From the Castlepage: " VIrtue & VIrtuosity Sixth iCE KiNG album, released as Compact Disc in 2017, as well as digitally (Incl. Instrumental Speech I) VIrtue I. Tristram - The Message (I) and the Menace (II) Guitar and vocals composed by Bas L.G. Verdin Verses from "Tristram and Iseult" by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) II. Montjoie! - Betrayal (I) and Bravery (II) Guitar and vocals composed by Bas L.G. Verdin Verses from "The Song of Roland" (traditional) Instrumental Speech I: * III. Kingdom Come Guitar composed by Bas L.G. Verdin IV. Metafusion III A Guitar composed by Bas L.G. Verdin VIrtuosity V. Metafusion III B Guitar composed by Bas L.G. Verdin VI. Metafusion IV Guitar composed by Bas L.G. Verdin, with a wink to Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843-1907) VII. Romance Dance - Overture (I) and Overstep (II) Guitar composed by Bas L.G. Verdin VIII. Marching Against the Times Guitar composed by Bas L.G. Verdin * Instrumental Speech II on Ice Keys Metafusion I and II on Victory iV Graphics based on the painting "Le Songe d'Ossian" (3rd century warrior-bard, feat. Snow King) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), and on iCE KiNG picture at Threave Castle in Scotland Projections of paintings, live or online: II. Eight stages of the Song of Roland in one picture, in Grandes Chroniques de France (15th century) III. "View of the City of Edinburgh" by Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) My sixth long-player as iCE KiNG sounds the most of all, not like the score for a costume play, but like a costume play in itself without a screen. The general décor for the musical drama thereby created, evolves from (the nearly forgotten) virtue to virtuosity indeed. Again, recordings have been kept as live, real and true as possible. A bard is known for storytelling, and iCE KiNG is not an exception in this, but in my opinion this can be done both by voice and by instrument, and that is where iCE KiNG is an exception. Earlier, I have released instrumental songs sporadically, here we get a whole sequence (in addition to historical and historic poems sung). On this album in the 'guitar hero' genre let us say, with a life of its own: Instrumental Speech I. To be continued thus, while some of the epics are also a sequel to previous ones. For some reason or another, the language of (certain) music is always there to guide me where words or other virtual - not virtuous or virtuoso - things fail... "