News and Future Projects

The new Apogee Album "Through the Gate" is finalized and was released on November 3, 2023 on Progressive Promotion Records (www.ppr-shop.de)

I compiled a 10 min Video Medley from the 6 new songs. Please find the video link below:

Apogee Through the Gate VideoTeaser - YouTube

The new Apogee album ‘Through the Gate’ is stylistically a little more diversified. Based on the elements of classic progressive rock (see Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, ELP, UK, Rush), the musical spectrum also extends to influences from classical, folk rock and heavy rock and there are even distinct jazz influences woven into the title track. The album contains 4 long tracks ranging from 12 to 16 minutes in length and two shorter pieces. As always, the Apogee songs are structurally very complex, contain large-scale bow of tension, many odd rhythms and harmonic modulations, but also atmospheric elements, catchy refrains, improvised guitar solos and hymn-like passages, as well as Apogee-typical orchestrations. In the production, I once again placed a lot of emphasis on natural dynamics and transparency, so that every instrument in the mix remains clearly identifiable. Like on the last Apogee albums, Ebi Graef plays drums and I play all the other instruments. The Album cover features great astronomic photography by versus X technician Andreas Tofahrn, who also prepared the album layout.

Apogee – Through the Gate

Personnel:

Arne Schäfer: Lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, bass, sampled instruments

Eberhard Gräf: Drums and Percussion

Tracklist:

1. Noone but Ourselves 14:00

2. Emotional Feedback 12:32

3. At the Crossroads 5:04

4. Through the Gate 15:34

5. Keep the Flame 8:28

6. The Turning Point 12:50

New „Apogee“ Album „ The Blessing and the Curse” released on Progressive Promotion Records (www.ppr-shop.de)

„The Blessing and the Curse“ has become a rather non-compromizing Prog Album, with 5 Longtracks, all in the range between 12 – 16 minutes playingtime and stylistically close to the classic Progressive Rock of the early seventies (comparable to the records of e.g. Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, ELP, UK, Pink Floyd of this period). All Songs are rather complex structurally and regarding the harmonic material used, while besides the Apogee-typical orchestrations also many atmospheric elements are contained. This is music for fans of long bows of tension and musical developments, which still offer real surprises. As always I tried to avoid musical „mainstream“ , on the permanent search for unusual elements, harmonies, melodies and rhythmic  accentuation. Also production wise I orientate myself towards the transparent sound and instrumentation of the classic Prog albums, in which each Instrument can be clearly located in the mix. Like on the latest Apogee CDs Ebi Graef played the drums any I played all other instruments and sang.”

Apogee - The Blessing and the Curse

Video-Teaser Link:  https://youtu.be/lze0lLcNE04

Personnel:

Arne Schäfer: Lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, bass, orchestrations

Eberhard Gräf: Drums and Percussion

Tracklist:

1.  Out of Control                                     15:09

2.  Congealing Ground                            13:39

3.  Hard to see                                         12:24

4.  The Blessing and the Curse              16:03

5.  The inspiring Tune                             15:23

The new Apogee Album will be released in June 2020 on Progressive Promotion Records (www.ppr-shop.de).

The title of the Album is "Endurance of the Obsolete" and the title Listing is as follows:

1. Interpretations  9:41

2. Waiting for the Dawn  5:43

3. Endurance of the Obsolete  12:06

4. Spirits Disengage  8:34

5. The Complex Extensive Way  12:55

6. Overruled  16:35

The line-up has not changed and Apogee are still

Arne Schäfer: Lead and Backing Vocals, Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Keyboards, Fretted and Fretless Bass Guitars and Orchestral Arrangements

Ebi Graef: Drums and Percussion

The new Album again provides Classic Progressive Rock and this time you will find some obvious Gentle Giant influences in form of counterpoint a capella vocal and convoluted instrumental arrangements with odd meters, as well as atmospheric textures of accoustic guitars, driving rock songs with solistic escapades and orchestral passages. As usual the Apogee songs consist of multiple themes, which were interwoven to complex, dynamic-symphonic structures.

All tracks were composed and arranged by Arne and recorded between 2017 and 2020 in Mühlheim and Offenbach, Germany. Drums were arranged in teamwork by Ebi and Arne. Thanks to Ekki Nahm for an arrangement suggestion on the middle section of “Endurance of the Obsolete”. All lyrics by Arne. The lyrics of the title track are inspired by Bernd Webler’s great cover art (Please also visit his website at www.berndwebler.de). Bernd also again took over Art & Layout/electronic publishing. Executive producer is Oliver Wenzler of Progressive Promotion Records.

My son Lennart produced a Promotion Video for the new Album, based on Bernd's cover art. Here is the Link:

https://youtu.be/qXjgIZrgqHI

In the beginning of 2020 the first CD of Arne's Trio Simplified was released.

Our Simplified Video contains some Audio Samples of this Album.

The Songs of this Album you can hear on our live concerts, where we also have our CDs with us. You will find the list of upcoming Simplified concerts on our website under (https://band-simplified.jimdofree.com).

Not yet on our first Almum is our very special version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which we now perform reglularly live.

The new Apoge Album has been released in June 2018 on Progressive Promotion Records (www.ppr-shop.de). The title of the album is "Conspiracy of Fools" and much of the lyrics reflect the recent developments and tendencies of human behaviour, but as usual in an relatively abstract way.

