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.