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Press kit: photos, facts and quotes

Short biography

Marek Arnold is a saxophonist, keyboardist, clarinettist, composer and producer from Saxony, Germany, and has long been a fixture of the international progressive rock and art rock scene. He has appeared on more than eighty albums, among them releases by seven steps to the green door, Toxic Smile, CYRIL, DAMANEK, United Progressive Fraternity and Flaming Row. He was a member of the East German art rock institution Stern Combo Meissen and records and performs as a duo with its current singer, Manuel Schmid. In 2023 he released his first solo album, „Marek Arnold’s Artrock Project“, made with more than fifty international guest musicians. He runs the B`side-music studio and hosts the German-language STONE PROG podcast.

One-line version

Marek Arnold – saxophonist, keyboardist, composer and producer. More than eighty albums with seven steps to the green door, Toxic Smile, CYRIL, DAMANEK, United Progressive Fraternity, his own Artrock Project and other projects.

Key facts

Instruments: saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor), clarinet, recorders, keyboards & piano, Seaboard, Cajon
Based in: Remse, Saxony, Germany
Studio: B`side-music – recording, mixing, mastering, composition, arrangement
Current bands and projects: Marek Arnold’s Artrock Project, Manuel Schmid & Marek Arnold, seven steps to the green door, CYRIL, DAMANEK, United Progressive Fraternity, Flaming Row, Passage, Die Stiehlblüten, TheMatics, Three of us,…
Former member: Stern Combo Meissen (2010–2012), Toxic Smile (1996–2018)
Selected credits: Steve Hackett (Genesis), Jon Anderson (YES), Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater), Marco Minnemann, Guthrie Govan, Michael Sadler (SAGA), Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson), Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings), Craig Blundell, Laurence Cottle, Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon), Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain of Salvation),…
Podcast: STONE PROG – das Proggeflüster mit Marek Arnold (in German)

Press photos

The photographs on the page may be used free of charge for editorial coverage of Marek Arnold and his projects. Please credit the photographer wherever one is named. Higher-resolution files and further motifs are available on request – see contact below.

Press Quotes

“MAREK ARNOLD’S ARTROCK PROJECT offers a tour de force of almost eighty minutes through many varieties of progressive rock. Symphonic grandeur and intimate explorations enter into a warm relationship… MAREK ARNOLD has shouldered his megalomaniac solo project with apparent ease, conveying delight and good humour, and leaves the field victorious together with his capable musical team.” ( Musikreviews.de, translated from German )

Jochen König

“There is a lightness and joy throughout this album, and a knack for hooks... This is a delight from beginning to end.” ( progarchives )

Album cover of Marek Arnold’s Artrock Project

Kev Rowland

“For ten compositions these two exceptional artists present their by now well-known songwriting craft, which shines so brightly that in its beauty it could be mistaken for polished pop. Both possess the rare instinct for creating music that touches the soul even with German lyrics. Their words have substance and depth, their melodies reach into the soul, and their songs are perfectly arranged from the ground up… ‘Ziele’ once again contains not merely exceptional compositions but high points of music.” ( Saitenkult.de, translated from German )

Album cover „Ziele“ by Manuel Schmid and Marek Arnold with the note „known from Stern-Combo Meissen“

Michael Haifl

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