LIONVILLE is a brand new high profile project dedicated to pure AOR with a touch of Westcoast and Melodic Rock. The well crafted tunes and the detailed arrangements are drawing inspiration from acts like Toto, Richard Marx, Giant, Bad English, Survivor and Boulevard. The project was initiated by Stefano Lionetti, a song writer, singer and guitarist based in Genova, Italy and his brother Alessandro. After years of playing the local club circuit of Genova and the beautiful Ligurian coast, Stefano started LIONVILLE with the encouragement and help of Pierpaolo “Zorro” Monti (Shining Line) and Alessandro Del Vecchio (Edge Of Forever, Eden's Curse, Glenn Hughes), who produced the record and also plays keyboards and sings backing vocals. The two well connected musicians impressed Gregor Klee, Avenue Of Allies’ label manager, with a handful of Lionetti’s demos and starting from Stefano’s idea to enlist Lars Säfsund (Work Of Art, Enbound) as the lead vocalist, LIONVILLE quickly began to take shape and became a matter close to the heart of everyone involved. The recordings started in the fall of 2010 and were completed in the early spring of 2011 with a cast of top flight musicians and song writers participating in the sessions. Lars Säfsund (Work Of Art, Enbound) is handling the lead vocals, musicians include Bruce Gaitsch (Richard Marx, Chicago, Peter Cetera), Tommy Denander (Radioactive, Houston, Spin Gallery), Eric Mårtensson (W.E.T., Eclipse), Sven Larsson (Street Talk), Arabella Vitanc (Alyson Avenue), Pierpaolo “Zorro” Monti & Amos Monti of the Shining Line team, Mario Percudani (Hungryheart, Shining Line) as well as the in demand Italian players Anna Portalupi (Bobby Kimball, Steve Lukather, Skill In Veins) and Andrea Maddalone (Jon Anderson (Yes), Mick Fleetwood, Zucchero). Stefano Lionetti also takes over the lead vocals on three songs, including two duets with Lars, while he also introduces himself throughout the album as a gifted musician on lead and rhythm guitar.
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The core of the songs on the album were written by Stefano Lionetti, his song writing partners include Pierpaolo “Zorro” Monti, Robert Säll (Work Of Art), Lars Säfsund, Alessandro Del Vecchio and Tommy Denander. An exclusive track for the album comes from Bruce Gaitsch, who co-wrote the power ballad “World Without Your Love” with Richard Marx and Amy Sky (Robin Beck, Marc Jordan). The second outside contribution is the stormy “Thunder In Your Heart”, a track originally performed by John Farnham for the soundtrack of the 80s bike movie “RAD” and previously not available on Compact Disc or in digital format. The original compositions range from rockin’ AOR tunes like the opener “Here By My Side”, “Power Of My Dreams”, “Dreamhunter” and the forceful “The Chosen Ones”, a duet between Lars and Swedish female compatriot Arabella Vitanc, the new lady fronting Scandinavian Melodic Rockers Alyson Avenue, whose brand new third album “Changes” will hit the streets on the same date as the LIONVILLE debut. Lovers of the classic Westcoast AOR sound will certainly fall in love with “Centre Of My Universe” and “Over And Over Again” and dream away with the emotional acoustic based album closer “Say Goodbye”.