TARJA TURUNEN Renews Collaboration With earMUSIC

Following the sensational success of "Act I", the first-ever live solo album from former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen, earMUSIC and Tarja have announced the renewal of their collaboration for an exciting set of new releases spanning over the next few years.

Kicking off with the long-awaited new studio rock album, the following months will entail many musical areas of interest of the versatile and talented Finnish artist, including exciting new studio material as well as live audio and video recordings.

Although rock will remain Tarja's main musical field in the months to come, earMUSIC and the artist are also planning to release further high quality productions in diverse musical genres.

The spectacular "Beauty And The Beat" tour will be filmed this year, and the success of the album "Harus" will be followed by the first-ever classical studio album by Tarja Turunen.

Tarja's fans will be happy to know that the follow-up to 2010's studio album "What Lies Beneath" will hit the stores between August and September. The new CD, mixed by Tim Palmer (PEARL JAM, U2) is set to be Tarja's next milestone for symphonic heavy rock, thanks to a stellar lineup and a state of the art production.

Details about the first single and its video and the extensive worldwide tour will be revealed soon.

In a recent interview with the Music Legends web site, Turunen stated about her upcoming CD: "I have just recently found my style and sound so I would like to establish it with the third studio album. The elements on the album will remain the same as in my previous albums, also the versatile style of songs. I like to keep the big dynamic changes between my songs, so that album songs feel radically different from each other.

"I am not stressed at all this time, even though I am producing the album on my own again. I have been lucky to gather around a group of musicians who are willing to work with me, so everything is going smoothly."

Tarja and her husband/manager Marcelo Cabuli recently became the parents of their first child.

Turunen, who currently resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her husband, kept her pregnancy a secret until the very end.

"Act I" was released in North America on September 4, 2012 in 2-CD, 2-DVD and Blu-ray format via the Eagle Rock imprint Armoury Records, in conjunction with Hamburg, Germany-based earMUSIC.

The first-ever live audio/video offering from the former NIGHTWISH soprano, "Act I" is a mammoth undertaking recorded and filmed with 10 HD cameras at the breathtaking Teatro El Círculo in Rosario, Argentina in March 2012. With an elaborate track listing of solo tunes, NIGHTWISH classics and various covers, including a rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom Of The Opera", Gary Moore's "Over The Hills And Far Away", WHITESNAKE's "Still Of The Night" and a variety of video extras, "Act I" provides a full-fledged bill of fare to every diehard Tarja fan.

Tarja's sophomore solo album, "What Lies Beneath", sold around 1,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 24 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.