Marian Gold takes a deep breath. Then his voice fills the studio, beautiful, confident and rich. He ad-libs to the replay of the 40-piece orchestra arrangement for 'Pandora's Lullaby'. He was worried when he listened to the orchestra at Whitfield Street Studios in London, that the emotions in the vocal part were not supported by the strings and brass. But it sounds beautiful together. The opposite styles amplify each part. Producer Andy Richards says it pulled Marian's voice up right into one's face. Marian seems happy and strarts munching some fruit.

Alphaville's record company WEA has recently decided to pay for two additional songs for the forthcoming album, taking the number up to twelve. Although rehearsals for the last leg of Peace on Tour have already started and Marian has to fly out to Germany in a few days they have gone back into the studio to record the orchestra for one of the additional songs, 'Pandora's Lullaby.

First violin Gavyn Wright is playing for Alphaville again, after recording the string arrangement at Angel Studio last month for 'Flame' and 'Wishful Thinking', leading 16 violins. There are also eight violas, five celli, two basses, a flute, an oboe, a clarinet, a basson, four horns and a harp. Gavyn beams with a joy: "It's wonderful to have the strings and the brass in one room literally fighting each other for attention. That makes the arrangement special."

The orchestra is being conducted by John Altman who has done many film scores. Most recently he finished the score for the new Titanic movie. "It was great. The musicians we used to record the music also played the orchestra in the film. So in the end they all drowned when the ship went down."

Once the recording is finished Marian's mind switches quickly to the upcoming live tour. He races across the city of London to a clothes shp to buy a pair of black army trouser, that he wants to wear on stage for the last few concerts in Germany. On the way he stops at his favourite Italian cafe for a quick espresso and, after buying the trousers races back to the studio where the live band is rehearsing before he has return to the Eden Studio to continue working on the new Alphaville album. It's all in a day's work...