Echolyn

Echolyn was formed in 1989 when guitarist Brett Kull and drummer Paul Ramsey, members of a recently split cover band called Narcissus, joined with keyboardist Chris Buzby to form a new band to focus on original songs.[1] They were soon joined by fellow Narcissus veteran Ray Weston on vocals and bassist Jesse Reyes, and quickly began playing live and recording their eponymous debut album, which was released in 1991. During the recording of that album, Reyes was replaced on bass by Tom Hyatt.

With this lineup, Echolyn recorded a second album, Suffocating the Bloom, and a four-song EP, ...and every blossom, and with these releases attracted the attention of Sony Music. In 1994, Echolyn was signed to a multi-album deal on Sony's Epic Records label with their major-label debut, As the World, released in March 1995.

However, the label did not provide support for the band to tour in promotion of the album, therefore the band was forced to promote As the World on their own. Later in 1995, Sony dropped Echolyn from the label due to poor sales of As the World. Disillusioned, the band split up, releasing a posthumous album of demos and live tracks in 1996 called When the Sweet Turns Sour (featuring a cover of the early Genesis track "Where the Sour Turns To Sweet", which Sony refused to allow to be included on a Magna Carta Genesis tribute CD entitled "Supper's Ready").[2]

Ray Weston, Brett Kull and Paul Ramsey formed a new, semi-progressive rock band called Still and released a disc called "Always Almost" in early 1996, on Geoff Logsdon's Pleasant Green label. Later that year the band changed its name to Always Almost, releasing a much more progressive-oriented album entitled God Pounds His Nails, also on Pleasant Green.

Ray Weston joined progressive rock band The Dark Aether Project in 1998. Over the next two years he toured with the group and appeared on the 1999 album “Feed the Silence.”

Chris Buzby formed a jazz-influenced progressive rock band called Finneus Gauge with guitarist Scott McGill, bass player Chris Eike, vocalist Laura Martin and drummer Jonn Buzby. They released two albums, More Once More (1996) and One Inch of the Fall (1998).

It was during this time that Echolyn were asked by Magna Carta Records to contribute to a Jethro Tull tribute album. Weston, Kull, and Ramsey (who owned the Echolyn trademark name) chose "One Brown Mouse," recorded the song, and the CD To Cry You a Song: A Collection of Tull Tales was released July 2, 1996.[3] The CD contained Tull covers by prog giants Keith Emerson (with Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker, and Glenn Cornick), Magellan, and John Wetton, among others.

Echolyn formally reformed – without Tom Hyatt – in the spring of 2000. Ray Weston took over bass duties and new member Jordan Perlson (a Berklee College of Music graduate and former student of Buzby) supplemented Ramsey on drums and percussion.[1] This lineup produced the 2000 album Cowboy Poems Free, a loose concept album centering on Americana, and the 2002 album mei, which contains only a single, 50-minute-long track.

After playing as a guest with the band in 2002 and early 2003, Tom Hyatt officially rejoined Echolyn later that year in time for their first appearance at the North East Art Rock Festival. The first album from the fully reformed lineup was The End Is Beautiful, released in September 2005. Subsequently, the band embarked on their first European tour. They also contributed a new track called "15 Days" to the benefit album "After the Storm" (NEARfest Records), in support of the survivors of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The band was later featured at the inaugural Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montréal in Quebec, Canada in September 2006.

2008 saw the release of a newly remastered Cowboy Poems Free as well as solo work from Brett Kull and a second performance at NEARfest (see photo gallery).

Echolyn continued to tour sporadically through 2009.

On June 19, 2012, echolyn released a new album. It was untitled but referred to informally by the band as '2012' or 'Window' and sold as both a double CD and as a limited edition two-disc vinyl release (500 copies). Subsequently, the band released seven additional tracks through Bandcamp,[4] including a live track, a remix of "15 Days", outtakes from the album such as "Accumulated Blur", "Moments with No Sound", and other songs written in the same period as the album but not completed in time, including "Crows Fly By"[5] and "Another Stone".

On July 1, 2015, echolyn opened up a two-week pre-sales window for their eighth studio album, to be entitled "I Heard You Listening." The album will be available on both CD and 180-gram vinyl with a public release date of July 31, 2015. Initial reviews of the album have been extremely positive. The album was given its debut on the ProgScape Radio Internet radio program on Wednesday, July 15.

In early 2018, Chris Buzby, Brett Kull and Ray Weston began writing sessions for a new echolyn album. These sessions continued over the next two years with updates posted to the band's official Facebook page from time to time. The short videos feature the band playing parts of some of the new songs they are working on. The band have several songs written and a handful of others in progress. As of early 2020, tracking had begun on many of the new songs.