The CD comes in a clear jewel case along with a 16-page booklet that has pictures and bios of all the musicians (12) and project directors (2). The music was created by the musicians who live in various countries around the US and Europe. The mastering took place in the Netherlands and the printing/pressing took place in Belgium. The CD even contains a UPC for sales in retail stores (just in case).

The idea for the audiophonik CD really began back in 1996 about a year after I released the Freedom CD. I even came up with a company name--which remained dormant until audiophonik started to take shape earlier this year (1999).

Jeff Van Audenhove and myself (Dan Wright) discussed and originally planned this project back in November of 1996. Pricing, royalties, format, musicians wanted, and etc. were discussed. Unfortunately school and Jeff's Dream's CD-ROM commitments kept him from pursuing the "audiophonik" project until late in 1998.

Every now and then this audio CD project came up but it wasn't until late November 1998 that we had agreed upon a list of musicians. In the form letter we discussed the project, laid out the terms and timeline and requested a response from those interested.

Most of the musicians we contacted WERE interested in our project and agreed to contribute a song or two. However, not everyone responded immediately and enthusiastically. It often took a bit of involvement on our part to get everyone to contribute their music/pictures/bios. We figured we could gather all the songs/info and have a CD out within a couple months. As you may have noticed we were kidding ourselves.

For various reasons some musicians we had hoped would be on this compilation could not or did not want to contribute a song. Some of these musicians include Basehead, Wave, Mellow-D, Hunz, Skaven, and Purple Motion. We would like to say "next time" but there are currently no plans for a follow-up.

Jeff is the one who came up with the name audiophonik. And it was not until about six months into the project before we decided upon that name. In fact, while we are on the issue of time, I believe we missed every deadline we set for ourselves. The ironic of all of this is the CD arrived a week earlier than expected and caught us both unprepared for its release.

Sure, I'd call audiophonik a selfish act. My goal in all of this was to put together a compilation using my favorite musicians. Based on their prior history of composing music I trusted them in creating something that would match the desired ambient, soft-electronic format. So, my goal was to put together an audio CD "I" would enjoy listening to. I figured, if I could produce an album I enjoy, based on my taste of music, then I would be able to take that product and easily sell it to others.

But audiophonik was not a one-man project and it wasn't created solely to satisfy me alone. Jeff and myself directed this project and we both had our differences and strong opinions. Each of us had to make compromises along the way. We had to accept our handicaps and limitations and on occasion be a little less selfish. It was NOT an easy task. If you knew how much more difficult this made the project you'd probably be surprised there is a product.

I can't thank the musicians, artist and others enough for sticking by Jeff and especially myself. There were several occasions I said things to musicians that annoyed them. Call it tactless criticism if you want. Enough such that we almost lost a couple songs. Luckily we were able to straighten out those unfortunate situations.

A lot of other good scene audio CD compilations have been released by Kosmic, Scope Records, and TRSI Recordz. We hope you find audiophonik as worthy as the others which came before. We want to be more than just a "good" scene release. We want to be an excellent scene release as well as a worthy mainstream product.

Given the talent which exist in the scene I'm surprised by the small number audio CD releases that can be found. audiophonik will help fill that void but it is up to others to pick up the torch and bring what exist within this scene to the next level. I was really hoping someone else would have created a CD like audiophonik so I could simply send them my $11/$13 or so dollars and not have to deal with all the other crap that goes into producing something like this. Well, I waited and waited but nothing lived up to my expectations. Hopefully this CD will provide enough incentive to others and get them motivated into topping what we have done. All it takes is a little time and some money (or credit cards). Course, as with all good things your road to success will not be hassle free. Now is the best time to get started as there is too much sup par music being released these days and still a lot of talent present in what demo/music scene still exist.

As I've said above I am not going to make any promises about a follow-up CD. It really depends how this product is received IN and, most importantly, OUT of the computer demo/music scene. As far as I'm concerned, especially after all the hassle and stress I've been through, audiophonik is a one shot deal.