March 2011: singer Paul Glandorf and Balloon join forces!

The addition of Paul Glandorf as lead singer gives Balloon an even wider range of possibilities. New material is coming up soon! Check out our site for updates!


Fall 2009: review
The French Magazine Music Waves gave Motivation a grand review, in which Balloon are once more praised as innovators in the (neo)prog-genre! Thanks a lot!

Check out the Music Waves review


November 2008 / start of 2009

Musea Records releases Motivation world wide

Motivation is now released world wide! From Japan to the USA: Motivation can be bought in music shops in a large number of countries all over the world. Motivation is also available on several websites. Take a look at mindawn.com, fnac.com or go to Musea Records to view more information and buy 'Motivation'.

July 2008

Balloon signs with prestigious Musea Records for world wide release of Motivation

Balloon just signed a deal with the French label Musea Records, the leading independent company specialized in progrock. Musea will release Motivation world wide. A milestone in Balloon's flight! "We consider it to be a great honour to be under the same flag as the likes of Anekdoten, Porcupine Tree and Deep Purple." More news will follow soon!

May 2008

Parkhof Open Air
Shortly after Indian Summer you can hear Balloon's sounds at the next open air festival, Parkhof Open Air. Come to the Wilhelminapark in Alkmaar at the 5th of July to see us live again! Check the Parkhof website for more details.

Big Bang / Cosmos Music 
We were contacted by this French magazine and record label to send a copy of Motivation. It's on its way and it will be reviewed in the next issue of Big Bang magazine, together with an interview with the band. A pre-review is already put on their website www.cosmosmusic.fr. A fragment of the text: "Aux Pays-Bas, il n’y a pas que des tulipes, des coffee shops, des moulins, des vélos ou des groupes néo-progressifs; il apparaît quelque fois des formations quelque peu éloignées des canons musicaux de leur terre de naissance. C’est bien sûr le cas de Balloon qui, en 9 titres (dont un de 17 minutes qui clôt le CD), offre un progressif changeant, se mouvant d’un style à un autre avec le plus grand des naturels."

Progpulsion
Balloon's Motivation will soon be sold by Progpulsion, a mail order service based in France, specialized in progressive rock. Check out their website!

April 2008

Gig at Indian Summer Festival 2008
The official announcement is made that Balloon will perform at the Indian Summer Festival 2008. This open air festival at Geestmerambacht, Broek op Langedijk, will be held at the 21st of June 2008. Come and see us there, along with many other great Dutch acts like Golden Earring and Anouk. Check this website again soon for the latest updates and scheduled time. Go to www.indiansummerfestival.nl to read all about the festival.

March 2008

Balloon added to website
Balloon is added to the website www.koppop.nl. This site wants to give the visitors an overview of bands from the region "West-Friesland" (north west part of the Netherlands) who are - or have been - active in this part of Holland. Check it out here.

Balloon songs for sale at Swedish website
From now you can buy all songs from Motivation separately, for a small price. Go to the Swedish website www.anytist.com to check it out! If you don't want to buy our full album, this is the place to go to.

Balloon plays Belgium: Confirmed for The Convention festival Verviers!
Balloon is proud to announce that we got confirmed to be the opening act of one of the 2 days of the annual prog-festival The Convention in Belgium. This years dates are October 18th and 19th. As always the musical gathering is held in Spirit of 66 in Verviers, Belgium in cooperation with Belgium musicmag Prog-resiste. The next issue of Prog-resiste has a feature on Balloon. The band also contributes one or two songs for the accompanying sampler cd. 900 copies of Prog-resiste, including sampler, are issued worldwide. All this is great news for Balloon! We cant wait to experience The Convention this autumn and we want all our fans to make sure to experience this festival with us. No sleep till Verviers!

For more info on the festival and Prog-resiste, check out these sites:
http://progresiste.com/convention
http://www.progresiste.com

January 2008

Songs posted at French website
The two Balloon songs Everything and It's still today are posted at the French website www.evergrey.fr. From this website you can download these songs directly. Check it out!

