Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon, Star One, Guilt Machine) & Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering, Devin Townsend Project) have joined forces for new bandThe Gentle Storm,and they are extremely pleased to announce their debut album'The Diary'will be released23rd March 2015in Europe.
They are also pleased to announce that in advance of The Gentle Storm full band shows, Arjen will join Anneke for a select few European live acoustic dates in what will be quite a rare and special occasion.

Anneke had this to say:
"I'm very excited that Arjen has agreed to join me for these acoustic shows. I will play a solo set and halfway through the show Arjen will join me on stage. We'll perform some Ayreon classics together and premiere a couple of songs that will be on our upcoming The Gentle Storm album. This will be a unique opportunity to catch us performing together and I look forward to sharing the stage with Arjen a lot!"

As previously mentioned, a full all-star band will go out without Arjen in March and April, and the confirmed dates and band line-up can be found below. Anneke comments:
"Since Arjen won't be joining me during the full band tours (besides a special appearance in Amsterdam), I will take The Gentle Storm on the road backed by some well-known Dutch talents. I've unintentionally formed a supergroup with some of the best musicians the Dutch heavy music scene has to offer, including the amazingly talented Marcela Bovio on additional vocals."

26/3/15Melkweg, Amsterdam ' Netherlands
28/3/15ROCK Ittervoort Festival, Ittervoort ' Netherlands
3/4/15Hedon, Zwolle ' Netherlands
3-5/4/15 Paaspop Festival, Schihndel ' Netherlands
11/4/15Paard van Troje, Den Haag ' Netherlands
22/4/15Divan Du Monde, Paris ' France
23/4/15The Garage, London ' UK
24/4/15The Musician, Leicester ' UK
25/4/15The Roadhouse, Manchester ' UK
26/4/15Prog-résiste Convention Festival, Soignies ' Belgium

THE GENTLE STORMonline:
www.facebook.com/TheGentleStorm/
www.twitter.com/gentlestormband