Aldous Byron Valensia Clarkson, better known as simply Valensia, is a Dutch composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist.
Early life
Valensia grew up in Waalwijk and used to spend a lot of his time at the family's beachhouse in Dénia, Spain. As a child, he played guitar and sang at the beaches in Dénia. He had also written a lot of songs and was even offered a record contract, but his parents decided he was too young for the music business and refused the offer. Several years later, in the Netherlands, Valensia played in local bands, usually on keyboard or guitar.
Career
1992–1995: Gaia era
Valensia met Robby Valentine at an airport, as they were both listening to Queen´s "Bohemian Rhapsody". After that, Valensia started sending demos to several record companies and producer John Sonneveld noticed him. Then Valensia signed a record deal with Mercury Records and in 1993 his first album Valensia was released. Influenced by Kate Bush and Queen, Valensia's self-titled first album contained the hit single "Gaia" that, out of nowhere, reached #2 in the Dutch charts and stayed in the charts for several weeks. "Gaia" had success in other countries too. The album itself spent almost 20 weeks in the album charts and had good critiques. Four singles were released: "Gaia", "The Sun", "Nathalie" and "Tere". He was quite a success in the Netherlands, but he was an even greater success in Japan. Valensia noticed that, so a mini-album called The White Album was released in Japan only, in 1994, including a Valensian-styled Christmas song and a version of Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill."
1996–1998: ''K.O.S.M.O.S'' and promotion issues
Valensia's second albumValensia II was the first Dutch surround soundCD ever made. It was, again, a success in Japan, but his Dutch record company didn't want to promote it. Due to this fact, it received less attention than it perhaps deserved in the Netherlands. K.O.S.M.O.S was the most expensive album in the history of the Netherlands. Valensia said that people often forget that his first 2 albums were produced by "the best Dutch producers" : John Sonneveld and Pim Koopman. Three singles were released: "Kosmos", "Thunderbolt" and "Blue Rain". For his next album, the record company ordered him to write songs in an Alanis Morissette-style, because they thought the public wouldn't like Valensia's style of music. At the request of the Japanese record company, "Gantenbrink" was added. Ironically, Valensia's new album Valensia '98 also known as Millennium or Valensia III, was never released in the Netherlands. Though his Dutch record company refused to release Valensia '98, Valensia still had a lot of fans in the Netherlands. A fan meeting took place near the Carré theater in Amsterdam and they were presented with a promotional copy of Valensia ´98. The fans started gathering on the Internet and, finally, in June 1999, in cooperation with Valensia himself, the official Valensia website went online.
1999–2008: V and Metal Majesty
In the summer of 1999, V was released. V was a cooperation between Valensia and Robby Valentine. Valensia's style have always had a mysterious atmosphere around it, but V sounded absolutely different. With a Beatle-esque ELO-esque and Queen-esque style, the sound of V was quite naive and happy. Valensia's mother Jacqueline died, in November 1999. This had quite an impact on him. So, his next album Gaia II had a song dedicated to his mother, "Requieme pour Jacqueline". Since then he has released several quality albums with little commercial success. For this reason he is still struggling to find a good company record. Meanwhile, he records his albums in his own home studio. He is a respected artist in Japan. He is known also because of his complex music, and also for his guitar skills. Valensia has also released albums with the bands V and Metal Majesty. In 2008 Valensia appeared on the Dutch TV program De Reunie. He has been working on a new album which will be released in Spring 2010. A single entitled "One Day My Princess Will Come" was to be released on February 24, 2010. However, the release was cancelled.
2014: ''Valensia VI - Gaia III - AGLAEA - Legacy''
On 24 September a new album titled Valensia VI - Gaia III - Aglaea - Legacy was released. Valensia refers to this as "my farewell album" An official music video "The Cabinet of Curiosities" appeared on YouTube.
