4FRONT is the band that is taking progressive rock and fusion into the future. An instrumental rock band that combines top-notch playing, cinematic arrangements, and symphonic flourishes into melody-oriented songs, 4Front is accessible to any fan of popular music - not strictly the typical audience of instrumental music. Fans of Rush, Thomas Dolby, Dream Theater, Genesis, Billy Joel, The Police, Joe Jackson, The Dixie Dregs, Joe Satriani, Return To Forever, and Mahavishnu Orchestra will find familiar elements here - as will fans of film composers like John Williams, Alan Silvestri and Randy Newman. The band's third release, "Radio Waves Goodbye," as well as previous releases, are available at www.joebergamini.com/specrecords.

4FRONT has performed live with Kansas, Marillion, and Saga. Originally a trio, 4FRONT has expanded to a 6-man live lineup to duplicate the lush arrangements found on the albums. The band, featuring Zak Rizvi (guitar), Joe Bergamini (drums), Frank LaPlaca (bass), Jimmy Wilgus (keyboards), Karl Kessler (violin), and Rich Haddad (guitar) also performs regularly in the New York area.

Zak Rizvi and Joe Bergamini also work together in the USA's #1 Rush tribute band, POWER WINDOWS. Drummers can check out Joe's new book, “Classic Tracks,” published by Modern Drummer (for whom Joe also writes a regular column, Rock Charts). Further information about 4FRONT can be found at www.joebergamini.com. Check the schedule page on Joe's site for upcoming shows.

• 4FRONT CD CATALOG.
  
• CLICK HERE FOR GIG DATES.
  
• 4FRONT LIVE PHOTOS.
  
• INTERVIEW WITH 4FRONT at Proglands.com.
  

NOTES ON THE MAKING OF RADIO WAVES GOODBYE

FROM ZAK RIZVI:
About the process: About a year after the release of our last record "Gravity", I had a conversation one day with Joe Bergamini who told me that he had a potential title for our next album. I had been working on some new material at the time as well as reworking some older ideas, and Joe's title, "Radio Waves Goodbye", seemed to perfectly fit the mood of these new songs. I immediately became excited about this direction for the record; suddenly my creative juices were flowing, and a few months later the album's first six tracks, as well as the last two, were complete. At this point Joe and I began a series of informal jam sessions with bassist Frank LaPlaca, which to our delight, yielded three new songs: "Fuse", "Learning to Crawl", and "747". A twelfth song, "Sonata Café", an homage to director Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut", was dropped at the last minute (look for it on a future album), only to be replaced with another affectionate homage: "Memories of Kansas". The album was recorded over the course of about a year at my own New Jersey recording studio, The Den, and features guest performances by many terrific musicians (and good friends), including keyboardist Jimmy Wilgus, saxophonist Bob Magnuson, violinist Karl Kessler, and percussionists Tom Mulvaney and Steve Kelly. Once mixing was completed in late December 2001, we entered the post production phase; Joe began finishing up the album artwork while I worked on the CD mastering, the two of us frequently consulting with one another. The album was officially released on February 1st 2002 amidst many sighs of relief, and the rest is, well, not quite history.

About the songs: I'm a fanatical film lover and was determined to express that obsession more clearly on this record than on the past two. The album's first six tracks were conceived and arranged as a side long piece, a "little movie" if you will, and are intended to be listened through in a single sitting. For years I'd wanted to remake David Bowie classic "Space Oddity" in a distinctly cinematic style, the idea being to create an immersive sonic experience for the listener that directly reflects the lyric, both musically and atmospherically. A fictional backstory for the Major Tom character then served as the framework and impetus for the album's first four songs, and "Burial at Sea" became the epilogue, or unhappy ending (as I like to think of it). The big riffs of the next three tracks were contributed by bassist Frank LaPlaca, and (with some solid input from the rest of us and lots of coffee) helped steer the album in some unexpected directions, touching on swing, ska, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and the blues! "Memories of Kansas", the last song to be written, is my personal homage to the music of Kansas and to the eye-opening experience of being exposed to their influences as a teenager. Both "Descent" and "Radio Waves Goodbye" are drastic rewrites of older songs, and hopefully bring the album to a logical and somewhat sentimental conclusion. I certainly hope our listeners enjoy the material as much we enjoyed creating it, and remember: when in doubt, forget all the talk and just listen. After all, the best and most liberating thing about instrumental music is being able to draw one's own conclusions about what it all might mean.

Special thanks to Tom Runkel for the photos on this page.