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We recently finished a great week of recording drums with Craig Blundell for the new album. All the drums for the album are now finished, beautifully played by Craig and sounding superb. This gives us the best possible platform to build on the production.

If you’re interested in the recording process and technical side, Craig has been posting details of the sessions on his Facebook page:

“Day three of tracking the ILLUMINAE album, I promised to share a few things that I’m using in the studio for the gear geeks so today it’s the Kick. On the 22×20… @mapex Saturn V Tour I’m using a super kick 2 with Felt beaters, a ‘kicker’ inside which just touches both heads. Mic wise I’m using a Sennheiser e901 right up against the batter head for the attack, an e902 in a Kickport and a Neumann U87 about 4 inches away from the front. It sounds massive with loads of depth, warmth and clarity, perfect for this album..”

 “Today I’m putting the final touches to the brilliant ILLUMINAE album and for the geek gear heads as promised I’m doing some run downs on what I’m using. Today it’s the cymbals, both the overheads, ambient and rooms. The crash cymbals for this session are a mix of Paiste 602 modern essentials and Masters thins a mix of big sizes 20/22/24 etc I’m using two Neumann U87s as overheads facing ‘the room’ and set to omni which pick out all the warmth of the cymbals, at the front of the kit I’m using two Sennheiser 8040s which are picking up the brightness and attack and to the rear of the room a Sennheiser MK4 for kit ambience. (The ride is spotted with a 8040 and the hats have a Neumann TLM193) Mixed together they give a stunning Cymbal Sound which can be completely controlled to the amount of warmth, attack and ambience required.”

Our recent interview with Jorge Rittatore for Prog Core Radio’s ‘This Strange Show’ is now available to stream on Mixcloud. Listen to us chatting about the forthcoming new album, the writing process, album special guests and more.

We’re really pleased to announce that good friend and musician extraordinaire Troy Donockley (of Nightwish fame no less!) has recorded some beautiful Uilleann pipes and low whistles for a track (Lullaby) on the new Illuminae album currently in production. Troy never fails to bring a touch of magic to everything he plays on… and this is no exception.

An interview with ILLUMINAE  by Natasha Scharf was recently featured in Prog Magazine.

ILLUMINAE are featured and interviewed in the new issue of Teraz Rock ~ Poland’s biggest rock magazine.

Największy polski magazyn rockowy Teraz Rock pisze o ILLUMINAE

We’re really excited to announce our second special guest on the debut ILLUMINAE album is guitarist Luke Machin. Luke’s stunning playing recently elevated him into the Prog Magazine Best Guitarist poll top ten alongside guitar legends Steve Hackett, Steve Rothery and Guthrie Govan. He’s also shared the stage with Jeff Beck, Francis Dunnery, Pain of Salvation and Robert Plant. Luke’s own band Maschine were winners of Prog Magazines ‘Best new band’ readers’ poll and The Classic Rock Society‘s ‘Best new band’ award’.

Ian and Agnieszka are excited to announce that guitar icon, solo artist and Genesis star Steve Hackett will be a special guest guitarist on the debut Illuminae album.

From dark, twisted symphonies to sweet lullabies, the collective writing talents of Ian Jones (Karnataka, Chasing The Monsoon) and Agnieszka Swita (solo, Caamora) combine in a powerful musical collaboration. Creating a majestic towering cathedral of sound, embracing symphonic, progressive rock, folk and classical music, these are songs which traverse the fine line between darkness and light, life and death, solitude and hope. Like shards of light piercing a subterranean labyrinth. This is ILLUMINAE.

Debut album in production. Join the mailing list for regular updates.