November 2007

Number 19 at 'De Wereldse Tien'
Balloon entered the "Wereldse Tien" list of progwereld.org, the website where Motivation was also reviewed. We are at number 19 at this moment (4th of December 2007). Go and see the full list here.

Metalhammer Poland
From our Radio Alfa contact in Poland, Artur Chachlowski, we understand that Balloon is reviewed in the Polish December edition of Metal Hammer. Artur will send us a hard copy right away. When it's in the mailbox, we'll update you on the content of this review.

VPRO review
The "3 voor 12" department of VPRO reviewed Motivation. "Doordacht", "goed uitgewerkt", "All Yours is een prachtig resultaat" and "Motivation is een verrassende cd met een eigen geluid" are a few of the statements mentioned in this review. Go to the "read" page to read the full review.

"The best of IYR"
The It's Your Record Part 6 & 7 compilation cd's, where Balloon is present with Nowhere and Dissolve Unseen, are at place 6 and 7 of the Lowlands top 25 list. Go to the popinstituut website to view this list.

Balloon battles on
Balloon reached 2nd place on the Scheveningen Beach Battle first round last 10th of November. Quarterfinal gig will be at the 16th of February 2008, where Balloon will battle against Atreides and Flight 107 for a place in the semi finals.  Go to the "see" page to look at the pictures taken at the 10th of November gig. Go to www.saturnuslivemusic.nl to read everything about Beach Battle 2008.

October 2007

Balloon with 2 songs on "The best of IYR" - compilation cd's
Recordlabel/agency It's Your Record launches Part 6 and 7 of "The best of IYR!" in the first week of November. The cd's are going to be promoted nationwide, at radiostations like 3FM, Radio2, KinkFM, 100%NL and Den Haag FM. Balloon is present with one song at both cd's; with Nowhere at part 6 and Dissolve Unseen at part 7. You can order both cd's at www.fonos.nl. Click here to to order Part 6 and follow this link to order Part 7. Both cd's are for sale for 9,95 euros each, cd covers are included.

Airplay in Poland
At the 17th of October 2007 Radio Alfa from Krakow in Poland airplayed Balloon's longest Motivation song, It's still today.

Also Motivation was reviewed on their website www.mlwz.pl. Click the link to go there. You will find the link for the review at the top section of the start page. You can also go to our read page to read the review. It's in Polish, we are working on a translation now.

Norwegian Motivation review

Motivation was reviewed on the Norwegian progrock website www.metal-norge.com. Unfortunately it is not too positive, but we wouldn't want to keep it as a secret to you. Click here to read the review on their website. You can also go to our read page to read this review. We did find someone to translate the review into Dutch. It will make it a lot easier for our Dutch visitors to understand. We are working on a translation into English.

September 2007

The 21st of September 2007, 1.28 hours: airplay at USA's Progulus Radio. Track 1 of Motivation, All Yours, filled the international air!!

Airplay in South-America, USA and Eastern Europe
Following recent reviews of our debut-album Motivation, we got several requests for the cd and interviews from South-America. Sites, radiostations and magazines in Brasil, Argentina, Mexico and the USA are planning to give Balloon airplay and reviews and possibly interviews.

Check out Prog Noise (Brasil), Nucleus (Argentina), EufOnia (Mexico), Progulus (USA) and radiostation Musical FM 105,5 Mhz (Brazil).

Also Poland and Serbia showed interest in Balloon. Representatives of www.mlwz.pl and www.barikada.com requested a cd to review and play on website and radio. Go to the read page to check out Barikada's review.

Balloon on French website Metal Killer
We didn't get every word, but one thing is clear: French music-blog Metal Killer considers Balloon to be a very pleasant surprise from Holland. We don't know how they found us, but they seem enthousiastic and that's what counts. We'd love to come to France! Click here to read the article at the "read" page.