The following musicians are responsible for "T.Q.O.T.A." and confirmed as artists, respectively:
T.B.

Thorsten Bartel

 foto: © H. Kaldenhoff 2008

Thorsten Bartel is one of the two masterminds of the 'T.Q.O.T.A.'-project. His musical background is settled in the area of Blues-/ Hard-Rock, over the years the path led him to Heavy-/ Progressive-Metal. Since then, he has been inspired by concept-songs as Fates Warning's 'The Ivory Gate Of Dreams', Dream Theater's 'A Change Of Seasons' or Symphony X's 'The Divine Wings Of Tragedy' and even complete concept-albums as Queensryche's 'Operation Mindcrime', Dream Theater's 'Scenes From A Memory' or Ayreon's 'The Human Equation' to name only a few. After the failed attempt to establish 'T.Q.O.T.A.' with his last band he decided to preferentially search for motivated, ambitious and qualified (semi-)professional musicians, especially singers, via the internet.

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F.B.

Francis Brown

 The other mastermind behind 'T.Q.O.T.A.', Francis Brown, is not only an outstanding artist in terms of acting and drawing but also a great musician. He actually set the ball rolling by composing all the lyrics to this project. According to the underlying idea, he doesn't simply renarrate the legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece but he leaves it to the different characters to tell the whole story from their subjective points of view.

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D.U.

Dennis Urbanski

 Dennis Urbanski is one of three persons who was involved in this project from the beginning. In this context, it's mainly due to him that the recordings for "T.Q.O.T.A." can be accomplished in a satisfactory setting. That's not only because he's the main owner of the "Urban Skies" project studio (together with Thorsten Bartel), where among other things the complete recording and mixing is done. Furthermore, he's responsible for the latter as well. Due to this along with his fair comments makes him a supporting pillar of the project.

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O.G.

Oliver Gärtner

 The very talented singer from Monheim is obviously very enthusiastic about music considering the list of different projects / bands he's participating in. He caught Thorsten Bartel's attention with songs placed on the internet. However, these samples only provide a glimpse of his skills but do not put them into the right light. He really elated the incorporators of "T.Q.O.T.A." at the first recording session where he underlined his creativity and technical skills.

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M.Z.

Melanie Zink

 The mezzo-soprano from Duisburg exhibits a perennial vocal-training in classic and jazz. Her repertoire reaches from opera aries via chansons to pop/rock-songs, where she attracts everyone with her full, warm voice especially in the low registers. She describes her own voice as "sandy" while one of her teachers used to compare her voice to a cello.

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J.P.

Jörg Piron

 Jörg Piron is the icing on the cake of all the contributing vocal artists. After he made his first experiences as a singer (sundry rock-, hard rock- and heavy metal-bands) as well as an actor at the Landestheater Detmold, he started a classical vocal training. In addition to provide his skills for several bands and recording projects, he was the singer and songwriter of the progressive metal band "Mind Masque" (1994-2001, approx. 2000 copies of their debut cd has been sold) and the interpreter of a musical song ("Gethsemane" from Jesus Christ Superstar, 1996), respectively. Since 2001, Jörg Piron is a member of the musical ensemble "Movie and Motion" (www.movieandmotion.de), where he participated in sundry CD- and DVD-productions as singer and actor. The latest CD-release of this ensemble from July 2008 is entitled "Musical-Fieber. Movie & Motion In Concert!". In August 2007, Jörg Piron released an unplugged solo-CD entitled "This Is The Moment", where he provides an overview of his skills by interpreting musical hits, classic rock-tunes as well as self-written songs.

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R.P.

Regina Pfau

 "rock music is my life" - this could be the slogan of Regina Pfau from Dinslaken. In fact, everything seems to be influenced by her enthusiasm about music which is most obviously reflected by her overall style. And even her two kids take part in her passion. She sang in lot of bands and gains experience on stage and in the studio. What's really astonishing about her voice is the incredible diversity: no matter if something smooth, ballad-like, rock sounding, heavy, rough is desired in low or high registers, Regina will hit the nail on the head.

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D.F.

Daniel Fischer

 In 1998, Daniel Fischer did his first steps in the metal scene of the Ruhrgebiet with his band "Eden’s Crying". His creative mind was exemplified by the fact, that he played guitar and did the vocals. And if that wasn't enough, he was responsible for the songwriting, too. After the split of "Eden's Crying" in 2006 and his move to Hamm he continued singing for different musical projects which offered a great variety of styles. His exceptional style of singing makes Daniel Fischer a perfect member for the "T.Q.O.T.A."-project in terms of providing a distinctive voice and thus even more contrast.

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C.S.

Christian Schäfer

 In the 1980s, Christian Schäfer started his musical career with Southern Rock ŕ la Lynyrd Skynyrd (alias Lynard Skynard). Since then, he worked together with bands of different styles like folk, jazz and cover-rock. Finally, he joined a german-rock band whose members were searching for a singer in order to accomplish a CD production. Due to the fact that the album was no great success the band regrettably split. However, Christian Schäfer teamed up with the former drummer of this band an founded the new formation "Jabba". After a long break Christian is back in business and now the singer of "One", a cover band from Krefeld.

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R.G.

René Gärtner

 How odd: Two of the project's musicians share the same family name. Not really! René is in fact Oliver's brother. The latter advised Thorsten Bartel of René and thus, an .mp3-file of a guitar solo part immediately found its way into his in-box. What came back in return after a short while let the masterminds of the project conclude, that René Gärtner has to contribute to "T.Q.O.T.A." in any case.

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Andre Neumann

 The contact to Andre Neumann was arranged by Daniel Fischer. As he realized that there are guitarists among the "Argonauts" he directly asked if there's more need for such musicians. Hereupon, it went like this: an email with a rough mix of the solo part was created

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C.G.

Chris Grundmann

 Of course, a project like "T.Q.O.T.A." can't be without a competent keyboarder. And again, Daniel Fischer is the one who was able to pull one out of the hat. After the contact has been made, Chris Grundman simply took one of the preliminary song samples and added some keyboard tracks. Doubled tapping sequences, tempo changes, orchestral interludes, a stunning solo -- in short: the result was delighting. We're really excited about our new member.

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J.L.

Joe Lemke

 After we decided to search for real drummers we once again found someone real quickly - Joe Lemke from Düsseldorf was the first to take part in a recording session at our studio. In spite of some adversities concerning our edrum kit, Joe was able to improve the drum tracks in comparison to the programmed versions in terms of dynamics, authenticity, technique, variety - in summary: a greater humanize factor!

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