Darrel Treece-Birch (born 21 January 1967, in

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

, England is an English

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

keyboard player and songwriter, best known for his work with the Melodic Hard Rock band Ten, as a solo artist and up until 2020, with the progressive rock band, Nth Ascension.

Biography

Darrel Treece-Birch started playing keyboards from an early age. Inspired by the early electronica music of Oxygene and Equinox of Jean-Michel Jarre and the ambient orchestration of Vangelis, he soon got involved in various bands, with the most notable one being the

-based Purple on the Storm. Darrel Treece-Birch was a founding member of the northwest English progressive rock band Nth Ascension (originally formed as Nth Degree in 2010). In 2011, the band released their first studio album under the name Nth Ascension, entitled '' Frequencies of Day & Night'', which was issued as a free download via the Aurovine website. Late 2012 saw the addition of a fifth member, a full time bass player. The second studio album by Nth Ascension entitled '' Ascension of Kings'', was released in late 2014 via

Sonic Vista Music Sonic Vista Music is an independent English record label, founded in Kingston upon Hull in 2005, notable for having business connections in Japan and Canada. History Founded by the members of the band Ernest, and shortly afterwards by promoter ...

to much critical acclaim. Nth Ascension's third album ''In Fine Initium'' was released in October 2016 on

Melodic Revolution Records Melodic Revolution Records (MRR) was formed in October 2004 by Nick Katona and his wife Jennifer. It began out as a music store in Clinton, NY selling Compact Discs, DVDs, Vinyl and memorabilia. In October 2005, an art gallery was added to the ...

garnering much international attention from reviewers and fans. Nth Ascension released the album '' Stranger than Fiction'' under their own label Metatronic Records on 31 May 2019. In March 2021, Darrel Treece-Birch officially left Nth Ascension. Darrel Treece-Birch joined the melodic

Band Ten in 2011, with whom he has released eight studio albums so far, 2012's ''Heresy and Creed'', 2014's ''Albion'', 2015's ''

Isla De Muerta This is a list of islands and other locations in the '' Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series. Davy Jones' Locker Davy Jones' Locker, based on a real superstition of the same name, is a fictional place introduced in ''Dead Man's Chest'' an ...

'' and EP '' The Dragon and Saint George'', 2016's compilation album Battlefield – The Rocktopia Records Collection, 2017's Gothica, 2018's

Illuminati The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...

and 2022's

Here Be Monsters ''Here Be Monsters'' is the debut album by Ed Harcourt, released in 2001. It was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2001. Tim Holmes, one-half of British dance music duo Death In Vegas, co-produced the album. The singles "Something in My ...

. Darrel Treece-Birch is an accomplished solo artist who was signed to US label MRR in 2015 to January 2019, and released four studio albums with

, including ''Celestial'' a two-part digital only release in October 2015, his critically acclaimed album ''No More Time,'' August 2016 (which included guest appearances by several of his colleagues and former bandmates from Ten, Nth Ascension and Counterparts UK), ''Healing Touch'' (where he composed, performed, played all instruments, mixed, mastered and produced the work including the original painting for the artwork) October 2017 and finally in December of 2018 releasing his digital only instrumental album ''The first step...is to take one''. 2018 was a record year for Treece-Birch releasing an album with Ten:

, guesting on Signal Red's ''Under The Radar'', (Steve Grocott's band (guitarist - Ten)), producing, mixing, mastering and performing on Michael-Alan Taylor's (vocalist -Nth Ascension) album ''Avalonia: The Sonnets of Guinevere'', and releasing his album ''The first step ... is to take one'' in addition to recording his final album with Nth Ascension. In 2021 Darrel performed as guest musician for Gary Hughes’ new solo album Waterside in which he played keyboards and acoustic drums. He also created and produced the sleeve/booklet art for both Waterside and the double-album best of compilation titled "Decades" also by

Gary Hughes Gary Hughes (born 5 July 1964) is an English hard rock singer, songwriter and musician. Apart from his work as a solo artist, Gary Hughes is the front man and main songwriter of Hard Rock/Melodic Rock band Ten. He has also worked as a produce ...

and released by Frontiers Records. In October 2021, Treece-Birch performed on the debut studio album entitled ''Prophecy'' by the British melodic Hard Rock band TAO. As of 2022, Treece-Birch has been working on several solo projects and the upcoming fifteenth studio album by Ten.

Discography

With Ten

* '' Heresy and Creed'' (2012) * ''

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

'' (2014) * ''

'' (2015) * '' The Dragon And Saint George'' EP (2015) * '' Battlefield – The Rocktopia Records Collection' (2016) * '' Gothica'' (2017) * ''

'' (2018) * '' Opera Omnia: The Complete Works'' (2019) * ''

'' (2022)

With
Gary Hughes Gary Hughes (born 5 July 1964) is an English hard rock singer, songwriter and musician. Apart from his work as a solo artist, Gary Hughes is the front man and main songwriter of Hard Rock/Melodic Rock band Ten. He has also worked as a produce ...

* '' Waterside'' (2021)

With Nth Ascension

* '' Frequencies of Day & Night'' (2011) * ''Ascension Of Kings'' (2014) * ''In Fine Initium'' (2016)

As Darrel Treece-Birch

* ''Celestial '' (2015) Released by Melodic Revolution Records - 2 October 2015 - EAN MRRCD22118 * '' No More Time'' (2016) Released by Melodic Revolution Records - 19 August 2016 - EAN MRRCD22129 * ''Healing Touch'' (2017) Released by Melodic Revolution Records - 27 October 2017 - EAN MRRCD22146 *''The first step...is to take one'' (2018) Released by Melodic Revolution Records - 14 December 2018 EAN MRRDM201164

Guest appearances

*Signal Red (''Under The Radar'') released 2018 *Michael-Alan Taylor (''Avalonia: The Sonnets of Guinevere'') 2018 *Signal Red (''Alien Nation'') released 2020 *TAO (''Prophecy'') released 2021 *Scar For Life (''Sociophobia'') released 2022 *Tony Mitchell (''Kiss Of The Gypsy'') releasing September 2021

Solo Live performances

*St. Annes International Kite Festival (St. Annes by the Sea, UK) August 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Treece-Birch, Darrel English rock keyboardists People from Fleetwood Living people 1967 births