The seeds of Echolyn were planted in the late 1980s when Brett Kull, Raymond Weston, and Paul Ramsey played in a cover band named Narcissus. In 1988, Narcissus disbanded, as the members got tired of cover tunes. A year later, Christopher Buzby joined Kull and Ramsey to form Echolyn, a band from eastern Pennsylvania that made a conscious decision to focus entirely on original music. Weston soon returned to the band, and they began recording their eponymous CD “Echolyn” in 1990.
Kull, Weston, and Jesse Reyes played bass until Thomas Hyatt joined permanently during the recording process of this first album. “Echolyn” was released independently on Bridge Records, and the first pressing quickly sold out. The CD was for a while one of the most sought-after collector’s items in progressive rock, selling for over $100 at the Ebay internet auction site.
In 1992, Echolyn released “Suffocating The Bloom,” now generally regarded as an early 1990s progressive rock classic. The album sharpened Echolyn’s trademark two-and three-part vocal harmonies with tight, contrapuntal instrumental musicianship, and features the 25-minute “A Suite for the Everyman.” Lyrically it focused on the loss of childhood innocence and idealism.
In the spring of 1993, Echolyn privately released the 4-song unplugged mini-CD “…and every blossom.” Nevertheless, it was “Suffocating The Bloom” that attracted the attention of executives at major label Sony Music/Epic Records, and the band contracted a multi-album deal in the summer of 1993 that included the release of their next full-length album on Sony/Epic/550 Music.
During that period, Echolyn performed extensively and played sold-out shows throughout the Philadelphia area, particularly at South Street’s “Theater of the Living Arts.” They also opened three shows on the East Coast for progressive metal band Dream Theater. Echolyn also performed a feature set at Progfest ’94 in Los Angeles prior to the release of their own Sony/Epic/550 Music debut.
In the spring of 1994, Echolyn recorded their first CD for Sony in Nashville, Tennessee. A major label deal would not degrade Echolyn’s musical ambitions. “As The World” was an uncompromising piece of Echolyn’s musical output. The album was released in March of 1995 to great acclaim in progressive rock circles. People spoke of Echolyn as the best chance at the time for wider mainstream acceptance of progressive music, however Sony refused to support touring, Echolyn’s best way to reach new ears and their musical lifeblood, and thus marked the beginning of the end to Echolyn’s short-lived major label career.
The band headlined the first ProgDay in North Carolina in September 1995, without label support, and shortly thereafter were dropped by Sony. Hyatt and Buzby left the band, and after over 250 live shows and 4 studio album releases, Echolyn had apparently disbanded. A subsequent recording titled “When The Sweet Turns Sour,” was released on SynPhonic and Cyclops, GFT in 1996. This CD contained working demos of unreleased new songs, an acoustic version of “Meaning and the Moment,” a cover of “Where the Sour Turns to Sweet” originally arranged and recorded for a Genesis tribute album, and live tracks from the ProgDay ’95 show.
The members of Echolyn, nonetheless, remained very active in music. In the spring of 2000, the members of Echolyn returned with a brand new collection of 10 songs and their first studio album in over four years, titled “Cowboy Poems Free.” The band lineup featured original members Buzby, Kull, Ramsey, and Weston, alongside new drummer and percussionist Jordan Perlson, a student of Buzby’s from Abington Friends School, who had recently graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Echolyn played two live shows in support of “Cowboy Poems Free,” especially the NEARfest pre-show in 2000 and a Theater of the Living Arts show in support of Transatlantic.
Echolyn returned to the studio after the summer of 2000 to begin painstaking work on their album titled “Mei” that was released in June of 2002. The album featured several guest musicians on timpani, marimba, vibraphone, clarinet, flute, violin and cello, and clocking in at just under 50 minutes in length, “Mei” is as close as Echolyn has ever come to writing a modern symphonic tone poem.
Following the success of “Mei,” Echolyn decided to take the live show on the road for a few shows in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Canada and Boston.
The album “A Little Nonsense: Now And Then” was released in December of 2002. The boxed set included the entire re-masters of Echolyn’s debut album, “…And Every Blossom” and “When The Sweet Turns Sour”.
Following the release of “A Little Nonsense: Now And Then” Echolyn released an official live bootleg album…The Jersey Tomato. Released as a 2-CD limited-edition pressing, it sold out before the actual CDs and jewel cases were even ready for shipping. The collection included 13 live Echolyn tunes, and a powerful, complete version of “Mei” without the chamber orchestra. This release was recorded at a show Echolyn performed at The Jersey Prog House in September of 2002.
During 2003 the band played live shows in Maryland, Quebec, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, the latter being filmed for a DVD release. In 2004, production took place on “Stars and Gardens”, containing film footage of live Echolyn from the previous year plus a video documentary covering the band’s entire career.
In 2005, Echolyn completed and released “The End Is Beautiful, which was followed immediately by the band’s first-ever European tour in early September, 2005.
In the winter of 2012, Ecolyn released the double-CD titled, like their debut album, Echolyn.
Echolyn in 2012 included Christopher Buzby on keyboards, backing vocals; Thomas Hyatt on bass, backing vocals; Brett Kull on guitars, lead and backing vocals; Paul Ramsey on drums and percussion, backing vocals; Raymond Weston on bass, lead and backing vocals.
Discography:
Echolyn (1991)
Suffocating the Bloom (Bridge Records, 1992)
…And Every Blossom (1993)
As the World (Sony Music, 1995)
When the Sweet Turns Sour (Cyclops, 1996)
Cowboy Poems Free (Velveteen Records, 2000)
Mei (Velveteen Records, 2002)
A Little Nonsense (Now and Then) (2002)
Progfest ’94 (the Official Bootleg) (2002) (released for trading among fans)
Jersey Tomato, Volume 2 (Live at the Metlar-Bodine Museum) (2004)
The End Is Beautiful (Velveteen Records, 2005)
Echolyn (2012)
I Heard You Listening (2015)
Videos
Stars and Gardens, Volume 4 DVD (2004)