The band’s demo CD contains three songs: ‘Designer Drugs’, ‘Vultures’ and ‘River Of Hope’. A full length CD is in the works, scheduled tentatively for release in the winter of 2004, to be comprised of some of the 17 songs already written and a few yet to be ‘born’. The band’s overall sound can be described as progressive rock, but also includes some modern day influences. The songs are an intricate balance of guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion and vocals; most also including sonic ‘snippets’ of real world sounds and sound FX that bring an extra-dimensional quality to the listening experience, both as recorded and as part of the live performance. INITIATION has played various venues in the WNY area including CPG’s (Central Park Grill), The Backstage Pub, Broadway Joe’s, Nietzsche’s, Rock & Roll Heaven, and the festival grounds at the Pier, as well as opening for national recording artists Planet X at the Reservoir. The band is able to perform a full concert show (1 or 2 long sets) consisting of almost all original material, supplemented with a few ‘lost classic’ surprise covers, or a show more geared towards covering progressive bands such as Genesis, Rush, Marillion, Yes and Pink Floyd. Mark Partyka has released 3 independent recordings of his own prior to the formation of INITIATION under the monikers TIDAL WAVE and DARK MARKUS. Having a great penchant for arranging, recording and playing various instruments, Mark crosses the lines between the depths of darkness and sheer beauty in his compositions.
John Gilbert has played keyboards and synthesizers in the bands AQUA MARIA, THE MOMENT and PLEAIDES (who released a CD in 1998). John likes to entice the listener and take them on a journey of discovery, joy and fun. Creativity and expression are a great outlet and with INITIATION this process is always a great ride for John. Jeff Jankowski joined INITIATION as a mainstay after the band’s lineup had fluctuated with a few other drummers. Jeff has played with various bands, most notably MR. WONDERFUL SURPRISE; a ska driven band that performed mostly original material and released a full length CD in 1997. Jeff’s original and fresh approach to drums and percussion express a desire to make the ‘song’ the most important entity, and makes a perfect fit with the writing in INITIATION.
Recent addition Ric Stave has performed in original, cover and tribute bands around the WNY area since 1986, and is most well known as a founding member of wünderland (1990-2002). Returning to Buffalo after studying arranging, compostion and performance at Berklee College Of Music, Ric has lent his skills on bass, guitar, synthesizers and vocals not only as a ‘hired gun’ to bands in need of a temporary member, but also as a pit orchestra musician for many local theatrical productions. His songwriting and performance abilities bring an additional perspective to the complex musical style of INITIATION.
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011 EAC extraction logfile from 3. November 2014, 1:24 Initiation / Initiation Used drive : TEAC CD-W516EB Adapter: 0 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 685 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Used output format : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s Quality : High Add ID3 tag : Yes Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\FLAC_1.3.0\flac.exe Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest% TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 5:21.70 | 0 | 24144 2 | 5:21.70 | 3:30.50 | 24145 | 39944 3 | 8:52.45 | 3:46.66 | 39945 | 56960 4 | 12:39.36 | 3:28.56 | 56961 | 72616 5 | 16:08.17 | 8:07.73 | 72617 | 109214 6 | 24:16.15 | 12:36.73 | 109215 | 165987 7 | 36:53.13 | 3:56.70 | 165988 | 183757 Range status and errors Selected range Filename Y:\EAC\wurensh\Initiation\Initiation - Initiation.wav Peak level 100.0 % Extraction speed 7.2 X Range quality 100.0 % Test CRC 561ABBD7 Copy CRC 561ABBD7 Copy OK No errors occurred AccurateRip summary Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F8F0CDA3] (AR v2) Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [3D58A14C] (AR v2) Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [697C9D00] (AR v2) Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [92628E56] (AR v2) Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [C4DEF7C1] (AR v2) Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [09E3D33B] (AR v2) Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [9FA99287] (AR v2) All tracks accurately ripped End of status report ==== Log checksum F8E4B98C2B746F0C63FFAC1E2D51B5C8F91133A36CE8D9BC1A538AD99C8DF3DB ====
REM GENRE "Progressive Rock" REM DATE 2003 REM DISCID 50099207 REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b3" PERFORMER "Initiation" TITLE "Initiation" FILE "Initiation - Initiation.flac" WAVE TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Disigner Drugs" PERFORMER "Initiation" FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "Seasons Change" PERFORMER "Initiation" FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 05:21:70 TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "Vultures" PERFORMER "Initiation" FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 08:52:45 TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Hyperbaric Flames" PERFORMER "Initiation" FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 12:39:36 TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "Don't Go Near the Water" PERFORMER "Initiation" FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 16:08:17 TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Crystal Beach" PERFORMER "Initiation" FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 24:16:15 TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "Lady of Whitehead" PERFORMER "Initiation" FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 36:53:13
