Musicians

Kristian Niemann: Acoustic guitar, Solo and rhythm electric guitars, Mandolin
Johan Niemann: Bass, Mandolin
Christofer Johnsson: Guitar, Lead vocals, Keyboards, Mandolin
Richard Evensand: Drums, Gong
Piotr Wawrzeniuk: Lead vocals
Steen Rasmussen: Mellotron, Hammond organ
Lars Sømod Jensen: Church organ
Mats Levén: Lead vocals
Jens Nyborg: Prima Balalaika 1, Prima Domra, Alto Domra
Sven Lindblad: Prima Balalaika 2
Kavi Björkqvist: Prima Balalaika 3
Peter Mossman: Narrator
The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
Bohumil Kotmel
František Šilar
Lucie Švehlová
Tomáš Barinka
Libor Kanka
Jan Dudek
Jirka Škoda
Ludmila Mrácková
Roman Konecný
Richard Valášek
Miroslav Štépán
Emanuel Ranný
Ludvík Sklenár
Šárka Drancáková
Jan Vlcek
Jan Dramota
Jolana Mazalová
Filip Himmer
Pavel Kutman
Pavel Kržanovský
Jirí Kohoutek
Markéta Kohoutová
Marie Duorská
Vlastimil Zeman
Josef Uycmytil
Martin Kalista
Ladislava Michálková
Petr Štajner
Zoenék Zindel
Petr Klas
Jana Šislerová
Jan Stippl
Véra Binarová
Jan Kratina
Milan Soucek
Marina Martincová
Irena Stránská
Václav Benda
Miloš Vávra
Radek Schorovský
Milada Strašilová
Radek Širc
Petr Malíšek
Jirí Prímoda
David Havelík
Olga Bílková
Jirí Císar
Stanislav Zoul
Jan Razák
Robin Marek
Jan Dudek
Martin Císar
Rudolf Andrš
Jindra Schulmmann
Radomír Pivoda
Václav Sýkora
Jitka Tomšícková
Ivan Orcígr
Lukáš Korínek
Svatopluk Cech
Jaroslava Eliásová
Jirí Lisý
Petr Duda
Miroslav Kubícek
Lubomír Krystlík
Petra Cermáková
František Pok
Tomáš Secký
Jaroslav Secký
Jirí Lisý
Miroslav Kubícek
František Pok
Jaroslav Secký
Aleš Vopelka
František Fejgi
Jirí Odcmárel
Jirí Lisý
Miroslav Kubícek
František Pok
Jaroslav Secký
Petra Erlebachová
Miroslava Dámlová
Pavlína Plechatová
Ružena Hejná
Markéta Lajnerová
Slavéna Drášilová
Ilona Vzskocilová
Jitka Hurtíková
Milena Holecková
Dana Langerová
Lenka Pecharová
Hana Cervenková
Jana Šulcová
Renata Váchová
Jana Veverková
Bára Kubátová
Véra Pcibylová
Blanka Léblová
Ivana Francánová
Veronika Šindelová
Zdenka Gailová
Daniela Filová
Marie Doležalová
Ružena Pelcová
Eva Kroftová
Marie Jakoubková
Zdenka Fišerová
Eva Walterová
Karolina Vocadlová
Jana Drábková
Martina Straková
Lenka Kucelová
Veronika Tichá
Eva Zbytovská
Dana Mikulejská
Szlva Šrámková
Zdenék Vykopal
Petr Jindra
Zdenék Mašek
Jaroslav Tománek
Vladimír Rozkošný
Zbynék Valenta
Jirí Skála
Marek Vorlícek
|van Diblík
Ivan Loula
Tomáš Mikulecký
Vladimár Nacházel
Jirí Los
Jirí Dolejší
Milan Dobiáš
Vladimír Štumpf
František Krupala
Jaromír Bélor
Martin Stolbenko
Jan Kratina
Petr Pribyl
Rudolf Hesvadba
Petr Tomés
Bohuslav Rattay
Karel Zochr
Jirí Hannsmann
Luboš Klancík
Milan Kottas
Michael Mergl
Pavel Mesany
František Mizerovský
Jan Moravel
Jirí Uherek
Classical soloists
Jitka Tomšícková: Solo oboe
Petra Cermáková: Solo horn
Comments from Chris

Right after Deggial I had ideas for a new album, but one day I woke up and felt I needed to make a Nordic concept album for some reason. Secret of the Runes was then written more or less in 2 months; however, the 7-8 songs for this original follow-up to Deggial were put on ice for the time being.

After finishing the world tour for Secret of the Runes, making Live in Midgård, recording a Demonoid album, and having a small vacation, those 7-8 songs had grown to 55 songs and pieces that could be developed into songs. This was partly due to my own productiveness and also because Kristian had become well synchronized with his song writing, delivering both complete songs and parts that I could put together with my ideas into songs (and the other way around too) – not to forget Johan, who had also written a bunch of songs.

We went through the songs and realized that we had enough good material for three albums. Recording one after the other, promoting, and touring each one separately would have taken several years and would have been a bad idea; and being so productive, we would have had another 55 songs waiting when we finally came to the end of it.

Recording all three at once would have been too much work on our shoulders, so we made a compromise and recorded two at once for a simultaneous release and saved songs for the third one. The way of dividing the songs was to take the more progressive songs for the future third album, the songs that were more straightforward and heavy metal inspired to Sirius B, and then the rest were put on Lemuria (thus making it the most diverse of these 3 albums). However, after recording the two albums we swapped a few of the songs between the albums, which made them slightly more similar to each other but also more varied in themselves.

These albums had 171 people participating in the recordings and the huge orchestra and choir were very different sounding compared to the more close and intimate sound created on the previous album, Secret of the Runes.

Other Info

All drums, bass, guitars, balalaikas, domras, mandolins, rock/metal vocals and most of the opera soloists were recorded at the Modern Art Studio, Stockholm (April-July and September 2003). Engineered by Sami Karppinen. Assistance engineering by Kristian Niemann.
Orchestra, choir and additional opera soloists were recorded at Smecky Studio, Prague, Czech Republic during September 2003. Egineered by Jan Holzner. Assistants: Michael Hradisky and Zdenék Pekarék.
The mixing and the recordings of hammond organs, mellotrone and narration were done during September/October 2004 at Sun Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark. Engineering and mixing by Lars Nissen. Assistance engineering by Andreas Hviid.
Produced by Therion and Lars Nissen.
All classical and choral arrangements by Christofer Johnsson.
Cover and layout by Thomas Ewerhard.
Orchestra was recorded with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (see individual credits above) and was conducted by Adam and Mario Klemens.
The choir was recorded with the Kühn Mixed Choir (see individual credits above) and was conducted by Mario Klemens.