Singer-songwriter Marc Atkinson, lead singer of Riversea among others, announces his fifth solo album “Home Grown”. Recorded at his home studio in Cumbria, he plays all instruments, including some lead guitar.

He’s written a lengthy blog post describing the process of writing and recording, and the album is available to pre-order now from Marc Atkinson’s website.

Unfortunately, as announced on the band’s Facebook page, Riversea’s Marc Atkinson is withdrawing from the project because of time commitments.

“It’s with a heavy heart that I had to bow out of my position as lead vocalist for GHOST COMMUNITY. When I first got involved with the project I was expecting it more to be an ‘album based/recording’ outfit rather than a band that was going to be gigging too heavily so I thought I’d be able to juggle the recording work and a few gigs here and there with my already busy and booked solo acoustic live work. As time went on, however, I began to realise that I wouldn’t be able to play as many live shows as the rest of the guys were hoping to perform. I knew that if I stayed with the project I’d eventually be in a position where I’d be letting the rest of the band down and holding them back as far as live work was concerned. So I decided it was in the band’s best interest if I pulled out of the project before we got any further down the creative route. I hope to be still involved with the band in a smaller capacity by helping out with backing vocals for the album and I’m also pleased to hear the group will be hopefully using a few of the vocal melodies I wrote during the initial song writing sessions. I greatly enjoyed my brief time working with the guys in GHOST COMMUNITY and wish them nothing but success for the future… We’re all in this together…”

His replacement will be John Paul Vaughan, who had previously worked with Matt Cohen in the 1990s in a band called Unbroken Spirit.

A short promo for Riversea vocalist Marc Atkinson’s acoustic solo album “Light and Shade”. It’s available for pre-order now, from Marc’s all-new website at http://marcatkinsonmusic.co.uk/

OUT OF AN ANCIENT WORLD is the debut album from Riversea, the band is the nucleus of Marc Atkinson (vocals/acoustic guitar) and Brendan Eyre (piano/synths), however Marc & Brendan are joined on the album by Alex Cromarty (The Heather Findlay Band) on drums,with guitar duties spread between Bryan Josh, Liam Davison (Mostly Autumn), Paul Cusick, Adrian Jones (Nine Stones Close), Mark Rowen (ex Breathing Space), Adam Dawson (Stolen Earth), and Ashley Mulford (Sad Cafe,Mandalaband). Bass duties are performed by Dave Clements, and backing vocals provided by Olivia Sparnenn (Mostly Autumn), Janine Benn and Louise Dawson, last but not least,Tony Patterson (Regenesis/So Gabriel) adds flute.

The album had been so long in the making I almost wonder if the title is an allusion to how long ago Marc and Brendan started out! The list of guest musicians reads like a who’s who of the rather incestuous York prog scene, including no less than four different people who had played lead guitar for Breathing Space.

Anyway, here’s a taster from the album, the song “Eden”: