as we had (five days). The result was disastrous, but since a lot of money had been spent, I decided to release the EP nonetheless. Well, for years, the sheer memory of 'Silver' made me cringe. Things began to change when the idea for the present compilation arose. Could it be possible after all to turn the recordings into something enjoyable? I got prepared for battle and had the original ADATs transferred onto computer. For days I corrected shifts in tempo and shaky intonation; certain passages were deleted, very few were replaced. And then I found myself listening to 'Silver' with pleasure.

Music and lyrics written by Fredy Schnyder in 1998/99.

Recorded in July 2000 in Hindelbank/CH.
Engineered by Martin Ruch.
Originally mixed and mastered by Kurt Hilfiker, Martin Ruch and Fredy Schnyder.
Original artwork designed by Marc Grassi.
Released by FS in 2001.
Reworked and remixed by Fredy Schnyder in July 2009.

Patrick Schaad – Vocals
Christoph Steiner – Drums and percussion
Fredy Schnyder – Electric and classical guitars, keyboards, bass, percussion

SUBMISSION
With the 'Silver' experience in mind (and a third failed attempt at working with a band), I liked the idea to make music in a very different setting, so I accepted the invitation to perform with The New Grove Project, a progressive rock studio project based in Sweden and Switzerland. I was brought on board to replace Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings) on guitar and was meant to be a sideman who plays what he is told. However, I was asked to contribute two songs as well, which I wrote on my then but recently acquired Irish bouzouki. Another novelty was my new home recording device, consisting of my computer, the cheapest software available, a Lo-Fi sound card and a single microphone. Enough to get started. In winter 2001/02, I recorded these two demos which are featured here.
A few months later, The New Grove Project recorded the album 'Brill' in Sweden, but the album's release was delayed for years. When it finally came out in 2004, I had not only played guitar, but most of the keyboards as well, and had recorded, mixed and produced the album. But to the present day, I enjoy the instrumental demo tracks more than the album versions. Therefore, and because it was uncertain in 2003 whether 'Brill' would ever be completed and released, I decided to put out a CD-r under the name of Nucleus Torn, to show that we were still alive.

Music written by Fredy Schnyder in 2001/02. Traveller's Rest co-written by Ingemar Hjertqvist.

Recorded in winter 2001/02 in various places.
Released by FS in 2003.
Remixed by Fredy Schnyder in June 2009.

Christoph Steiner – Drums and percussion
Fredy Schnyder – Irish bouzouki, electric and classical guitars, upright piano, bass, mandolin, percussion

LEADLESS
Writing and recording the two demo tracks for The New Grove Project gave me a new perspective. In the midst of rehearsing for 'Brill', I began composing new music, which turned out to be quite different from what I had done before and which eventually surfaced on Nucleus Torn's first full-length album 'Nihil'. At that time, I lost almost all interest in Progressive rock and turned rather to the darkest side of metal.
But how did 'Leadless' fit into this? Fact is, it did not. The track still stands out as something completely unique in our discography and did not belong to 'Nihil' at all. However, this obvious dissimilarity shows one of the underlying conceptual ideas for 'Nihil' that can hardly be found anymore on the final album. I used a fairly intellectual approach in the writing process and wrote one song per instrument, each of which was supposed to be unique and radically different from the others. Leadless continued 'Submission' in that it was written on the Irish bouzouki. But when 'Nihil' turned out to be much more emotional than planned and also more like an entity than a collection of individual songs, 'Leadless' was taken off the record and replaced by 'Close', which bridged the gap in between 'Summer Bled' and 'The Sunclad' much more smoothly.
'Leadless' was thus put on hold for the time being. Although both lyrics as well as vocal melodies were ready, Patrick and I never had an opportunity to record the vocals, so 'Leadless' remained incomplete. This changed a few days after the release of 'Knell'. We met in Uors, where I wrote material for the fourth full-length album, and we recorded Patrick's vocals in no more than an hour.

Music and lyrics written by Fredy Schnyder in 2002/03.

Instruments recorded in 2003/04 at various places, vocals recorded in March 2008 in Uors/CH.
Mixed by Fredy Schnyder in June 2009.

Patrick Schaad – Vocals
Christoph Steiner – Drums and percussion
Christine Schüpbach-Käser – Violin
Benedikt Reising – Saxophone
Roger Zemp – Darabuka
Fredy Schnyder – Irish bouzouki, oud, hammered dulcimer, mandolin, bass

LURKING
'Lurking' was written at the same time as 'Peregrina Sublime', the closing song on 'Nihil'. Although they do not necessarily sound similar, I regard them as twins. In fact, the two songs even share a few chord sequences. Unlike 'Leadless', the second outtake from the 'Nihil' writing sessions, 'Lurking' was not recorded at the same time. It was supposed to be used for a sideproject which never got past pre-production. At least the acoustic guitars had been recorded properly in 2006, so it was easy to continue from there in 2009. Spacey electric guitars were added, and, keeping in line with the rest of the songs on this compilation, I added keyboards to give the song some sort of progressive rock flavour. Shortly afterwards, drums, bass and spinet were added, when we also tracked those instruments for the forthcoming fourth Nucleus Torn album. Next in line was Patrick, who worked on his vocals during the 'Andromeda Awaiting' sessions.

Music and lyrics written by Fredy Schnyder in 2003.

Recorded in between 2006 and 2010 in various places.
Bass reamped at Groovefactory, Ostermundigen/BE, co-engineered by Matthias Urech.
Mixed by Fredy Schnyder in January 2010.

Patrick Schaad – Vocals
Christoph Steiner – Drums and percussion
Fredy Schnyder – Electric and acoustic guitars, spinet, keyboards, bass

Artistic direction by FS

(FS 2010)