STRATOVARIUS Bassist To Release New Solo Album

STRATOVARIUS bassist Lauri Porra will release his new solo album, "All Children Have Superpowers" on January 9, 2008. Three songs from the CD — "Release", "Changes in Memory" and "All Children Have Superpowers" — are available for streaming on Lauri's MySpace page.

Porra was born on December 13, 1977. He is a fourth-generation musician and started to study music at the age of six, playing cello and later changing to bass guitar in 1993. He studied in the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory since 1994, and he recieved the Nokia Young Talent Scolarship in 2001. Other formal studies have been on piano, double bass, trumpet and classical singing. He has been playing and touring all around the world professionally since 1997 in numerous Finnish bands and styles varying from classical to jazz to heavy metal. Bands include: STRATOVARIUS, SINERGY, WARMEN, KOTIPELTO, BEN GRANFELT BAND, EMMA SALOKOSKI TRIO, CRAZY WORLD, and countless others. In 2005 he is released his first, self-titled solo album, "Lauri Porra".

STRATOVARIUS debuted a brand new song, entitled "Last Night on Earth", during their appearance at the Wacken Open Air festival on Saturday, August 4 on the "True Metal Stage".

STRATOVARIUS earlier in the year entered Sonic Pump studios in Helsinki, Finland to begin recording its new album (the title of which consists of two separate words that both start with "R"). An early 2008 release is expected.

STRATOVARIUS' last, self-titled effort was released in the U.S. in September 2005 via Sanctuary.