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The
history of ÆTHER has begun in
1974, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when
former members of a few no longer existing bands, friends ALBERTO CURI, VINÍCIUS
BRAZIL and FERNANDO CARVALHO gather
together to form a rock band called “Magenta”.
That formation has another friend in it: Wilman Jorge, on drums. In
1977, with Wilman’s leave, the band is renamed to “Rockambole”.
On the period, the group already shows influences of progressive rock. In
1983, with the inclusion of keyboards, played by CURI,
and sinth-guitars, played by VINÍCIUS,
the band is completely turned over into prog-rock and once more has it’s
name changed, now to “Albatroz”
(Albatross). The
first studio recordings take place. With the songs “Luz
Esperança” (Light Hope) and Renascer
(Rebirth), the band makes an expressive breakthrough on the major local
rock FM radio station (Rádio
Fluminense – the same vehicle where bands such as “Bacamarte”
have first been exposed), where the second tittle has remained frequent in
the programmation for more than six months. Even
with the deffection of bass player FERNANDO, in 1985, the band remains active until 1993 with CURI,
VINÍCIUS and another bass player friend, Carlos Cesar. Around then,
the name “Albatroz” was
dropped, due to its usage by other acts. In
1995, once again together, CURI,
VÍNÍCIUS and FERNANDO form ÆTHER. The
name ÆTHER comes from the
Greek language and represents "the real quintessence of all possible
energy. It is the universal agent responsible for each and every
manifestation of energy on the material, psychic and spiritual worlds. One
of its properties is Sound (the Word, or “Verb”)"*. The
band’s conceptual context is defined within these parameters. With
the facilities given by VINÍCIUS BRAZIL’s SoftMusic
studio – a totally digital platform founded in 1988 –, the
creativity and the possibility of experimentations with orchestral
elements make the band start to make a “trip” into the conception of
their first work, all without the limitations in time and budget most
bands are often faced with. The symphonic progressive format is then
affirmed, bringing life to “VISIONS”, their first CD, with participations of drummer Brandon
Ramos and some invited musicians – like Glauco
Fernandes, on violins, and Eduardo
Campos, on piano and some keyboards. This work, conceptual in its
essence, has been composed around musical "visions" of images,
events, moments and situations. In1999,
due to the leave of Brandon Ramos, led by professional and academic reasons, ÆTHER
is joined by former Bacamarte
drummer MARIO LEME (at the time still with Kaizen, which he would leave in 2001), through recommendation of Glauco
Fernandes, with whom he had played extensively. After
live shows with the current lineup that included the opening of 1999
Rio Art Rock Festival, the band started to work in the conception of
their newest CD, "INNER
VOYAGES BETWEEN OUR SHADOWS", a work that would eventually count
with yet another participation by Glauco Fernandes, now playing a whole
set of string instruments as well as solos. This second CD has just
been released, this past November. During
these last 20 years, many other musicians other than VINÍCIUS,
CURI and FERNANDO have
been with the band – all of them, first of all, friends. Their feelings,
personalities and dreams are engraved in this essence called ÆTHER. The first CD, “VISIONS”, shows the maturing of the seeds planted by all those friends. The second, "INNER VOYAGES BETWEEN OUR SHADOWS" comes to confirm these concepts.
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