Some of you may have heard rumors that Prometheus Music has been working
to reprint Phoenyx's album, Keepers of the Flame. The rumors are true,
but the reprint effort regrettably was not successful.
Over the last four years our attorney (Jim Partridge) and I have spent
many hours working out an agreement with the former Phoenyx band members for
a reprint of this ground-breaking album. Having recorded nearly every artist
on the album over the years, I know them all to be good people, and was
saddened that this in-demand work was out-of-print (and selling for hundreds
of dollars on eBay) while many of them still struggle financially as
independent musicians.
The project would have been re-mastered and a surround-sound bonus remix
of Voices of the Sea was offered by original engineer Larry the O.
Prometheus offered to pay all project expenses (estimated at about $5,000)
and only receive a small share of profits from any successive print run,
in order to allow this project to come to fruition.
Regrettably, although we found terms acceptable to most of the band
members — Mark Ungar, Cat Taylor, John Land, and Larry the O — we were
unable to obtain unanimous agreement. I'm saddened, but also must respect
each individual to make appropriate professional choices for their own
career — even if they're not always the ones that you or I would
have wished.
Unfortunately, It's become recently clear from statements made on behalf
of the fifth band member that there
isn't a path towards our achieving a Keepers
of the Flame reprint
in the future. We regret that we are no longer pursuing this effort.
To prevent rumors from circulating, I've written up what I feel to
be a detailed, factual, and respectful summary of what happened and what
didn't happen during this reprint effort, as well as what's possible going
forward with Keepers of the Flame.
You can find it at: http://egoldberg.livejournal.com/145895.html
Yours,
Eli Goldberg
Prometheus Music
(Seattle, Washington)