Under the following links you can find two Video Teasers of the new album, including samples of the first two longtracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCwAHqAq3ZE&t=56s

https://youtu.be/DCwAHqAq3ZE

The accoustic drums have been played by Ebi Graef, while I played all other instruments and sang. Five of the six songs are longtracks in the region between 10 and 16 minutes, the remaining is a shorter accoustic song.

The new album features more vocal harmonies than the previous ones and some soundscapes from newly acquired virtual instruments (software). Bernd Webler will again create the cover art, this time I selected one of his photorealistic images for the title page with a certain surrealistic atmosphere.

The songlist is as follows:

1.  Conspiracy of Fools   (13:08)

2.  Incomprehensible Intention   (14:15)

3.  Override our Instincts   (12:56)

4.  Losing gentle Control   (4:58)

5.  Colors and Shades   (11:46)

6.  The Whispering from Outside   (12:52)

Between 2013 and 2016 I was member of the Prog Band "That Perfect Moment" (TPM) together with Ebi Graef (drums, percussion), myself (guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards), Michael "Wolle" Wollesky (bass, guitar, vocals, guitar synthesizer, technical matters) and Frank Jung (guitar, vocals keyboards). "That Perfect Moment" played covers of great Progressive Rock Songs.

TPM Photo by Heinz Peter

In 2015 Wolle and myself tried a new "almost unplugged" trio concept together with singer Steffi Protzmann. Originally intended a just for fun side project with occasional rehearsals, we called the new trio "Simplified". We play covers of famous progressive rock songs and other classic rock/pop songs with a simplified instrumentation, but nevertheless maintaining all essential and characteristic contents and arrangements of the songs. In "Simplified" Wolle plays accoustic guitar, guitar synthesizer and sings backing vocals, Steffi sings lead and backing vocals and plays percussion and I play the accoustic guitar, electric guitar and share the lead vocals with Steffi.

Soon it became clear that this combination of classic cover songs with three piece harmony vocals and "Simplified" instrumentation worked perfectly. With this trio we immediately got a lot of concert opportunities, due to the small line-up the songs are quickly rehearsed, we can play almost everywhere at very low loudness levels, and the whole package is very well received by the audiences. Between 2015 and 2016 I played simultaneously in TPM, Simplified and versus X and also Apogee was not neglected.

Although playing TPM  was great fun the first year, it was difficult to find sufficient opportunities and adequate locations for live concerts which some of us considered not in adequate relation to the relatively high rehaersal efforts for such music. In 2015 Ebi quit to this reason, and although we found the great new drummer Oliver Werner for his replacement, Wolle was still dissatisfied and for myself playing in three live bands at the same time seemed a bit too much, especially as versus X began rehearsing again regularly after a longer break. Consequently we decided to disband TPM in December 2016.

Meanwhile Simplified played a lot of gigs and also get many requests to play at private partys. Our motto is "Great Songs - Great Harmonies", and we are playing songs of (early) Genesis, Beatles, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, ELP, ELO, Chicago, Supertramp, David Bowie, Procol Harum, etc.

Simplified Photo by Lennart Schäfer

Please check the "Simplified" website under "band-simplified.jimdo.com"

The current Apogee album "The Art of Mind" was recorded between 2013 and 2015 and released on Progressive Promotion Records. Ebi Graef played the accoustic drums and myself all other instruments, including retless bass guitar. The Title Song of the albums is almost 20 minutes long and features many classic elements of Progressive Rock Elemente, like guitar and Moog soli, passages with ambient soundscapes and spoken text, odd meters, many breaks and parts with church organ sounds. The remaining songs are also longtracks with 8 - 10 minutes playing time, which feature various influences from folkrock to heavyrock, but always in the typical Apogee Progressive Rock Style. Bernd Webler created Artwork and Layout for the album cover.

The Art of Mind

The APOGEE album "The Art of Mind" was released in May 2015, this time on Progressive Promotion Records (www.ppr-shop.de).

Audio Samples:

The Art of Mind

This Apogee Album has been released by Musea Records in December 2012.

This time there is some more variety of musical styles, including multi layer vocal harmonies, hints of folk and metal and one fully orchestrated song.

The drums on the first two tracks are played by my brother in law Eberhard Graef and the drums on the remaining tracks are played by versus X Drummer Thomas Reiner.

Waiting for the Challenge

The APOGEE album "Waiting for the Challenge" was released in December 2012 on Musea Records.

Audio Samples:

Public Domain

Waiting for the Challenge

Some of my archive material from 1988 (prior to the formation of versus X) has just been "officially" released by Mals Records in Russia. Its a double CD release called "Apogee featuring Gerald Heimann" containing the lengthy rock suites "Die Gläserne Wand" and "Schleifen". This album can be ordered at Mals Records Moscow, or though Musea Records (as import) or through the versus X Shop.

The German lyrics of this album were written by my friend Gerald Heimann. The new release contains english summaries of the German lyrics in the album booklet. The complete German lyrics of "Die Gläserne Wand" and "Schleifen" can be found on the Album Page.

Die Gläserne Wand & Schleifen

This double CD album contains two lengthy rock symphonies, recorded 1988-89 and released in 2012 on Mals Records, Russia.

Audio Samples:

Movement 1