New Musicians Welcomed!
Appologies for the occasional long delays between posts. To read more about the reasons for those, visit Stratos leader Dean De Benedictis's Facebook pages online.
The Good News:
We are happy to announce that we recently took on a new circulating bass player in the band, Doug Lunn. Doug is a veteran progressive rock, fusion and jazz player who is world renowned and plays with heavy hitters like Mark Isham, Andy Summers, the Police, Chad Wakerman and far far more. It's no exaguration when we say that on a regular basis, Doug plays with some of the greatest musicians and musical minds in the world, so it's extremely flattering that he would be excited to be a member of the Stratos Ensemble.
We had our first session with Doug last week, and it came out stupendous. Most notibly, it was surreal finally getting new-comer drummer Coco Roussel, from progressive band Happy The Man, and new bassist Doug Lunn, from bands like The Fire Murchants, playing together at the same session. That session just happened to be for the Stratos Ensemble, and both players sunk their progressive teeth in. It was quite a full-circle moment. The best news is that it was professionally recorded!
We will actually be mixing and posting that entire live set online, on Youtube, for everyone to access and check out very soon. If you like fusion, ambient music and spacerock, you definitely won't be dissapointed by this recording. Stay posted here and on Dean's Facebook pages for announcements on that live set going online soon.
To better get-to-know Doug Lunn's playing, and his career, here are a couple of Youtube links highlighting what we consider some of his best filmed moments...
With Mark Isham
With The Firemerchants