The project
The Gentle Storm’s Project is a double album in partnership with Arjen Lucassen, Ayreon’s project mentor. The albums will contain songs made in rock/metal and acoustic versions/folk.
"The album concept is a tale of love, loss, and separation told through the story of two fictional seventeenth-century lovers. A Dutch sailor embarks on a two-year voyage, leaving his wife at home in Holland. The only way for the couple to communicate and keep their love alive during the long separation is through letters. These letters form the basis for the songs on the album.".¹
Anneke and Arjen already knew each other from previous works, when the singer participated on albuns Into the Castle and 01011001 from Ayreon.
"Arjen stands when he works in his studio, and Rob (Snijders/drums, husband) is a big fan of The Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who also stands at his desk when he works in the studio. Rob sent Arjen a picture of that just for fun, but this put us in contact with him again and I mentioned that I would love to make an album with Arjen. Rob told him that, and Arjen had been considering what his next project was going to be, so it was like ‘Let’s do it!".²
In a few days after this contact, which occurred in mid-2013, the work already begins.
"It went really fast from that point. Within a few days he had the first song, which will be the first song on the album (The Diary). Arjen asked me to put some vocals down on it just to see where we were going with this, and I think he wrote something like 10 songs in five minutes after that (laughs). Seriously though, within a few weeks he was completely done with his composing. From there we came up with this huge concept of having this double album with the metal and the folk parts. The folk stuff is turning out to be surprsingly good, but both parts are equally important". ²
Anneke, by the way, makes a point of showing how much she enjoys working with Arjen:
"Arjen is great to work with because he’s so focused and so dedicated,” Anneke adds. “It’s wonderful to work with somebody who’s not distracted by anything and doesn’t have an ego. And he works really fast, which is great for such a massive thing. Some people will worry for two days about the proper snare drum sound, and Arjen just gets things done. I love that about Devin as well; they both work fast and know exactly what they want. I sing what they want, although I have more input with Arjen".²
Story details
The booklet The Diary tells us more details about the concept of the album³:
SPOILERS
The album describes the lives of Joseph Warwijck (born in Amsterdam in 1644) and Susanne Vermeer (born in Delft in 1647). They were married in 1666, and lived in Lindengracht, Amsterdam. The story is set in the late 1600's during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th Century, when the Dutch sailed to many far regions of the world; trading gold, silver, and goods with many other territories. Joseph was a young officer serving with the VOC (Verenigde Oost-In-dische Compagnie), or also called the Dutch East India Company.
On December 20th, 1666 Joseph leaves for the island of Texel to await the departure of the VOC ship, Merchant. He departs on his two-and-a-half-year journey on December 26th, 1666. Susanne begins writing letters to him, order to make Joseph's long journey more bearable. Not long after; on February 1st, 1667, Susanne discovers she is pregnant and instantly writes Joseph to tell him of the news. Susanne gives birth to their son Michiel on September 20th, 1667, and then writes Joseph again a few days later to tell him of their son's birth. After sending her letters to Joseph, informing him of their son's birth, Susanne receives a letter from Joseph that he had written five months earlier, letting her know that he is safe and that he is soon departing for Batavia, and then India, soon after. Susanne's first letters arrive to Joseph in mid-February 1668, in Batavia, just before he sails to India. He is overjoyed with the news of learning he will be a father. However, the first ship leaving Batavia, going back to Holland to deliver mail, does not depart until December of 1668, so he is unable to send a response to Susanne.
From February until August of 1668, Joseph makes his journey to India. It was a most dangerous trip since they had many encounters with British ships, who were Holland's biggest rivals and competitors at the time, and were in a state of war. By this time the war was over, but news of the end of the war had not reached the territories of India just yet. He describes these events in a letter to Susanne, which she is excited to receive, knowing that Joseph is safe.
Back in Amsterdam, several months earlier in March of 1668, Susanne learns she has an illness. Their son, Michiel is now six months old. It was in April of 1668, Susanne sends another letter to Joseph, hinting at her illness, and hoping for him to return home. After returning from India, Joseph finally receives Susanne's earlier letters in September of 1668, which had arrived in Batavia during June and July, a couple of months earlier. As of November 1668, Susanne still has not received any further letters from Joseph and is increasingly worried about him, and decides to write him another letter describing her illness and hopes he is on his way home. Still unaware of Susanne's condition, Joseph departs from Batavia on December 14th, 1668, to return home to Amsterdam. As he reaches the Cap of Good Hope in Africa, in March of 1669, he receives more of Susanne's earlier letters. He is still unaware of her illness and continues his journey home.
On May 7th, 1669, Susanne dies in Amsterdam and is buried by her family a couple of days later. Two months later; on July 1st, 1669, Joseph finally arrives back at his house in Lindengracht, only to learn of Susanne's death, and is able to meet his son Michiel for the first time, who is now almost 2 years old. Joseph finds Susanne's diary containing many entries while he was on his journey, describing many of her thoughts and feelings as well as many other things she wanted to share with him while he was away. He finds more letters she had written between the diary's pages and then realizes her words and their son, Michiel, is all he has left of Susanne. Joseph then places her letters within the pages of the diary and keeps them safe so they may be passed on to Michiel. The very next day, after returning home, Joseph visits Susanne's grave with Michiel. The next year, in 1680, Joseph becomes Captain of the VOC ship Merel (The Blackbird). He then departs the island of Texel for another voyage with Michiel accompanying him.
Present Day - Joseph and Susanne's diaries and letters were handed down as family heirlooms from generation to generation. Although, at some point during the early 1800's their importance went unnoticed. They were eventually stored in a wooden chest and placed in the attic of the family estate. There they remained until they were discovered again in the early 21st century.
¹ Anneke on her Newsletter in the end of 2014.
² Anneke to Carl Begai, 2014.
³ Booklet of The Diary.
