Iconoclassic Records

Critically acclaimed art-rock band Art in America returns with Rise, the long-awaited follow-up to its groundbreaking self-titled debut album. Rise follows years of anticipation and requests from fans for more music from a band that, upon their arrival, blazed new trails in the American progressive rock scene, and then simply vanished. Art in America was the first band to feature a concert harp as a main instrument in a rock band, and Rise takes full advantage of Shishonee Flynn’s Lyon & Healy pedal string harp as well as her introducing Indian tambura and Japanese koto into the new album. Rise picks up seamlessly where their first album left off. The group’s main songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Chris Flynn sings in the opening lines of “Don’t Look Down,” “It’s been a long time…there’s a lot to say,” and yes, it has been a long time, and the band helps him cut loose and speak his mind. The song “Goodbye My Love” was written prior to the sessions for the first album and heard here now for the first time. “No Wonder” continues the story and saga of the ill-fated couple “Brett & Hibby,” a track from the band’s debut album. Throughout the album’s nine tracks, which originated in 1983 as demos for what would have been the band’s second album, Rise goes from delicate, progressive landscapes to arena rock sound. In 2017 these rare recordings were transferred to digital format and then remixed and produced by the band’s bassist Jim Kuha. He describes the years-long project to produce the album as “a labor of love that stands on its own and not just a bookend to the first album.”